In 2024, the Peruvian Congress passed laws and adopted other decisions that undermined judicial independence, weakened democratic institutions, and hindered investigations into organized crime, corruption, and human rights violations.
President Dina Boluarte made little or no effort to stop these congressional attacks against democracy and the rule of law and her administration also pursued policies that contributed to the erosion of democratic norms. These included efforts to suppress protests and a growing disregard for judicial independence.
Public Sector Corruption
Corruption is a major factor driving the deterioration of public institutions, deficient public services, and environmental destruction in Peru. Five former presidents have been charged with corruption. President Boluarte remains under investigation for allegedly receiving illicit contributions for her political campaign and expensive watches from a provincial governor. As of May 2024, 67 of the 130 members of Congress were under criminal investigation for corruption and other offenses, media outlets reported on the basis of information provided by the Attorney General’s Office.
In December 2023, Congress modified the Efficient Collaboration Law, which had been a key tool to investigate corruption. The changes drastically shortened the period prosecutors have to corroborate a collaborator’s statements, making it harder for prosecutors to use this tool to investigate. The bill was approved in June 2023, but President Boluarte vetoed it in July; Congress overrode the president’s veto.
In July 2024, Congress approved a bill to narrow the definition of “organized crime,” making it harder for prosecutors to investigate related offenses, including corruption and extortion, and rendering investigative searches largely ineffective. President Boluarte did not veto the bill; it became law in August. In October, Congress reintroduced extortion and other crimes into the definition of “organized crime,” but kept the exclusion of many corruption offenses and failed to address all changes that undermined investigative searches.
Threats to Judicial and Prosecutorial Independence
Throughout 2024, Congress moved forward with efforts to weaken the National Board of Justice, the body in charge of appointing and removing judges, prosecutors, and electoral authorities, which has played a key role in protecting the separation of powers in Peru.
In March 2024, Congress removed two members of the National Board of Justice citing a disagreement between lawmakers and the board over the interpretation of the law regarding the required age to be a member of the board. At the time, the two members were investigating an alleged influence-peddling scheme involving members of Congress and then-Attorney General Patricia Benavides. On July 1, a tribunal ordered that the board members be reinstated, citing due process violations.
In June, Congress’ Constitutional Committee moved forward a constitutional amendment to eliminate the National Board of Justice. The change would put legislators in charge of appointing and removing electoral authorities, among others. The proposal remained pending at time of writing.
Then-Attorney General Benavides targeted senior anti-corruption prosecutors with abusive disciplinary investigations. As a result, authorities suspended prosecutor Rafael Vela, who led investigations into the involvement of Peruvian officials and businesspeople in the international corruption scheme known as Lava Jato. A court ordered that he be reinstated in March.
In May, the National Board of Justice removed Attorney General Benavides after concluding that she interfered with an investigation against her sister, a judge, who was accused of taking bribes to release organized crime members.
In September, Congress approved a bill that places the investigation of crimes in the hands of the police, taking functions away from the Attorney General's Office. Peruvian prosecutors and associations of lawyers warned that the bill would undermine the efficiency and speed of investigations. President Boluarte did not veto the bill; it became law in October.
In October, a seven-member commission led by the ombudsman appointed new members to the National Board of Justice for the 2025-2029 term. An international mission of experts that observed the process said that “it fail[ed] to meet international standards of transparency, publicity, technical criteria, and citizen participation.”
Security Policies
Crime is a major concern for Peruvians. As of October 2024, the number of homicides had already exceeded the total number in 2023. Criminal complaints for extortion increased by five between 2021 to 2023, and many cases go unreported.
President Boluarte put into effect states of emergency, suspending basic rights in parts of the country, including neighborhoods in Lima, the capital, to respond to crime. The strategy has often been ineffective, security experts told Human Rights Watch.
The president has also blamed, without presenting evidence, Venezuelan migrants and asylum seekers for the increase in crime.
In November, Congress passed a bill to lower the age of criminal responsibility for aggravated homicide, extorsion, kidnapping, rape, and other serious offenses from 18 to 16. The judiciary, the Attorney General’s Office, and the Ombudsperson’s Office, along with some ministries, opposed this measure or found it unfeasible.
Impunity
Peru has made limited progress in investigating and prosecuting atrocities committed during the country’s armed conflict (1980-2000).
In July 2024, Congress approved a bill that subjects war crimes and crimes against humanity committed before 2003 to a statute of limitations, violating an Inter-American Court of Human Rights order to halt the bill’s discussion because it would contravene international human rights law. Two United Nations special rapporteurs and a working group said the bill “encourage[d] impunity and [was] in patent contradiction with the Rule of law.” Prosecutors have warned the law could jeopardize some 600 criminal cases concerning security forces and the Shining Path, a Maoist armed group. President Boluarte did not veto the bill; it became law in August.
In September, former President Alberto Fujimori (1990-2000) died. A Constitutional Tribunal ruling in December 2023 had released him from prison, where he was serving a 25-year sentence for his role in extrajudicial killings, abductions, enforced disappearances, and corruption. His release violated orders from the Inter-American Court of Human Rights.
Authorities have also failed to adequately investigate and prosecute the deaths of 49 protesters or bystanders that took place during protests between December 2022 and February 2023. The response by the military and police was indiscriminate and disproportionate. Security forces fired assault rifles and handguns at unarmed protesters and bystanders. As of November, nobody had been convicted of these killings.
In January 2024, a judge in Cuzco ordered the pretrial detention of a police member accused of shooting dozens of pellets at protester Rosalino Florez in January 2023, causing his death.
