Gender and sexuality have become a focal point of the political divide in Latin America. In many ... more Gender and sexuality have become a focal point of the political divide in Latin America. In many countries, religious actors, political leaders, pro-life and pro-family nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), among others, have come together to promote a neoconservative shift in contemporary regional politics. Despite the constant public presence of religious actors and their long-standing influence on public policies in the region, recent challenges to sexual and reproductive rights have come from a field in transformation. The anti-abortion mobilization shows important signs of adaptation and mutation on different fronts – networks, alliances, strategies, and frameworks. Finally, this process of renovation has led to the expansion of this dispute towards a broader anti-gender alliance, and the increasing importance of legal strategies and tools by anti-abortion actors is remarkable. The transformations in the anti-abortion field were globally put into action after the conservatives’...
This article analyzes the puzzling case of Peru, a country highlighted as an example of the inter... more This article analyzes the puzzling case of Peru, a country highlighted as an example of the internationalization of sexual and reproductive health and rights norms through supranational litigation, but where these legal victories have not prompted an expansion of abortion rights. Through the analysis of three judicial cases, with a focus on the legal arguments and strategies, the article argues that two features of the abortion legal mobilization in Peru are key to understand the lack of more positive developments: 1) formalistic feature of Peruvian Courts, that offers little space toward recognizing additional grounds for abortion, as has been the case in other Latin American countries; 2) innovative capacity of anti-abortion legal mobilization, that have forced to create a tacit alliance between the movement toward the recognition of abortion rights and the State, to defend the (restricted) abortion rights in the country.
Peru received international acclaim for being one of the first countries to implement a comprehen... more Peru received international acclaim for being one of the first countries to implement a comprehensive package of measures to control the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic. The government imposed a general lockdown, combined with social protection measures--mainly cash transfers and the distribution of food parcels. This was an attempt to mitigate the impact of the lockdown, in a country where 70% of the population works in the informal sector. Yet despite this, the transmission rate remained high, and as of early June Peru's COVID-19 mortality rates were amongst the highest worldwide. The pandemic has shed a stark light on Peru's failure to guarantee the right to health and the limits of the tools used to assess the health system's performance. Over the past two decades Peru has been praised for introducing a series of reforms aimed at achieving Universal Health Coverage (UHC), primarily through the expansion of health insurance across low-income groups. Nevertheless, refo...
The effects of lawfare on abortion deserve special attention on account of the potential implicat... more The effects of lawfare on abortion deserve special attention on account of the potential implications for gender relations, the dignity, health, autonomy and wellbeing of vulnerable groups, and for social policy. In the majority of Latin America, access to legal abortion is highly restricted. This project analysed the strategic use of rights and law in battles over abortion rights in Latin America, and the various effects of this lawfare between opposing groups. Lawfare, is in this project defined as the phenomenon of civil society actors adopting diverse legal and illegal, formal and informal strategies to engage legal institutions in order to further or halt policy reform and social change. Lawfare in various forms has become a central feature of political life in most Latin America countries, but the growing scholarship on the interaction between judicial institutions and human rights in the region has mainly focused on socially progressive, rights-expanding forms of lawfare. Tak...
This paper analyses how participation was understood and put in place by the bodies in charge of ... more This paper analyses how participation was understood and put in place by the bodies in charge of implementing the Colombian Constitutional Court’s Decision T-760/2008, which ordered extensive reforms of the health system. Following a comprehensive human rights approach, the Court required this process to ensure the participation of the scientific community as well as users of health services. The decision should be seen in the context of Colombian politics, where issues concerning the health system are highly polarised. The aim of this paper is to describe and analyse the process of implementation of T- 760/2008 during the three years following the decision. The use of the comprehensive human rights framework, adopted by the Court itself, as an analytical tool brings to the analysis some elements needed to evaluate the extent to which the process was participatory, and to describe the reasons for this.
In this paper we compare recent efforts towards the constitutionalization of the right to water i... more In this paper we compare recent efforts towards the constitutionalization of the right to water in Brazil, Colombia, and Peru to understand the opportunities and limitations related to the attempts to enhance access to piped water to the highest normative level. Peru passed a constitutional amendment in 2017 while Brazil and Colombia have seen much right-to-water activism but have not succeeded in passing such reforms. We explore the role of the existing domestic legal frameworks on drinkable water provision and water management towards the approval of constitutional amendments. We find that all three countries have specialized laws, water governing institutions, and constitutional jurisprudence connecting access to water with rights, but the legal opportunity structures to enforce socio-economic rights vary; they are stronger in Colombia and Brazil, and weaker in Peru. We argue that legal opportunity structures build legal environments that influence constitutional reform success. ...
