JOINT COMMUNIQUÉ OF THE ORGANIZATIONS INVOLVED IN THE CASE OF BEATRIZ ET AL. VS. EL SALVADOR
El Salvador, December 20, 2024. “I just want to live,” Beatriz said 11 years ago. Beatriz was a young mother of a small child, sick with lupus and living in poverty. In 2013 she faced a second high-risk pregnancy, in which the fetus was diagnosed as having anencephaly, meaning it had not developed a brain, a condition incompatible with life outside the womb. Doctors recommended terminating the pregnancy to protect her life and health, however, given the absolute criminalization of abortion in El Salvador, the State denied her this procedure.
That is why the judgment issued today by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights is so relevant, in which it points out the responsibility of the Salvadoran State in the case of Beatriz et al. v. El Salvador.
According to the judgment, the State is responsible for violating Beatriz’s rights to personal integrity, to privacy, to judicial protection, to live a life free of violence and the right to health, as well as the right to personal integrity of her family members. In this regard, the Court stated:
“Beatriz’s medical circumstances imposed a special duty of protection in her favor, which obliged the treating physicians to provide diligent and timely care, with special consideration that her health condition could worsen with the passage of time. However, the lack of legal certainty about the approach to Beatriz’s situation forced to bureaucratize and judicialize her case, first with several requests to different state bodies that gave contradictory answers”.
The sentence recognizes that the pregnancy Beatriz was facing was high risk and that the health care she received was given in a framework of legal uncertainty, which inhibited the actions of the staff as they were afraid of incurring criminal liability. “The Court considers that Beatriz’s health was put at risk because there were no clear protocols for a case such as hers. This also implied a situation of obstetric violence against Beatriz and subjected her to profound anguish that affected her right to physical integrity”.
In this regard, it ordered El Salvador to implement the necessary regulatory measures to provide legal certainty to medical personnel on how to proceed in pregnancies that put women’s health and lives at risk.
For Delmy Cortez, Beatriz’s mother, this ruling represents a culminating moment “I feel grateful for this struggle that was quite long, but we have obtained a response. I am sure that Beatriz, from wherever she is, feels satisfied for the fight that has been made” and she sent a message to all mothers seeking justice for their daughters and sons in El Salvador.
Humberto, Beatriz’s brother, added his voice to thank the organizations that have been accompanying the struggle and thanked the Court for this just sentence. “We want the State to listen to us and assume its responsibility, that it made a mistake with Beatriz and has made a mistake again by imprisoning Mauricio, Beatriz’s brother, for the regime of exception, we want to ask for his release because he is innocent.”
The organizations representing Beatriz and her family: Colectiva Feminista por el Desarrollo Local, Agrupación Ciudadana por la Despenalización del Aborto, Ipas Latin America and the Caribbean (Ipas LAC) and the Center for Justice and International Law (CEJIL), recalled that the struggle of Beatriz and her family has made visible the violence faced by women in El Salvador and the world and noted that this decision advances what Beatriz always wanted: that no woman suffer what she experienced.
Gisela De León, legal director of CEJIL, emphasized that the sentence handed down by the Court in this case recognizes what Beatriz and her family have been claiming for years: that she did not receive the medical attention that the Salvadoran State should have provided her and that she was not given justice at the domestic level.
Fernanda Diaz de Leon, Ipas LAC’s deputy director of advocacy, recalled that the Court determined that the State must create regulations so that health personnel know how to proceed in the face of high-risk pregnancies, and that these regulations must be in accordance with the highest standards for the protection of women’s health, life and integrity.
“We think it is very important that the Court, as a measure of non-repetition, has also indicated to strengthen the skills of health personnel so that the regulations are fully applied and that with this, the right to health and the right to a life free of violence of women in El Salvador is fulfilled,” said Diaz.
For Morena Herrera, a prominent feminist and human rights defender, president of Agrupación Ciudadana, and one of the people who accompanied Beatriz from the beginning of the process, with this sentence justice has been done for Beatriz.
“We are very satisfied with the justice that has been done for Beatriz. The Court has recognized the violation of Beatriz’s human rights, her integrity and her right to health. It establishes that the inadequate procedure for Beatriz’s high-risk pregnancy implied costs and suffering for her, Delmy and her family. In this sense, the Court has done justice to Beatriz and her family by recognizing and establishing the international responsibility of the State for this human rights violation.
The organizations especially recognize the drive of Beatriz’s family, who never abandoned their search for justice, and the tireless accompaniment and support of the feminist movement and women’s organizations in El Salvador and around the world, remembering that the struggle for justice in the Beatriz case is justice for all.
From this moment on, the process of enforcing compliance begins.
Read the complete sentence
And the original press release here
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