On March 20, opposition Sen. Carolina Goic (Democracia Cristiana) announced the launch of a website for Chilean citizens to submit feedback on the National Cancer Bill. The objective is to factor into the proposal the views of specialized civil society actors to produce an “inclusive and efficient” initiative. Comments can be posted until March 28, and will then be collated and sent to the Health Committee. Paraguay is moving in a similar direction. According to its Minister of Health, Julio Mazzoleni, the government is conducting hearings with specialist non-government organizations in order to legislate for the enactment of the Cancer Law in early April. This law was passed at the end of 2018 with the aim of tackling the disease more efficiently.

According to Goic, the website for Chilean citizens allows for specialist non government feedback “at a stage where it has not usually been so easy to receive people’s suggestions”. This will allow legislators to gauge citizens’ feelings on the bill and for expert non-government bodies to contribute to its content. He also clarified that the website will be open for comments until March 28. All feedback will then be processed and submitted to the Health Committee, which will evaluate it and decide whether to modify the bill. This process will start at the next Committee meeting, in the first week of April.

In respect of Paraguay, this country is close to passing legislation for the enactment of its cancer law, approved at the end of 2018.  According to the Minister of Health, Julio Mazzoleni, the Executive branch is promoting a “participatory process” together with cancer organizations to introduce a law that’s “realistic” in combating the disease efficiently. In terms of deadlines, he explained that the objective is to introduce proposed legislation on the law’s enactment in the first days of April.