Peru Violates Child Rape Victim's Rights

[Judi Lynn]

Wednesday, 14 June 2023, 9:45 am
Press Release: OHCHR

The UN Child Rights Committee found that Peru has violated the rights to health and life of an indigenous and rural girl victim of rape by failing to provide her with information and access to legal and safe abortion.

The Committee published its decision today after hearing the complaints filed by Camila (pseudonym), who was raped by her father from age nine until she became pregnant at age 13.

Camila was born in Huanipaca, department of Apurímac, a rural area of the Peruvian highlands. When she became pregnant in 2017, a relative took her to a hospital in Abancay, where she burst into tears and told the hospital staff that she did not want to have her father’s child or be pregnant. This statement was repeated throughout her medical visits as her mental health condition aggravated. However, she was not informed of her right to have a therapeutic abortion.

Abortion is criminalised in Peru except to prevent a risk to the life or a severe and permanent threat to the mother’s health. With the assistance of an NGO, Camila requested the Abancay hospital to access therapeutic abortion according to national legislation, and she also submitted a request for voluntary termination of pregnancy to the prosecutor in charge of the criminal investigation for rape so that a health centre could be designated to assess her case. However, she received no response from either the hospital or the judicial authorities.

More:
https://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/WO2306/S00102/peru-violates-child-rape-victims-rights.htm