"Escazú Agreement rapid response triggered for first time to protect relatives of Julia Chuñil", 23 October 2025

...Nearly a year after the disappearance of Indigenous environmental human rights defender Julia Chuñil, the Committee to Support Implementation and Compliance of the Escazú Agreement has recognised the urgent need to protect her relatives, who have repeatedly expressed concerns for their safety since her disappearance.

Chuñil was last seen 8 November 2024 near her home near the commune of Máfil, in southern Chile. She started her fight for her land in 2015, leading an Indigenous community engaging in the protection of animals and the conservation of ancestral forest. She had repeatedly suffered harassment and intimidation by a local business owner intending on taking her land, as well as other individuals allegedly paid by him.

To this day, Chuñil’s whereabouts remain unknown...

Faced with authorities’ inaction, Pablo San Martín Chuñil, Julia’s son, petitioned the Committee to Support Implementation and Compliance of the Escazú Agreement, which concluded that there is evidence of intimidations, threats and stigmatisation against Julia’s family and therefore decided to activate its rapid response mechanism to compel the State to act.

The Committee accepted the petition and in a communication received on 22 October it urged Chile to take immediate precautionary measures to ensure the safety of Chuñil’s relatives...