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Content Warning: This email contains details regarding one of our cases that involves sexual assault, abuse, and harrassment, as well as suicide.
Dear team,
At the Center for Reproductive Rights, we are fighting day in and day out on behalf of women and girls around the world who are suffering under draconian laws and policies that put their health and lives at risk—and today is no exception.
This morning, our litigation team, alongside our partners at the Center for the Promotion and Action of Women in Ecuador, are standing before the Inter-American Court of Human Rights seeking justice for Paola Guzmán, an Ecuadorian girl who committed suicide at 16-years-old after becoming pregnant as a result of sexual abuse and harassment by her school's vice-principal.
With the help of supporters like you, we are fighting on behalf of women and girls who face this kind of abuse in countries all over the world. Will you stand with us in demanding justice for Paola today?
Paola was enrolled at the public school in her hometown of Guayaquil, Ecuador, when she began having academic problems and faced the possibility of being held back a year. The vice-principal of the school, who was 50 years older than Paola at the time, offered to help her with her school work on the condition that she would have sex with him. After harassing and pressuring her for months, the vice-principal raped Paola repeatedly.
This abuse continued for several months before Paola discovered she was pregnant. When he learned of her pregnancy, the vice-principal asked Paola to get an abortion, and sent her to the school doctor to perform the procedure. The school doctor agreed under one condition: that Paola also have sex with him.
These events led Paola to take her own life a few days after her 16th birthday by ingesting white phosphorous, a toxic substance that can be lethal. The school authorities were alerted shortly after she arrived at school, but the school officials did not take the necessary measures to address Paola's serious condition or arrange that she be transferred to a hospital even though she was under their custody and care. Paola died in the early morning hours the next day.
The state of Ecuador failed to protect Paola from multiple predatory public officials and failed in its duty to guarantee Paola the right to life, personal integrity, education, and a life free from violence and discrimination.
We are asking the Inter-American Court of Human Rights to award direct reparations to Paola's mother, Doña Petita (pictured above). Further, we are demanding standards for States to recognize the epidemic of sexual violence in schools, the power disparities in relations between girls and adults with serious age gaps, and requiring Ecuador to implement structural change that will protect girls from predatory authority figures. In her mother's own words, "we will ask the Court to bring justice to Paola and restore her name and dignity."
As a Center supporter, I hope you'll continue to stand with us against injustices like these whenever and wherever we are needed. Please make a generous gift today to help us keep fighting for justice and dignity for all.
Thank you,
Catalina Martínez Coral
Regional Director, Latin America & the Caribbean
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