LIME.- Several United Nations agencies on Tuesday asked the Peruvian State to reconsider the decision to deny a therapeutic abortion to a pregnant 11-year-old girl fruit of a rape, in the Amazonian department of Loreto, and expressed in a statement their “concern” for what they considered a new case of violation of the rights of a minor.
The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), the Joint United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), UN Women, the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and the Fund of the United Nations for Children (Unicef) expressed their “deep concern” about the case of this minor, identified by the pseudonym Mila, who since she was seven years old was sexually assaulted by her stepfather and who to date is 17 weeks old. gestation.
In said statement they urged the Peruvian authorities to reconsider the decision to deny her access to therapeutic abortion and guarantee Mila, and all pregnant girls and adolescents victims of sexual violence, that right, “with safe and age-appropriate procedures, and within 22 weeks of gestation established by the protocol for this medical procedure.”
The Special Protection Unit of the Loreto region of the Ministry of Women and Vulnerable Populations (MIMP) requested the Regional Hospital of that jurisdiction the minor’s access to the therapeutic abortion procedure, but the request has been denied by a medical board.
The United Nations organizations expressed to the authorities and to public opinion that “forced maternity resulting from rape of girls and adolescents is not voluntary, it is not safe, and it threatens integral health.”
And they recalled that in a similar case of denial of access to therapeutic abortion in pregnancy due to sexual abuse, known as the “Camila” case, the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child (CDN) determined, last June, that Peru had violated the rights to health and life of a 13-year-old indigenous and rural girl, a rape victim, by not providing her with information or access to legal and safe abortion.
The Committee pointed out that “in the case of pregnant girls, the special and differentiated impact on physical and mental health caused by childhood pregnancy must be assessed.”
Likewise, it emphasized that pregnancy entails a particularly important risk for the lives of girls and a potentially serious impact on their development and life project.
Only between January and February of this year, 8,381 cases of violence against children and adolescents were reported. Of that number, 33% were of sexual violence and 70% of the victims were girls and adolescent women, according to figures from the Ministry of Women.
The Human Rights Committee and the Committee against Torture have urged, since 2005, the Peruvian State to adopt measures to ensure access to effective recourse in these cases and prevent situations of violation of the rights of girls and adolescents, such as Camila and Mila are repeated for constituting gender-based violence and constituting an act of torture, or cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment.
