We would like to share some of our recent activities and achievements to promote justice and defend the rights of all people.
We start with the story of Juliana. In April 2022, Juliana, then age 12, and her mother went to the Chihuahua prosecutor’s office to report a rape. Juliana said she did not want to continue with the pregnancy. The public prosecutor’s office ordered the local hospital to provide an abortion. Juliana was denied the abortion, even though the pregnancy was the result of rape (which is a valid and legal ground to have an abortion without a time limit in Mexico) because local legislation stated that abortion is only possible up to 12 weeks of pregnancy. GIRE accompanied Juliana and her mother to file an amparo case against the time limit and the denial of the service as a violation of her human rights.
In October 2022, a District Court ruled in Juliana’s favour and issued a non-technical version of the ruling. This consisted of two pages explaining the judge’s decision in an easy-to-read format understandable to a 12-year-old in comparison with the original 126-page ruling, which was a clear sign that Juliana herself had become the centre of the case. We are glad that Juliana could learn by herself about the content of the ruling through simple language. At GIRE, we are certain that justice must be accessible and affordable for everyone and in all matters.
Last May, the Executive Commission for Victim Assistance of the State of Chihuahua established a comprehensive reparation plan for Juliana. In addition to ordering compensation and rehabilitation measures, the Commission urged the local congress to repeal the 90-day time limit for access to abortion resulting from rape.
We hope that the local congress will act in favour of the reproductive rights of women and people with the capacity to get pregnant and make the necessary reforms to harmonise local regulations with the jurisprudence upheld by the Supreme Court of Justice.
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In Una enseñanza colombiana: licencia para todes (A Colombian lesson: Childbirth leave for all), our colleague Geras Contreras describes the recent decision in Colombia that recognised the right to access childbirth leave for trans men and non-binary people, which is a significant precedent in the region to build more inclusive care policies.
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On 10 October 2023, we had the opportunity to attend the event “Abortion and Justice”, organised by El Colegio de México. As GIRE’s executive director, I participated with Marta Lamas, GIRE’s founder and currently a researcher at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Justice Ana Margarita Ríos Farjat of the Mexican Supreme Court, and Silvia Giorguli, president of El Colegio de México, to talk about the recent federal decriminalisation of abortion and the next steps to guarantee access to the healthcare procedure. See the report of the meeting in the video:
SOURCE: GIRE Newsletter by Rebecca Ramos, GIRE Director, E-mail, 29 November 2023