Political interference has plagued Bolivia’s justice system for years. The government, both under former Interim President Jeanine Áñez and current President Luis Arce, has used an overbroad definition of “terrorism” to prosecute political opponents. Prison overcrowding, inadequate health care, and excessive use of pretrial detention continue.
In March, the Constitutional Court recognized civil unions for same-sex couples. In September, a tribunal acknowledged the serious harm that unchecked use of mercury caused to Amazon Indigenous communities and ordered the government to protect their rights.
Gender-based violence and violations of sexual and reproductive health and rights remain very serious problems. As a member of the United Nations Human Rights Council, Bolivia often sided with repressive governments and failed to uphold victims’ rights.
Judicial Independence and Due Process
Bolivia’s justice system has historically been exploited to accommodate the “interests of the ruling political power,” the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) noted after a March 2023 visit. President Luis Arce has failed to fulfill his promise of judicial reform to make the system independent from politics.
In December 2022, Santa Cruz Governor Luis Fernando Camacho was detained on charges of terrorism, which has an overbroad definition in Bolivia. Camacho was accused of scheming to secure the resignation of then-President Evo Morales in 2019. Human Rights Watch reviewed the charging documents and found no supporting evidence for the terrorism charge. Camacho remains in pretrial detention as of October 2023. His family and lawyer allege he is not receiving adequate treatment for a serious chronic illness.
Former Interim President Áñez has been in prison since 2021, initially charged with terrorism. Human Rights Watch reviewed the documents and found the terrorism charge unsubstantiated and grossly disproportionate. In 2022, in a separate case, a tribunal sentenced Áñez to 10 years in prison for dereliction of duty and taking decisions contrary to the law—crimes that are also very broadly defined in Bolivian law—for her actions as she took office as interim president in November 2019. Áñez was unable to attend that trial in person, as judges said they could not guarantee her health or security in the courthouse.
César Apaza, the leader of a legal coca growers’ association, has been in pretrial detention since September 2022. He suffered a stroke in February. His family complained that authorities were not providing him with adequate medical care. In July, the ombudsperson said the Attorney General’s Office, at the ombudsperson’s request, was investigating allegations that authorities had subjected Apaza to torture and ill-treatment.
Almost 50 percent of judges in Bolivia remain “temporary,” the IACHR said in March. Almost 80 percent of prosecutors were also “temporary,” as of December 2022, as showed by data obtained by Fundación Construir, a Bolivian nongovernmental organization (NGO). Justice officials who lack security of tenure may be vulnerable to reprisals, including arbitrary dismissal, if they make decisions that displease those in power.
Bolivians were scheduled to vote in 2023 for high court judges and members of the Magistrates Council, the body that appoints and dismisses judges, from lists created by Congress. In the past, the ruling party repeatedly packed the lists with people linked to the government. Elections have been delayed because for the first time, the ruling party lacks the two-thirds majority required to unilaterally select candidates. The terms of current judicial authorities end in January 2024; the constitution does not provide for temporary appointments or term extensions in case elections do not occur in a timely manner.
Detention Conditions
Detention centers in Bolivia hold more than three times more detainees than they were built to accommodate. From 2021 through 2022, the prison population grew 19 percent (to 24,824 people), as shown by official data obtained by Fundación Construir.
Bolivia’s justice system uses pretrial detention excessively, including against opposition leaders. As of December 2022, 66 percent of detainees were awaiting trial, Fundación Construir said.
Justice for 2019 Abuses
As of October 2023, no one had been held responsible for 37 deaths, as well as alleged torture and other abuses by law enforcement, in the context of protests over contested October 2019 elections. A 2021 report by the IACHR-sponsored Interdisciplinary Group of Independent Experts (GIEI) documented major flaws in probes of the abuses.
Freedom of Expression and Access to Information
Página Siete, one of Bolivia’s main newspapers, closed in June. Its president accused the government of denying it state-paid advertising, pressuring private companies not to advertise in Página Siete, and imposing arbitrary audits and fines, which depleted Página Siete’s income. In March, the IACHR had expressed concern about how the government allocated paid state advertising, which is unregulated in Bolivia.
Bolivia lacks a law to implement the constitutional right of access to information.
