Washington, June 21, 2023. The organizations that make up the Coalition for Women’s Human Rights of the Americas urge the Member States of the OAS General Assembly to prioritize public policies to adopt, without further delay, guarantees for the full exercise of the human rights of women and girls in all their diversity and without exclusion of any kind.
To strengthen a culture of democratic accountability, member states must respect women’s autonomy, the right to live free from violence, access to sexual and reproductive health including comprehensive sexuality education, contraception and safe abortion services.
The Beatriz case before the Inter-American Court of Human Rights is a clear example of the impact that the absolute criminalization of abortion has on women’s lives.
In recent years, more than 80,000 girls between the ages of 10 and 14 have suffered pregnancies and births resulting from rape and are victims of forced marriages. The CEDAW Committee and the Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls have emphasized the responsibility of States to ensure that the normative and judicial systems guarantee access to justice for victims of sexual violence.
Violence continues to take the lives of women in our region. In 2022 and 2023, 716 femicides and 2 transfemicides were committed in El Salvador, Argentina, Ecuador and Colombia. Women with disabilities in Peru are exposed to systematic violence.
The lives of indigenous women are marked by multiple oppressions that deny them the right to live in dignified conditions and compromise their full development and that of their communities.
Sex workers are discriminated against in public health services, which violate their autonomy and sexual intimacy.
Women human rights defenders, including sexual and reproductive rights, face threats, attacks, criminalization, forced displacement and assassinations. In 2022, at least 4,803 aggressions were registered in Mexico, Honduras, El Salvador and Nicaragua, including 20 murders. States are the main perpetrators of these aggressions.
The return of authoritarian governments in Central America deepens the systematic violation of human rights, attacks on freedom of expression and the closing of civic space, crucial for advancing a democratic culture.
Millions of women and girls, in all their diversity, demand the right to live in truly democratic societies. States must make firm commitments to reverse the serious setbacks facing the region.
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