Bogota, Colombia - On November 20th, the Center for Reproductive Rights, the School of Law of the University of the Andes (UNIANDES) and researchers from five countries will release the report Cuerpo y Derecho: legislación y jurisprudencia en América Latina. "This is the first regional project to study legislation concerning the rights of women, as well as its application and interpretation," said Julieta Lemaitre, professor at UNIANDES and coordinator of the project.
The study focuses on five countries in the region: Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Peru. It reveals the enormous progress that has taken place in the last few years in the area of women's rights on the national and international levels. These rights have been codified in international conference documents and in legal and constitutional reforms of the individual countries. However, the findings show that between the legal norms and the application of these norms, there is a tremendous gap. The judicial tendency to make decisions and interpret the law through moral and religious filters maintains the discrimination against, and inequality of, women.
"Reproductive autonomy continues to be systematically violated," said Luisa Cabal, coordinator of the Latin American program at the Center. "Women's bodies are still the war zone in which societal discrimination and the subordination of women are explicitly manifested."
Advances and flaws in the judicial system pertaining to reproductive rights
The autonomy of women and adolescents. In general, regional courts protect women who decide to have children, although often they assume a paternalistic role and regard women solely as mothers rather than as subjects of human rights. When a woman facing pregnancy decides not to have children, the situation is grave, particularly due to the criminalization of abortion and the uncertainty of emergency contraception as an approved and available method of contraception. The courts continue to view abortion as a constitutional violation including in cases of rape, incest and fetal abnormality. In all of the countries studied, except Colombia, the courts have consistently violated the rights of pregnant adolescents by expelling them from school. Female workers are subjected to pregnancy tests to retain or obtain employment.
Contraception. In September 2001, the Chilean Supreme Court declared emergency contraception unconstitutional for being an abortifacient, contradicting well established medical findings that it is instead a legitimate form of contraception. In addition, Peru has documented cases of forced sterilization in the state campaign to end poverty, while in Argentina, sterilization is prohibited.
Divorce and the sphere of the family. All over the region, the courts continue to promote gender stereotypes in spite of legislative reforms such as the elimination of penal codes for the exoneration of rapists who marry their victims, and the creation of laws that make domestic violence prosecutable. Researchers note that divorce is treated differently in each country. While in Chile annulments provide a way to get around the illegality of divorce, in Peru, although divorce is legal, the courts do not generally grant it. For example, a Peruvian woman was found to have no grounds for divorce even though her husband had abandoned the home over 10 years earlier, and there had been no news of him in the intervening years.
The study affirms that the judicial branch is one of the pillars of democracy and guarantees the efficacy of the principles that sustain the Latin American political system. In this sense, it establishes that only when the courts protect and guarantee, with vigilance and independence, national and international human rights, including reproductive rights, can we really speak of a viable and sustainable democracy.
Regional Coordinator- Colombia
Julieta Lemaitre
Facultad de Derecho
Universidad de los Andes
Carrera 1ª E No. 18a-70
Bogotá, Colombia
Tel: (571) 2830359
Fax: (571) 3394949 ext. 2365
Email: jlemaitr@uniandes.edu.co
Argentina
Dra. María José Lubertino/ Sandra Fodor
Instituto Social y Político de la Mujer (ISPM)
Universidad de Buenos Aires
Av. Callao 741 1° piso, Departamento 1
1023 Buenos Aires, Argentina
Tel: (541) 1-4812-1395
Fax: (541) 1-4813-2654
Sandra Fodor: (541) 1-4812-1395,
Celular (541) 1-4372-3477
Email: ispm@netizen.com.ar
safo@sion.com.ar
Chile
Lidia Casas Becerra
Facultad de Derecho
Universidad Diego Portales
República 105
Santiago, Chile
Tel.: (562) 277 4512 (h)
Fax: (562) 676-2625
Email: lidia.casas@jur.udp.cl
México
Isabel Vericat
Epikeia
Tehuantepec # 155, Colonia Roma
Delegación Cuauhtémoc
06760 México, DF
México
Tel/Fax: (525) 564-2607
Email: bet13@prodigy.net.mx;
epikeia@prodigyweb.net.mx
Perú
Giulia Tamayo
Ocaña 116, 10 D, en Aluche por el Metro
Eugenia de Montijo
Madrid, España
Tel: (34 91) 7191870
Email: gtamayo@a-i.es
U.S.A.
Luisa Cabal
Mónica Roa
Center for Reproductive Law and Policy(CRLP)
120 Wall Street
New York, NY 10012
U.S.A.
