CHILE has been urged to drop criminal charges against the feminist group which popularised a song opposing state violence against women.

Military police accused the Las Tesis collective of “inciting hatred and disobedience against authority” for its song A Rapist in Your Path, which was first performed on the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women last November.

The lyric “the rapist is you” has become “a symbol of the universal demand of women to be able to live a life free of violence,” the UN Human Rights Council said on Monday night as it urged prosecutors to drop the case.

Elizabeth Broderick, chairwoman of the UN Working Group on Discrimination Against Women and Girls, said that Chile should stop its investigation “against a group of human-rights defenders whose performance art has inspired women around the world.

“UN experts fear that prosecution of Las Tesis could have a chilling effect on women who are standing up for their rights.”

She said that the group, made up of four members, has been key in denouncing violence against women in Chile.

“The state has an obligation to protect human rights defenders,” she said. “It should not prosecute them for exercising their freedoms of expression and peaceful assembly.”

The case was brought by the national police force in June, though Las Tesis were only later informed about it through media reports.

The collective was accused of inciting violence and threats against police, who claimed to have felt intimidated and fearful of attacks in the wake of the performance.

Initially released as a video in May 2019, the song inspired millions of women across the world to take a stand against violence, rape and femicide.

At least 66,000 women and girls are violently killed each year — the majority by partners, family members or other men known to them — according to statistics compiled by the Small Arms Survey.

The real toll is likely to be much higher as cases go unreported and with a number of countries not recording statistics on femicide.

Last month Poland took steps to withdraw from the Istanbul Convention, a 2011 treaty that obliges signatories to tackle gender-based crime, provide protection and services for women and to ensure that perpetrators are prosecuted.

Turkey is also considering pulling out of the treaty despite concerns over a rise in femicide and amid mass protests by women’s groups, trade unions and opposition political parties in the country.