Peru

Citizens protest against President Pedro Castillo in the city of Huancayo, Peru, 2022. Credit: Arturo Lopez Llontop, Shutterstock

Building on its documentation trip to Peru in 2024, IRCT returned in 2025 to Lima in February to build capacity with the forensic services of the Peruvian Prosecutor’s Office, and with experts working in the southern city of Juliaca in the wake of widespread torture and extrajudicial killings during the 2022-23 nationwide protests.

The Attorney General, together with the Prosecutor’s Office and national forensic institute have committed to developing a protocol implementing IRCT’s needs assessment and 10-step plan, including a focus on victim support. The plan was also endorsed by the UN OHCHR which is a partner in the project. The forensic institute in Juliaca revised their forensic examination protocol based on the training and have provided expert reports for review and supervision by IRCT’s Independent Forensic Expert Group. The multi-year intervention in Peru helped IRCT exceed its output target for Istanbul Protocol trainings by more than double, while Strategy outcomes on improved capacities in documentation and advocacy were also exceeded.

Protester faces police in a dmonstration, peru. Credit: Joel salvador, shutterstock

In 2024 a political crisis in Peru triggered unprecedented nationwide protests, and a brutal crackdown by police.

The protests were led by mainly rural poor, indigenous Quechua-speakers, demanding their human rights be fulfilled by a State which has for decades discriminated against them. The violence was a stark reminder of the legacy of Peru’s 20-year civil war, in which Quechua-speakers were the huge majority of those killed, disappeared and tortured.

Listen to Juana Lisa Lloret de Fernandez from and Rosalia Chauca from Red Para la Infancia y la Familia discuss police brutality in peru