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The implementation of the first stage of Act No. 21,057, which regulates video-recorded interviews and other protective measures for minors who are victims of sexual offenses, began on October 3, 2019. This public policy includes a series of measures and procedural changes designed to prevent secondary victimization of child victims of sexual and other serious offenses as they go through criminal proceedings.

This is one of the most important reforms to the Chilean criminal justice system since the Criminal Procedure Reform of 2000. It implies a paradigm shift, through which a new and important step is taken to adapt criminal proceedings to children’s needs and characteristics, according to their age and maturity level. These adaptations ensure that children are effectively treated as persons with rights. In addition, the so-called “Video-Recorded Interviews Act” incorporates tools that make it possible to obtain more precise and reliable background information for the investigation and judicial definition of cases.

Although concerns about improving the conditions under which children must face a judicial process have existed for a long time, they were confronted with both the difficulty involved in modifying the operation of the entire system and the cultural beliefs and prejudices rooted in institutional practices related to the treatment of children.

In 2007, facing this scenario, and in compliance with its commitment to children’s rights, Fundación Amparo y Justicia promoted a joint effort between actors from public institutions, academia and civil society to raise awareness of this issue in Chile.

For a decade, the foundation carried out multiple actions in order to advocate the need for the Video-Recorded Interviews Act. Between 2007 and 2015, it organized five international seminars1 with investigative interview experts from both academia and foreign government institutions, including psychologists and scholars Martine Powell, Michael Lamb, David La Rooy and Tony Butler, judges and scholars Thomas Lyon and Carlos Rozanski, and retired Sergeant Nick Quine. These specialists helped convey the importance of the investigative interview both as a fundamental measure to prevent secondary victimization, as well as a technique that, by using standardized procedures, provides higher quality information to guide the investigation of crimes.

Between 2008 and 2010, an Inter-Institutional Working Group was convened to discuss at length the measures needed to improve the existing procedures. This group was made up of representatives from the Public Prosecutor’s Office, the Judicial Branch, the Ministry of Justice, the Public Defender’s Office, the National Service for Minors (SENAME), Carabineros de Chile, Policía de Investigaciones, Chile’s Forensic Medical Service, the Ministry of Health and prominent scholars. Furthermore, in 2008, the MIDE UC Research Center at Pontificia Universidad Católica (PUC) was entrusted with a study that examined the “Perceptions of the investigation and prosecution processes in cases of child sexual assault in the Metropolitan, Valparaíso and Bío Bío Regions” (2009). The results of this research were conclusive in terms of the negative effects of multiple interrogations on child victims of sexual abuse.

Against this backdrop, a second Inter-Institutional Working Group was convened in October 2011 to finalize the draft bill that would establish a video-recorded interview system for child victims of sexual abuse. The group was comprised of representatives from the Public Prosecutor’s Office, the Ministry of the Interior and Public Security, the Judicial Branch and Fundación Amparo y Justicia. After a year of work, with the advice of scholars from the Faculty of Social Sciences and Law of the Universidad de Chile, a bill was drafted, which included its technical foundations, an implementation design and a study of associated costs. This material was then delivered to the Executive Branch in October 2012, which, after studies conducted to ensure its budgetary feasibility, presented the final bill to the Congress in January 2014.

This first milestone was also supported by the impact on public opinion that was generated by the social media campaign “No me pregunten más” (“Ask Me No More”), started by Fundación Amparo y Justicia in October 2013. Thanks to this campaign, more than 21,000 people signed a petition to get the Act passed, and dozens of public figures endorsed the initiative.

The Video-Recorded Interviews Act was under consideration in the Congress for four years. During this period, there were public communication campaigns and citizen mobilization activities; also, technical evidence was provided for the discussion of the bill in the congressional committees.

In 2014, aware that the prevention of secondary victimization did not depend solely on the adoption of this Act, Fundación Amparo y Justicia, in conjunction with PUC’s Faculty of Law, began teaching the international certificate course “Los derechos de los niños, niñas y adolescentes víctimas de delitos sexuales y el sistema judicial” [“The rights of child and adolescent victims of sexual abuse and the judicial system”]. This course raised awareness and enhanced the training of 459 justice system employees regarding the appropriate measures and ways of interacting with children. In addition, the first version of this book was launched in 2016 to provide the most up-to-date information on the investigative interview and the best practices for its application.

At the end of 2016, a collaboration agreement was signed between Fundación Amparo y Justicia and the Public Prosecutor’s Office to implement the VII procedure in that institution. The following year, with the advice of retired Sergeant Nick Quine, an investigative interviewing training program was started for interviewers and instructors. This initiative was later joined by Carabineros de Chile, Policía de Investigaciones, the Judicial Branch and the Ministry of the Interior and Public Security.

On January 20, 2018, Act No. 21,057 that regulates video-recorded interviews and other protective measures for minors who are victims of sexual abuse was enacted, evidencing the successful collaboration between the powers of the government, institutions of the justice system and organized civil society.

The challenge of protecting the rights of children does not end with the approval and enactment of this Act. This is the reason why Fundación Amparo y Justicia is committed to continuing to contribute to its proper implementation through training, technical advice, dissemination and awareness-raising activities. In this context, since 2018, the foundation has participated in the Subcomisión Técnica de Implementación de la Ley Nº 21.057 (Technical Sub-Commission for the Implementation of Act No. 21,057), which was created by mandate of the Comisión de Coordinación del Sistema de Justicia Penal (Commission for the Coordination of the Criminal Justice System). This committee is coordinated by the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights and attended by representatives of the Public Prosecutor’s Office, the Ministry of the Interior and Public Security, the Judicial Branch, the Public Defender’s Office, Carabineros de Chile and Policía de Investigaciones.

Similar to the first version of this book, this edition describes recommendations and best practices based on national and international evidence. It is divided into seven chapters. The first chapter refers to the participation of child victims of sexual offenses in the criminal process, their rights and the complexities faced by the justice system in this regard. It also describes the main findings of the study of their testimonies. The second chapter deals with the investigative interview itself, explaining its definition, characteristics and benefits, as well as the specific elements needed to plan, carry out, and evaluate it. The third chapter addresses technological and infrastructural aspects that need to be considered for proper video-recorded investigative interviewing. The fourth chapter elaborates on the main findings and recommendations regarding the interviewer and their training process, as well as the protocols and best practices for conducting the investigative interview. The fifth chapter reviews different models that exist at the international level for the use of these video-recorded interviews in court hearings. Chapter six describes other safeguards for the taking of children’s testimony in the judicial process, including intermediation and early testimony. Finally, the last chapter describes the procedures included in Act No. 21,057, which regulates video-recorded interviews and other protective measures for minors who are victims of sexual abuse. It also provides an easy-to-understand summary of the Act’s provisions, its regulations and the protocols for inter-institutional action and coordination.

The hope is that this second edition will continue to serve as a support and guide for the training of officials in the criminal justice system who must interact with children, as well as for anyone else who might be interested in studying this subject in greater depth.