The Attorney General’s Office asked Congress to investigate the role of President Boluarte and some of her cabinet members in the killings. Congress had made little if any progress at time of writing.
Shrinking Civic Space
In March 2024, the Attorney General’s Office opened a criminal investigation against journalist Gustavo Gorriti and two anti-corruption prosecutors for alleged influence peddling. Prosecutors argued that Gorriti and the prosecutors exchanged sensitive information on ongoing investigations and requested Gorriti hand over his phone. The Committee to Protect Journalists said that “the right of reporters to maintain confidential sources” was at risk. Gorriti refused to hand over his phone and filed a lawsuit to stop the investigation, citing violations of his rights as journalist.
In June, Congress’ Foreign Relations Committee advanced a bill that would vastly increase the government’s powers to control nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) that receive foreign funds. The bill uses overbroad and vague language that would, in practice, provide the government with the power to arbitrarily fine or sanction groups that criticize or oppose government actions.
Sixteen embassies in Peru, as well as the US Agency for International Development (USAID) and several US senators, expressed concern about the bill. Congress had not approved or rejected the bill at time of writing.
A right-wing group known as “La Resistencia” has repeatedly publicized the addresses and met outside the homes of journalists and the offices of human rights defenders and anti-corruption prosecutors, in an effort to intimidate them. The group’s members have insulted, harassed, and physically attacked journalists, with little to no response from authorities.
Economic and Social Rights
As of 2023, 28 percent of the population lived under the national monetary poverty line of US$67 per month, a sharp increase from 20 percent in 2019—pre-pandemic, latest official data showed. People living in extreme poverty amounted to 5.7 percent of the population in 2023, compared to 3 percent in 2019. Children, people living in rural areas, and those who self-report as Black or Indigenous disproportionately live in poverty.
There are deep disparities in people’s ability to realize their economic and social rights. Peru’s urban and coastal communities enjoy better access to public services than rural and Indigenous populations. The latest national census from 2017 shows that only 52 percent of Indigenous people had access to a public sewage system, compared to 75 percent of the general population, and only one-third of Indigenous communities in the Amazon had access to a health facility. The Ombudsperson’s Office reported understaffing and lack of electricity in health facilities in the Amazon mostly used by Indigenous people.
Environment and Human Rights
In December 2023, Congress amended the country’s Forestry Law. The local NGO Peruvian Society of Environmental Law (SPDA) alerted that the law, in practice, regularizes past large-scale illegal deforestation. Peruvian prosecutors have said the law hinders environmental crime investigations.
Peru lost 150,000 hectares of primary forest in 2023, according to the latest data compiled by Global Forest Watch. Illegal logging, cattle ranching, mining, and, to a lesser extent, coca cultivation for drug trafficking, are driving the destruction of the Amazon. Illegal use of mercury for gold mining, often smuggled in across the border from Bolivia, is contaminating waterways and likely impacting human health, officials told Human Rights Watch.
Groups involved in illegal exploitation of natural resources and land grabbing routinely threaten and attack forest defenders. In April, Victorio Dariquebe Gerewa, a ranger of a nature reserve located in the Peruvian Amazon, in Madre de Dios department, was murdered. Illegal miners had reportedly threatened him.
In July, Indigenous leader Mariano Isacama Feliciano was found dead, 24 days after he went missing. Leaders from his community in the Ucayali department attributed the killing to his opposition to drug cartels operating in their territory.
In 2021, the government created an inter-ministerial mechanism for the protection of human rights defenders, but as of May 2024, it was only staffed by 10 people and had no independent budget.
Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity
In May, President Boluarte’s administration published a presidential decree classifying trans identities as mental health conditions in the country’s Essential Health Insurance Plan. After vociferous criticism from human rights organizations, the health ministry suspended the implementation of the decree.
Peru does not allow same-sex marriage or legal gender recognition for transgender people, and lacks comprehensive anti-LGBT discrimination legislation.
Access to Abortion
Women, girls, and pregnant people can legally access abortions only when a pregnancy threatens their life or health; even then, many face barriers. Peru has failed to implement the majority of the recommendations outlined by the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child in June 2023, which found Peru responsible for violating the rights of an Indigenous girl who had become forcibly pregnant at 13. The Committee had called on Peru to ensure access to safe abortion services and post abortion care for pregnant girls, and to ensure all children have access to education on sexual and reproductive health.
Sexual and Gender-Based Violence
Between September 2013 and September 2024, the education ministry registered 15,092 cases of sexual violence against students committed by teachers, school staff, or students across the country. From January through September 2024, 2,514 cases of sexual violence in schools were reported.
In June, media revealed that between 2010 and 2024, over 500 cases of sexual violence were reported against students in the Awajún, Wampi, and Chapra Indigenous communities in Condorcanqui province, Amazonas department. Many of the cases occurred in schools with student housing. Over one hundred teachers were administratively dismissed, but many were reportedly still teaching in schools. None of these child sexual abuse complaints have resulted in a conviction.
Following public backlash, the government established a commission to improve its response to violence cases, committed to building a Gesell chamber to aid investigations involving child victims in Condorcanqui, and referred cases to prosecutors’ offices for investigation.
Gender-based violence is a significant problem in Peru. The Ombudsperson’s Office reported 133 femicides—defined as the killing of a woman or girl in certain contexts, including domestic violence—from January through October 2024. The office reported 150 femicides in 2023 and 137 in 2022.