Viviana Elisa Díaz Caro (born October 26, 1950) is a Chilean

human rights Human rights are Morality, moral principles or Social norm, normsJames Nickel, with assistance from Thomas Pogge, M.B.E. Smith, and Leif Wenar, 13 December 2013, Stanford Encyclopedia of PhilosophyHuman Rights Retrieved 14 August 2014 for ce ...

campaigner who became widely known in the struggle for human rights in

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the east a ...

as the president of the ''Agrupación de Familiars de Detenidos Desaparecidos'' (Association of the Relatives of the Disappeared). She is the daughter of Víctor Días sub-secretary of the

Communist Party of Chile The Communist Party of Chile ( es, Partido Comunista de Chile, ) is a communist party in Chile. It was founded in 1912 as the Socialist Workers' Party () and adopted its current name in 1922. The party established a youth wing, the Communist Youth ...

who disappeared after he was arrested by security forces in 1976. Díaz was one of the most prominent campaigners to support the arrest of Pinochet in London in 1998 and was opposed to Pinochet's return claiming that in Chile he would never face justice. Whilst Pinochet was under house arrest in London she was subjected to threats and intimidation by right-wing organisations and a death threat by the ultra-right-wing extremist group ''Frente Nacionalista Patria y Libertad.'' On January 7, 2001 President

Ricardo Lagos Ricardo Froilán Lagos Escobar (; born 2 March 1938) is a Chilean lawyer, economist and social-democratic politician who served as president of Chile from 2000 to 2006. During the 1980s he was a well-known opponent of the Chilean military di ...

made public information released by the

Chilean Armed Forces The Chilean Armed Forces ( es, Fuerzas Armadas de Chile) is the unified military organization comprising the Chilean Army, Air Force, and Navy. The President of Chile is the commander-in-chief of the military, and formulates policy through the Mi ...

which detailed the fate of 180 people from the list of the disappeared. Díaz's father, Víctor Días, appeared listed among those who were killed and had their bodily remains thrown into the Pacific Ocean. In 2006 Díaz expressed public support for what the

Michelle Bachelet Verónica Michelle Bachelet Jeria (; born 29 September 1951) is a Chilean politician who served as United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights from 2018 to 2022. She previously served as President of Chile from 2006 to 2010 and 2014 to 201 ...

government had achieved in the area of

in Chile. She principally noted that Bachelet had been willing to listen to their demands and meet with the AFDD personally; something no previous

concertación The Concertación, officially the Concertación de Partidos por la Democracia ( en, Coalition of Parties for Democracy), was a coalition of center-left political parties in Chile, founded in 1988. Presidential candidates under its banner won ...

government had done. However, Díaz noted that there was much work to be done, including the annulment of the

Amnesty Law An Amnesty law is any legislative, constitutional or executive arrangement that retroactively exempts a select group of people, usually military leaders and government leaders, from criminal liability for the crimes that they committed. More speci ...

(initiated and enacted by Pinochet to prevent prosecutions against members of his regime), adherence to the

International Criminal Court The International Criminal Court (ICC or ICCt) is an intergovernmental organization and international tribunal seated in The Hague, Netherlands. It is the first and only permanent international court with jurisdiction to prosecute individuals ...

and the creation of the ''National Institute of Human Rights''.Bachelet: un año de gobierno/derechos humanos - Andrea Henríquez, Santiago de Chile
BBC Mundo.com, 11 Marzo 2007 (retrieved 2 August 2009).

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