Chile is a parliamentary republic. According to the 1980 Constitution, which has been modified on a number of occasions, the president is elected by universal suffrage for a term of 4 years and immediate re-election is not permitted. This is one of the reasons why former President Michelle Bachelet (currently head of UN Women), who finished her term with an approval rating of over 75%, was not permitted to stand for a second term. From 11th March 2010, Sebastian Pier a (a conservative) has been president of the Republic.

The Chamber of Deputies has 120 members, also elected for 4 years, and the Senate 38, elected for a term of 8 years. The Senate is renewed by halves every 4 years and there are 10 appointed senators who are not elected. The President has the power to nominate two members of the Supreme Court, two former university principles, a former Comptroller General, four former commanders in chief of the armed forces. Former presidents who have served a term of at least 6 years are entitled to a lifetime senate seat. According to the Inter-Parliamentary Union, the percentage of women in parliament is as follows: at the end of 2009, there were 17 deputies out of the chamber s 120 members (14.20%) and 5 senators out of 38 members (13.20%) .

Citizens and foreign residents over 18, the latter having been legally resident in the country for at least 5 years, are eligible to vote. Registration on the electoral register is voluntary although voting is compulsory for those who are registered. The judiciary is independent.

The Chilean economy was heavily affected by the economic crisis, particularly by the fall in copper prices, although it began to show signs of recovery in 2010. The economy is based on services and industry which contribute 95% of GDP. Chile is the world's most important producer of copper (50% of the country's exports), making it dependent on fluctuations in the price of the metal and international trade movements.

The law prohibits discrimination on the grounds of ethnic or national origin, colour, gender, age, nationality or social class. However, while compliance with the law is enforced, cases of discrimination continue to persist. Investigations have begun into the human rights violations which occurred during the prolonged dictatorship of General Pinochet although impunity continues to be a problem. All unclassified information regarding government activities is made available to the public under the Freedom of Information Act, although some agencies are slow to fulfil information requests. Freedom of expression in the press has improved and generally speaking, the media is independent. Penalties may be imposed for the invasion of privacy and defamation.

Chile continues to be a source, transit and destination country for the trafficking of women and children for sexual exploitation. The government has been working with other countries to stop this practice. The University of Chile is working together with the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) to provide training on people trafficking to government employees.

In February 2010, an earthquake measuring 8.8 on the Richter scale struck central and southern Chile and was followed by a tidal wave, or tsunami. Both left a number of dead, wounded and homeless in their wake and according to a report by the Chilean Ministry of Planning, some 500,000 people in Chile joined those facing the sad reality of poverty following the earthquake. 17.3% of the population in the affected regions suffered damage to their homes, while 70% of children and young people in these areas suffered delays to their studies.

The law establishes guarantees for access to 8 years of primary school education and 4 years of secondary school, with education being provided free of charge between the ages of 6 and 13. However, the period which has elapsed since the end of the military dictatorship has not been effectively used by subsequent governments to eliminate the deterioration in public education which took place under the regime, when education was decentralised and placed under the responsibility of local governments unable to offer adequate supervision or financing to schools. The most deprived areas have serious problems in providing quality education to those who suffer financial hardship. The Pinochet regime left the public education system devastated, together with exponential growth in the privatisation of education services. The country s ten thousand plus educational institutions are segmented by family income and social class: the poorest attend the municipal system; those who are slightly better off enrol in subsidised private schools or under the shared finance system; and finally, those with the highest income use the fee paying private system. Test results correlate children s placement among these divisions and as such do not express differences in intelligence, but in social class. For as long as this problem remains uncorrected and while the segmented structure of the Chilean school education system persists, problems of inequality will remain. There are signs that the gap may be closing, but the differences remain significant.
The average period of education is 10 years; 75% of the population has completed 8 years of primary education and 61% has completed 12 years of education. Schools are required to offer religious education classes twice a week in lower secondary school, although enrolment in such classes is optional. The law requires schools to provide religious education classes when requested by parents, although such classes are normally for Catholic students.
In 2010, the government proposed the expedited Education Quality and Equality law in Congress. The Association of Teachers, an EI member organisation, strongly challenged the content of the proposed bill. The Association warned that the effect of the bill being debated was to further reinforce private education. Similarly, it challenged the notion of an open debate in which participation was as broad as possible. The bill itself proposes changes to the Teaching Statute, the expansion of powers for institute directors and changes to the curriculum (e.g. a reduction in the number of hours of history and social sciences subjects) and continues to favour private education to the detriment of public education. The law was passed in January 2011 and the Association of Teachers reiterated its rejection of the new legislation which it found was detrimental to the job security of teachers while continuing to violate the right of Chilean pupils to quality public education.

