Constitutional Court of Chile

In Case No. 465, challenging the constitutionality of a Ministry of Education directive setting minimum standards for preschool institutions, the Constitutional Court reaffirmed the right of children to receive at least a constitutionally guaranteed minimum level of education. The Court emphasized the State’s duty to ensure basic conditions that enable all children to access adequate early childhood education, in line with the principle of equality and the best interests of the child.

In 2008, a parliamentary minority petitioned the Constitutional Court to declare a Ministry of Health decree that authorized the availability of family planning methods and the distribution of emergency contraception in public health centers to be unconstitutional. The Court held that the “right to life,” as enshrined in the Chilean Constitution, outweighed access to emergency contraception. It rejected scientific arguments that emergency contraception does not affect a conceived but not yet implanted embryo.