IACHR
Press Release
IACHR Publishes Thematic Report on Violence and Discrimination Against Women and Girls in Latin America and the Caribbean
January 22, 2020
Washington, D.C. - The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) has published the report Violencia y discriminación contra mujeres, niñas y adolescentes: buenas prácticas y desafíos en América Latina y en el Caribe. This report is one of the main outcomes of the project Eradication of Violence and Discrimination Against Women and Girls in Latin America and the Caribbean, conducted by the IACHR with valuable support from the Canadian government. The report was presented on December 10, 2019 at the headquarters of the Organization of American States (OAS), to mark International Human Rights Day and the campaign 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence.
Given the context of violence and discrimination faced by women, girls, and adolescents in the region, the Commission has identified them as persons who face particular discrimination and has therefore prioritized lines of work to promote and protect their fundamental rights. The IACHR has played an essential role in the development of legal standards to protect and defend the rights of women, girls, and adolescents and has issued recommendations to identify and overcome structural discrimination and intersecting forms of discrimination specifically affecting them. To fulfil its mandate, the Inter-American Commission has also supported Member States of the OAS in their concrete efforts to comply with the decisions and recommendations of inter-American human rights institutions, whether the Commission itself or the Inter-American Court of Human Rights.
To draft the report Violencia y discriminación contra mujeres, niñas y adolescentes: buenas prácticas y desafíos en América Latina y en el Caribe, the Commission used the information it obtained from its various monitoring mechanisms, including working visits, on-site visits, public hearings, and requests to States for information, as well as information linked to the petition, case, and precautionary measure system. The IACHR also held two meetings with subject experts, received information from 12 States and 20 civil society organizations in response to a questionnaire, and assessed over 800 recommendations made in thematic reports published by the Commission over the past 10 years.
Based on all the information it has examined , the IACHR presents in this report a series of positive initiatives adopted by States in Latin America and the Caribbean to promote and protect the rights of women, girls, and adolescents. The report includes a non-exhaustive list of good practices—particularly legislation, public policies, and court decisions—that are examples of specific progress made in the fight against violence and discrimination. The IACHR stresses its call to States, so they strive to make further efforts in this matter and to consolidate any progress they have made so far.
However, in spite of all these achievements, the Commission has noted that many challenges persist in the fight against violence and discrimination affecting women and girls. One of the report’s main findings is linked to the persistent invisibility of girls’ specific needs. They remain part of a broad, age-less “women” category that fails to take into account their specific protection needs as developing individuals, and they also remain invisible in the “children” category, which fails to take their gender into consideration. As it profoundly assessed violence and discrimination against girls, the Commission identified the prevalence of various specific forms of violence and discrimination, including child marriage and non-marital cohabitation involving girls; early pregnancies that are consequences of sexual violence; child labor, labor exploitation, and human trafficking; and violence in the context of new technologies.
The Commission also identified profound challenges that persist in the effort to eradicate the structural factors involved in discrimination against women and girls, such as sexism, machismo, and the prevalence of gender stereotypes that are deeply rooted in the social fabric around Latin America and the Caribbean, which lead to a high tolerance for violence against women. In this report, the IACHR warns that violence and discrimination do not affect all women equally. Afro-descendant, indigenous, and lesbian, bisexual, trans, and intersex (LBTI) women suffer violence and discrimination on two or event three counts beyond their gender. More specifically, the Commission observes the prevalence of laws that discriminate against women and girls in the region; heightened trends and discourses against women’s rights; violence and discrimination against women who challenge gender stereotypes, including journalists, human rights defenders, and politically committed women; and the many challenges that continue to restrict access to justice for women and girls who are victims of violence.
In this report, the IACHR also analyzes violent trends that particularly affect women and girls, including the prevalence of gender-based murders and the profound gap between the development of regulatory frameworks and criminal categorizations, and their specific application; the worrying figures concerning disappearances of women and girls, and the failure to adequately investigate such cases; and the high levels of sexual violence and the failure to prevent and investigate such violence, as well as to provide appropriate medical care for victims. The report further addresses a deficient approach to certain forms of violence and discrimination against women and girls. Such forms of violence are not fully or adequately considered by States, which is apparent in the insufficient development of standards and public policies concerning them and in the absence of an in-depth analysis. These forms of violence include obstetric violence, a practice that is common around the region and stems from an asymmetrical relationship between women and healthcare staff; the effects on the rights of women and adolescents of fully criminalizing abortion; and the impact of organized crime on women’s rights.
The report Violencia y discriminación contra mujeres, niñas y adolescentes: buenas prácticas y desafíos en América Latina y en el Caribe addresses the persistent invisibility of girls’ specific needs and ends with a series of recommendations to support States as they tackle these challenges. The report includes two annexes. The first annex contains a compilation of the IACHR’s main standards and recommendations concerning violence and discrimination against women, girls, and adolescents. The second annex addresses the impact of cases of violence and discrimination against women, and the challenges that remain pending in such cases.
“Based on the findings presented in this report, the Commission specifically addresses forms of violence and discrimination that need to be adequately tackled by Latin American and Caribbean States to ensure the right of women, girls, and adolescents to a life that is free from violence. We hope this analysis will prove useful to address problems that are currently invisible or normalized and to permanently eradicate all forms of violence and discrimination,” said Commissioner Margarette May Macaulay, the IACHR’s Rapporteur on the Rights of Women.
Commissioner Esmeralda Arosemena de Troitiño, who is the Commission’s President as well as its Rapporteur on the Rights of the Child, thanked the Canadian government for its support for the project that made it possible to draft this thematic report.
“It is essential for States to reflect on the particular vulnerability context faced by girls and adolescents in the Americas, not only as women, but also as individuals who are developing. We trust that this report will serve as a call to States, so they will continue to make progress to protect and ensure the rights of all women and girls,” said President Arosemena de Troitiño.
A principal, autonomous body of the Organization of American States (OAS), the IACHR derives its mandate from the OAS Charter and the American Convention on Human Rights. The Inter-American Commission has a mandate to promote respect for and to defend human rights in the region and acts as a consultative body to the OAS in this area. The Commission is composed of seven independent members who are elected in an individual capacity by the OAS General Assembly and who do not represent their countries of origin or residence.
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