Pre-school education is not compulsory and is mostly privately funded. A three year programme begins at the age of 3. The Net Enrolment Rate (NER) is 52% (50% female) and 46% of ECE provision is private. 17,155 teachers work in the sector (99% female) and the pupil/teacher ratio (PTR) is 23:1.

Primary education starts at the age of 6 and lasts for 6 years. The Gross Enrolment Rate (GER) is 99% (48% female). 2% of students repeat grades and of the students who enrol in Grade 1, 99% reach the final grade of primary school.
There are 50,261 (77% female) primary teachers and the PTR is 25:1.

(The two month strike led by six hundred thousand secondary school pupils in 2006 established education as a political priority. The strike began as a protest against the high cost of transportation to and from school and ended up as a demand for free public education). Secondary education begins at the age of 12 and lasts for 6 years. 63% of secondary education is private. The NER is 94% (48% female). 25% of students in upper secondary education study in technical vocational programmes and 2% of students repeat grades. There are 17,720 teachers (77% female) in lower secondary and 29,388 (55% female) in upper secondary. The PTR is 34:1 in lower secondary school and 25:1 in upper secondary.

Higher education in Chile has undergone an enormous transformation in the last two decades and has served as a test ground for privatisation experiments. The transition from a predominantly public system to a largely private, market oriented higher education system was carried out by means of deregulation: competition was imposed between institutes and a new, more relaxed system for granting licenses was introduced. There are currently two systems in operation: a public system which covers 25% of tertiary education and selects students by means of university selection criteria, and a private system which covers 75% of tertiary education, with specific entrance requirements set by individual institutes. As public funding of tertiary education fell by 40% between 1981 and 1990, universities increasingly began to charge higher fees, with the remainder of public funding being distributed on a competitive basis. Non-public sources account for 75% of total national higher education expenditure. In contrast to Chile s public universities, the functions of the new private institutes, which are not considered as research universities, where governance is more hierarchical, are more specific. The number of students enrolled in tertiary education is 804,981 (50% female), with a GER of 55%. International students who come to study in Chile are as follows: other Latin American and Caribbean countries (2,983), North America and Western Europe (1,954), Central and Eastern Europe (30), the Arab States (9) and Sub-Saharan Africa (9). There are currently 5,873 Chilean students studying abroad, mainly in the USA (1,612), Germany (712), France (512) and Spain (427).

The law prohibits discrimination against persons with physical and mental disabilities, although this continues to occur. Special education programmes exist for children with different types of disabilities, but this area of the education sector is also undergoing reform and statistics are limited.

The law provides for asylum or refugee status to be granted in accordance with the 1951 UN Convention relating to the Status of Refugees and its 1967 Protocol, and the government has established a system for providing refugees with protection. They are eligible for government-funded health care and education while awaiting the adjudication of their cases and are supported financially by the UNHCR and other organisations.

Indigenous status is determined by self-identification and approximately 4.6% of the population is of indigenous origin. The largest group is the Mapuche and smaller groups include Aymara, Atacama, Rapa Nui and Kawashkar who live in other parts of the country. These groups have the right to express their opinions on decisions which affect their lands, cultures and traditions. Bilingual education must be provided in schools, although in rural areas there can be difficulties in finding teachers and levels of funding are inadequate to meet the educational requirements of indigenous children. Indigenous people earn 26% less than non-indigenous people for carrying out the same job. Human Rights Watch has pointed out the existence of prejudices in the application of an antiterrorism law against Mapuche activists involved in the occupation of lands.

