¡Error! No se encuentra el origen de la referencia.), for which reason these points shall
be examined jointly.
114. Accordingly, the Court proceeds to consider whether these arguments were
appropriate to fulfill the purpose stated in the Supreme Court’s judgment and in the decision
of the Juvenile Court of Villarica, namely, to protect the best interest of the three girls.
4.1. Alleged social discrimination
115. The Court notes that among the statements taken during in the proceedings, one of
the witnesses stated that “there has been discrimination against the little girls, not by other
children, but by the parents, who repress the children; I do not have proof of specific acts of
discrimination, but an example given was that if there was a slumber party at Karen’s house
they would not allow their daughters to go.”133 In addition, some of the witnesses indicated
that: “the girls are going to be discriminated against and affected in their social
relationships;”134 ii) “in the school environment and among their peers […] they are being
pointed out, I am concerned that because we live in such a small city this situation could be
difficult”135, and iii) “the parents of their schoolmates and friends adopt protective attitudes
towards their children regarding this situation, which they consider contradictory to the
education they give their children and this must necessarily generate negative situations
and isolation for the little girls which, according to what I have heard, is unfortunately
happening.”136
116. Likewise, the social worker who testified at the proceeding indicated that “in Chile
according to a study […] on tolerance and discrimination [conducted in] 1997, it was found
that Chileans express a high level of rejection toward homosexual minorities [,] with the
percentage of rejection being 60.2%. Based on this, and aware of the high [level of]
discrimination [,] these minors would be exposed to unwarranted situations of social
discrimination”137.
117. On the other hand, the Court notes that the custody case file contains eight affidavits
from parents of schoolmates and friends of the three girls in which they testify, inter alia,
that “they have never discriminated against [Ms. Atala’s] daughters in any way and that
their children got together, played and participated in activities with the López Atala girls138.
118. In this regard, the Court confirms that although the case file contained evidence
from individuals who stated that the girls could be suffering discrimination within their social
environment due to their mother cohabiting with a partner of the same sex, there is also
evidence to the contrary regarding to this point (supra paras. 115, 116 and 117). However,
the Court notes that the Supreme Court described the potential social discrimination that
the girls might suffer in a manner that was conditional and abstract, since it stated that: i)
“the girls could be subjected to social discrimination,” and ii) that “clearly their unique
133
Testimony of April 10 2003 (record of appendices to the petition, volume I, page 360).
134
Testimony of April 3, 2003 (record of appendices to the petition, volume I, page 327).
135
Testimony of April 3, 2003 (record of appendices to the petition, volume I, page 328).
136
Testimony of April 3, 2003 (record of appendices to the petition, volume I, page 329).
137
Testimony of the social worker of April 14, 2003 (record of appendices to the petition, volume I, page
390).
138
Affidavits of May 2003 (record of appendices to the petition, volume I, pages 458 through 464).´
40