The State of the World's Human Rights; Peru 2025

Authorities used unnecessary and disproportionate force against demonstrators. The victims of excessive force during the 2022-2023 protests had still not obtained justice. Attacks on journalists and human rights defenders intensified. Legislation affecting the functioning of civil society organizations was approved. Crimes under international law and serious human rights violations committed between 1980 and 2000 could go unpunished following the entry into force of Law 32419. Violence against women and girls remained a major concern, as did reduced access to abortion and medical emergency kits in cases of rape. Recognition of the rights of transgender people suffered setbacks. Venezuelan nationals continued to lack protection.

Background

The institutional crisis continued to affect human rights. The loss of independence of the Public Prosecutor’s Office, the Constitutional Court and the Ombudsman’s Office, among other autonomous state bodies, seriously threatened the rule of law. Organized crime increased, as did the perception that the authorities were failing to address it. In October, Congress removed from office President Dina Boluarte on grounds of moral incapacity. José Jerí Oré took over as president with a nine-month mandate until elections scheduled for 2026.

Freedom of expression

Journalists Gastón Medina and Raúl Celis were killed in January and May respectively, and Fernando Núñez and Mitzar Castillejos in December. The Office of the Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Expression of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights condemned the killings and pointed to the victims’ journalistic work as a possible motive.

Freedom of association

Law 32301 amending legislation governing the Peruvian Agency for International Cooperation (APCI) was enacted. This new law established the mandatory registration of civil society organizations and prior approval by the state of their plans, activities or programmes, thereby weakening civic space and leaving the work of these organizations open to arbitrary and disproportionate control and potential self-censorship. In the case of journalists, such oversight could result in state bodies obtaining information on ongoing investigations against authorities.

Freedom of peaceful assembly

Amendment of APCI legislation jeopardized access to justice for the victims of excessive use of force in the protests of that took place between December 2022 and March 2023, by classifying the use of international development funds to “advise, assist or finance, in whatever form or modality, administrative, judicial, or other actions against the state in national or international instances” as a serious offence. Proceedings for excessive use of force in the protests were brought mainly by civil society organizations that now faced fines of over USD 700,000 if they persisted with such actions.

In September, the complaint against the then president and some of her ministers for constitutional violations around the deaths and the hundreds of injuries during the protests that took place between December 2022 and March 2023, was dismissed. Three years on, no formal charges had yet been filed against those allegedly responsible, with most investigations still in the preliminary stages and limited progress made. Throughout the year, staff cuts and changes were made at the Special Team of Prosecutors for Cases with Victims during Social Protests within the Public Prosecutor’s Office, hampering progress in the investigations and undermining the confidence of victims and their families.

On 15 October, the police again used unnecessary and disproportionate force against protesters. The government reported dozens of injured people, including two teenagers and an 11-year-old girl passer-by hit by a tear gas canister, and the death of protester Eduardo Mauricio Ruiz Sanz from a gunshot wound. In the latter case, the Peruvian National Police confirmed that an active officer in civilian clothes had fired his weapon but insisted that it was not a human rights violation and that the investigation should be carried out by the institution itself. In December, the Public Prosecutor’s Office ratified that it should be the police who carry out initial inquiries in one of the investigations into the events of that day.

Right to truth, justice and reparation

Law 32419 came into effect in August, granting amnesty to all members of the armed forces, National Police and self-defence committees investigated, charged, tried and sentenced in relation to serious human rights violations, including crimes against humanity, committed between 1980 and 2000.

At least five judges refrained from applying laws 32419 and 32107 (the latter approved in 2024 to apply the statute of limitations to war crimes and crimes against humanity), considering them contrary to Peru’s international obligations.

With regard to the monitoring of enforcement of the sentences in the Barrios Altos and La Cantuta cases, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights ruled in October that laws 32419 and 32107 constituted a failure by the Peruvian state to comply with previous judgments issued by the Court, and urged the authorities and the judiciary to refrain from applying them. However, the Constitutional Court ruled in December that claims of unconstitutionality of Law 32107 were unfounded. It stated that the non-applicability of the statute of limitations applied only to events occurring after 2002. This could result in hundreds of cases being dismissed and disciplinary action taken against judges and prosecutors who fail to apply the law.

Violence against women and girls

The Ministry of Women and Vulnerable Populations registered 135 feminicides and 30,029 cases of sexual violence against girls and women in 2025. However, only 8.2% of survivors (2,472 cases) received emergency care kits. In the same period, 13,096 rapes were registered. Over the year, the National Police reported the disappearance of 12,044 women, girls and adolescents, an increase of 17% over the previous year.

Sexual and reproductive rights

In June, grounds 13 and 14 of the Technical Handbook on Therapeutic Abortion Procedures of Peru’s Perinatal Maternal Institute were repealed, in contravention of the recommendations made by the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child regarding therapeutic abortion in the case known as “Camila” and negatively affecting all girls. These grounds allowed access to medical abortion in cases of fetal malformations incompatible with life and pregnancies resulting from sexual violence against girls and adolescents. Removal of such grounds was preceded by a public campaign led by different state bodies, as well as by harassment against health professionals defending sexual and reproductive rights.

In 2025, 992 girls under the age of 15 were forced to carry their pregnancies to term.

A new equal opportunities law approved by Congress introduced worrying setbacks, including removal of a gender perspective and all references to Peru’s international obligations, replacing “comprehensive” sex education with a scientific, biological, ethical and values-based approach, limiting the concept of sexual health to safe motherhood and the prevention of teenage pregnancy, and banning organizations that take legal action against the Peruvian state from providing training to public officials.

LGBTI people’s rights

Law 32331 establishing differentiated access to public toilets according to “biological sex”, with the stated aim of protecting the “sexual integrity of children and adolescents”, was approved. This dangerously correlated gender identity with a threat to children, without any evidence.

Human rights defenders

Environmental defenders Hipólito Quispe Huamán Conde and Isai Shuk Shawit were killed in July and November, respectively. According to the Ministry of Justice, at least 161 environmental defenders and Indigenous people experienced dangerous situations during the year. Congress eliminated the Commission on Andean, Amazonian and Afro-Peruvian Peoples, Environment and Ecology from the organizational structure of the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate, thus abolishing a technical and intercultural space in which to address attacks against human rights defenders.

In the case of the online harassment of human rights defender Jennie Dador, the Meta oversight board recognized the importance of considering context when interpreting digital threats that could result in physical attacks or incitement of violence against defenders, and ordered the removal of the manipulated image posted.

Refugees’ and migrants’ rights

The Special Exceptional Administrative Sanctions Procedure remained in force and was applied without respect for due process, mainly to Venezuelan nationals. Expulsions were carried out before appeals were resolved, with individuals being taken to the nearest border in violation of the principle of non-refoulement, which is binding in international law.