GENEVA – The UN Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers, Margaret Satterthwaite, will conduct an official visit to Chile from 29 July to 9 August 2024. Satterthwaite will assess measures taken by the Chilean State to ensure the independence and impartiality of the judiciary and prosecution service, as well as the free exercise of the legal profession. The Special Rapporteur will address issues related to the structure, organisation and functioning of the judiciary; the administration of justice; the protection of the actors of the justice system; fair trial, including from a gender perspective. She will also examine equal access to justice and legal assistance, seeking to understand how people in Chile experience the judicial system. The expert will meet Government officials and members of the Parliament, judges, prosecutors and lawyers. She will also meet representatives of civil society, academia, UN agencies, and the diplomatic community. Satterthwaite will hold a press conference on Friday 9 August at 11:30 (local time) at the Regional Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights in Santiago. Access is strictly limited to journalists. The Special Rapporteur will present her report to the Human Rights Council in June 2025. Margaret Satterthwaite is the Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers. She was appointed as United Nations Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers by the Human Rights Council in October 2022. Professor Satterthwaite is an international human rights scholar and practitioner with decades of experience in the field. She is a Professor of Clinical Law at New York University School of Law. The Special Rapporteurs are part of what is known as the Special Procedures of the Human Rights Council. Special Procedures, the largest body of independent experts in the UN Human Rights system, is the general name of the Council’s independent fact-finding and monitoring mechanisms that address either specific country situations or thematic issues in all parts of the world. Special Procedures experts work on a voluntary basis; they are not UN staff and do not receive a salary for their work. They are independent of any government or organisation and serve in their individual capacity. UN Human Rights, Country Page - Chile. For further information and media requests, please contact: In Geneva, hrc-sr-independencejl@un.org; In Santiago, María Jeannette Moya maría.moya@un.org y Felipe Iturrieta felipe.iturrietagonzalez@un.org. For media enquiries regarding other UN independent experts, please contact Dharisha Indraguptha (dharisha.indraguptha@un.org) or John Newland (john.newland@un.org). Follow news related to the UN"s independent human rights experts on Twitter @UN_SPExperts.