Rapa Nui. «Crime culturel» et violences de genre en terre insulaire chilienne (TC, sentencia, Rol 8792-2020, 29 janvier 2021)

di Franck Laffaille

SOMMARIO: 1. Premessa. – 2. Norme conventionnelle. – 3. Norme coutumière. – 4. Norme constitutionnelle. – 5. Opinion dissidente.

The Chilean Constitutional Court censured the Ley Pascua (1966) which grant to members of the Rapa Nui ethnic group an abnormal criminal privilege (substantial reduction of comb, accomplishment of the comb mainly outside prison). The notion of “culturally motivated offense” is, in this case, seen in the light of women's rights; the victim is a woman raped by a member of the Rapa Nui ethnic group. Should women's rights fall under the caudine forks of a communitarian-ethnic logic? Negative response. For the judge, it is not tolerable - within a constitutional state of law - to grant a criminal privilege to a category of people for what they are. No personal status: this is incompatible with the essential protection of the fundamental rights of women.