Chile's Law 21.369 – Preventing and Sanctioning Gender Violence in Higher Education (2021)

Chile's 'Mayo Feminista' of 2018—large-scale university occupations demanding institutional accountability for sexual violence—produced years of parliamentary pressure that culminated in Law 21.369, promulgated on 30 August 2021.

The law obliges all higher education institutions (universities, professional institutes, and technical training centres, public and private) to adopt a Gender Protocol comprising: a sexual harassment prevention model; investigation procedures with due-process guarantees; a graded sanction regime; victim support and reparation pathways; and curricular integration of gender equality. The Superintendencia de Educación Superior (SES) was assigned oversight and enforcement responsibility, covering more than 200 institutions and the entire university community (students, academic and administrative staff).

The SES oversight report of November 2022 found 96.3% of universities with comprehensive policies covering both prevention and investigation/sanction, and 100% with all Prevention Model elements in place.

Independent researchers (Red de Investigadoras, 2024) document a structural gap between formal compliance and substantive effectiveness—specifically in cultural adoption, depth of curriculum integration, and complaint-processing efficiency. No systemic data on victim reporting rates or case resolution outcomes has yet been published, limiting evidence of real-world impact beyond institutional compliance metrics.

Read the full analysis: https://educacionsuperior.mineduc.cl/informacion-sobre-la-ley-21-369/