Environment and Indigenous Peoples’ Rights
A June 2023 study found that three-quarters of the members of 36 Indigenous communities in the Amazon exhibited mercury levels that were nearly double the safe limit established by the World Health Organization, based on analysis of hair samples. Such dangerous exposure to mercury may cause very serious harm to people, especially children, and result in lifelong health conditions. In high doses, mercury exposure may also be lethal. The most affected communities consumed fish that was obtained downriver from gold mining activities, which employ mercury.
In September, a court acknowledged the harm caused to these Indigenous communities and ordered the government to take protective measures and to respect their right to free, prior, and informed consent about projects that affect them.
Bolivia ratified the UN Minamata Convention on Mercury, which obligates states to protect people from the harmful effects of mercury, in 2016. However, mercury is widely used for mining in Bolivia with little or no oversight and smuggled to Peru and other countries that have banned mercury imports, officials told Human Rights Watch. In 2021, Bolivia was the second largest importer of mercury after India, according to World Bank data.
Throughout 2023, the state-run lithium company announced agreements with Chinese and Russian firms for the industrial extraction of Bolivia’s very large lithium deposits. Little information is publicly available about the terms of the agreements and their likely social and environmental impact, raising concerns in light of Bolivia’s record of allowing mining without respecting the rights of Indigenous and local communities.
From 2021 to 2022, deforestation in Bolivia increased 32 percent, reaching record levels, driven mainly by the expansion of soybean cultivation, the World Resources Institute reported. Bolivia was exceeded only by Brazil and the Democratic Republic of the Congo in tropical primary forest losses.
In 2019, Bolivia ratified the Escazú agreement, which requires access to information and public participation in environmental matters and the protection of environmental defenders, but has done very little to implement it.
Economic and Social Rights
Official data showed that some 36 percent of Bolivians fell below the national poverty line and 11 percent were considered in extreme poverty as of 2021, respectively down from 42 percent and 19 percent in 2016. Inequality, as measured by the Gini index—where 0 means absolute equality and 1 absolute inequality—fell from 0.6 in 2005 to 0.4 in 2021, official data showed.
By the government’s count, 724,000 children ages 5 to 17 worked in 2019, including in commercial sexual exploitation, mining, and dangerous agricultural jobs constituting the worst forms of child labor. In March 2023, in its concluding observations following its periodic review of Bolivia, the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child recommended that Bolivia increase the frequency of inspections to eliminate labor by children under 14, the country’s legal minimum age to work.
Women’s and Girls’ Rights
Women and girls remain at high risk of violence. In 2022, prosecutors registered more than 51,000 reports of domestic violence, including 94 femicides. From January through September 2023, there were 65 femicides. The Ombudsperson’s Office denounced “discretionary” handling of judicial cases for attempted femicide, resulting in alleged perpetrators being prosecuted for less serious charges.
Under Bolivian law, abortion is a crime except in cases of rape or when necessary to protect the life or health of a pregnant person. Women and girls seeking legal abortions are likely to encounter stigma, mistreatment, and revictimization.
In March, the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child urged Bolivia to decriminalize abortion and modify the legal definition of rape, which requires violence or intimidation and does not include lack of consent to sexual intercourse.
Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity
In March, the Plurinational Constitutional Court made public a ruling recognizing civil unions for same-sex couples, a longstanding demand by activists. The court called upon the legislature to modify national legislation related to LGBTI rights in accordance with international standards. Same-sex marriage is still not legal in Bolivia.
The ruling did not address the rights of transgender people to enter into civil unions, which is prohibited by a 2017 decision by the same court. The 2017 ruling also denied their rights to adopt children and be elected to public office and curtailed their privacy rights with respect to the gender they were assigned at birth.
Disability Rights
Bolivia has not aligned its legislation with the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. Its laws fail to recognize denial of reasonable accommodation as a form of disability-based discrimination. The government has failed to address discrimination against people with disabilities and ensure inclusive education, accessibility, access to justice, legal capacity, and an adequate standard of living.
Key International Actors
In January, the government decided not to renew the mandate of the local office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, which, since its establishment in December 2020, had functioned as an important independent entity monitoring human rights.
As a member of the UN Human Rights Council, Bolivia consistently opposed scrutiny of various states’ records and failed to protect rights. In 2023, among other actions, it abstained from voting on a resolution extending the mandate of a group of UN experts investigating systematic rights violations in Nicaragua, and it voted against renewing the mandates of a similar group for Syria and of the special rapporteurs on the human rights situations in Russia, in Burundi, in Iran, and in Belarus. Bolivia also voted against the establishment of an international fact-finding mission on Sudan.