There are no government restrictions imposed upon academic freedom, although the same problems arise in Chile as in other countries where research is supported by private funds. Academics who receive support from the private sector are sometimes required to deal with corporate intervention on issues such as data ownership rights, the influence of management in research, privileged access to discoveries and control of the publication of results. Access to the Internet is not limited or monitored.

Women have the same legal rights as men under family and property law although the gender pay gap persists, with men receiving 40% higher wages than women and the gap widening to 66% in leadership and professional positions, even when women are better qualified. 42% of women are members of the active workforce. Domestic service workers are the largest single category of working women, earning only 75% of the minimum wage. Specific benefits for pregnant workers and breastfeeding mothers have been established, including protection from dismissal. Employers may not make a pregnancy test a condition of recruitment. Arrests are made as a result of domestic violence. Sexual harassment is recognised as a problem, and the law provides protection and financial compensation to victims of harassment, punishing employers or co-workers who commit such offences.

The 2010 Human Development report in Chile,Gender: the challenges of equality points out that while Chile may have made significant progress towards gender equality over the last ten years, such progress has brought the country up against groups that resist changes in gender relations. The study explores four areas in which gender relations present a significant challenge in terms of the equality horizon: regulations and resources established by social, legal and policy institutions (such as the Constitution); culturally produced meanings and symbols that legitimise gender differences or define violence; market forces and economic exchanges which define facts such as the value of the work of men and women; and finally, power relations in society and the ability of men and women to exercise power.

Although restricted by law, child labour remains a problem, particularly in the informal economy. Children from age 15 to 18 may work only if they continue to attend school and only with parental permission. Children aged 15 may only carry out light work which does not pose a threat to their health and development. Other provisions protect workers under 18 years old by limiting the jobs they may carry out and applying special conditions. The minimum age for working in a mine is 21. Regulations are enforced, and compliance is sufficient in the formal economy, although in the informal sector this is less certain. There are reports which detail the trafficking of children, and an ILO study found that approximately 200,000 children aged 5 to 17 were in employment. Of these, only 3% work under unacceptable conditions, with some children aged 5 to 14 working an average of 18.5 hours a week and adolescents working an average of 39.5 hours. Another report indicates that 1,123 children and adolescents are involved in the worst forms of child labour. Of these, 68% are small children, 75% are aged 15 or older and 66% do not attend school. A tripartite group of business, worker and government representatives monitor progress in the eradication of child labour, and public education programmes are raising awareness among citizens. A second national survey on child labour was initiated in January 2011, carried out jointly by the Ministry of Labour, the Ministry of Development and the ILO. A police sexual offences task force is specifically charged with the investigation and prosecution of paedophilia and child pornography cases.

Workers have the right to join and form trade unions, with the exception of the police and military. Approximately 10% of the 5.9 million person workforce is unionised, although closed shop clauses are prohibited. Temporary workers may form unions, but their right to collective bargaining is restricted. Employees in the private sector have the right to strike, but replacement workers may be hired under certain conditions. Employees in the public sector do not have the right to strike although teachers and other state workers have organised strikes. Employees providing essential services are prohibited from striking and must instead settle disputes by means of arbitration. Forced or compulsory labour is prohibited. The minimum wage is set by law and is adjusted annually. A tripartite committee has proposed a minimum wage based on projected inflation and productivity increases. The minimum wage serves as the starting wage for an unskilled adult worker entering the workforce; however it does not provide a worker and their family with a decent standard of living. The minimum wage for domestic servants is 75% of that for other occupations and the legal working week is 6 days or 45 hours.

2009 was characterised by frequent recourses to subcontracting as a strategy to prevent the right to trade union membership.