Peru is often highlighted as an example of the internationalization of sexual and reproductive he... more Peru is often highlighted as an example of the internationalization of sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) norms, through supra-national litigation. Yet, the impact to petitioners and other similarly situated women in Peruvian society has fallen far short of expectations. This Article argues that the reasons underlying the need to use international SRHR litigation in the first place are indeed the same as those that give rise to poor implementation. Through an analysis of four cases—two that relate to indigenous women’s rights to be protected from abuses of SRHR and two that relate to women’s rights to access abortion under circumstances when it is legal—this Article traces the drivers, origins, and effects of these cases, on both litigants and broader population groups and institutions. In particular, we analyze the impact and limitations of these cases on SRHR norms in Peru. DOI: https://doi.org/10.15779/Z38Z31NP3Z † Researcher, Chr. Michelsen Institute; Global Fellow...
Los que trabajamos en salud indígena sabemos que es muy común que los pobladores indígenas o camp... more Los que trabajamos en salud indígena sabemos que es muy común que los pobladores indígenas o campesinos sean representados como culpables de sus problemas de salud, desconociendo que los pobres indicadores de salud en los lugares con mayor porcentaje de población indígena son, en gran medida, consecuencia de un Estado negligente incapaz de garantizar acceso y disponibilidad de servicios de salud de calidad a las comunidades indígenas del país. En el marco de la pandemia del COVID-19 que viene afectando intensamente a la población indígena amazónica del Perú, los pueblos indígenas están mostrando que sus prácticas culturales, ignoradas y discriminadas por el sector salud pueden contribuir en el cuidado de aquellos afectados por el COVID-19. A partir del análisis de la iniciativa del Comando Matico en la Amazonía peruana mostramos la capacidad de los pueblos indígenas para implementar iniciativas interculturales autónomas al Estado central. Este artículo muestra que en el Perú no nos ...
Gender and sexuality have become a focal point of the political divide in Latin America. In many ... more Gender and sexuality have become a focal point of the political divide in Latin America. In many countries, religious actors, political leaders, pro-life and pro-family nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), among others, have come together to promote a neoconservative shift in contemporary regional politics. Despite the constant public presence of religious actors and their long-standing influence on public policies in the region, recent challenges to sexual and reproductive rights have come from a field in transformation. The anti-abortion mobilization shows important signs of adaptation and mutation on different fronts – networks, alliances, strategies, and frameworks. Finally, this process of renovation has led to the expansion of this dispute towards a broader anti-gender alliance, and the increasing importance of legal strategies and tools by anti-abortion actors is remarkable. The transformations in the anti-abortion field were globally put into action after the conservatives’...
This article analyzes the puzzling case of Peru, a country highlighted as an example of the inter... more This article analyzes the puzzling case of Peru, a country highlighted as an example of the internationalization of sexual and reproductive health and rights norms through supranational litigation, but where these legal victories have not prompted an expansion of abortion rights. Through the analysis of three judicial cases, with a focus on the legal arguments and strategies, the article argues that two features of the abortion legal mobilization in Peru are key to understand the lack of more positive developments: 1) formalistic feature of Peruvian Courts, that offers little space toward recognizing additional grounds for abortion, as has been the case in other Latin American countries; 2) innovative capacity of anti-abortion legal mobilization, that have forced to create a tacit alliance between the movement toward the recognition of abortion rights and the State, to defend the (restricted) abortion rights in the country.
Peru received international acclaim for being one of the first countries to implement a comprehen... more Peru received international acclaim for being one of the first countries to implement a comprehensive package of measures to control the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic. The government imposed a general lockdown, combined with social protection measures--mainly cash transfers and the distribution of food parcels. This was an attempt to mitigate the impact of the lockdown, in a country where 70% of the population works in the informal sector. Yet despite this, the transmission rate remained high, and as of early June Peru's COVID-19 mortality rates were amongst the highest worldwide. The pandemic has shed a stark light on Peru's failure to guarantee the right to health and the limits of the tools used to assess the health system's performance. Over the past two decades Peru has been praised for introducing a series of reforms aimed at achieving Universal Health Coverage (UHC), primarily through the expansion of health insurance across low-income groups. Nevertheless, refo...
The effects of lawfare on abortion deserve special attention on account of the potential implicat... more The effects of lawfare on abortion deserve special attention on account of the potential implications for gender relations, the dignity, health, autonomy and wellbeing of vulnerable groups, and for social policy. In the majority of Latin America, access to legal abortion is highly restricted. This project analysed the strategic use of rights and law in battles over abortion rights in Latin America, and the various effects of this lawfare between opposing groups. Lawfare, is in this project defined as the phenomenon of civil society actors adopting diverse legal and illegal, formal and informal strategies to engage legal institutions in order to further or halt policy reform and social change. Lawfare in various forms has become a central feature of political life in most Latin America countries, but the growing scholarship on the interaction between judicial institutions and human rights in the region has mainly focused on socially progressive, rights-expanding forms of lawfare. Tak...
This paper analyses how participation was understood and put in place by the bodies in charge of ... more This paper analyses how participation was understood and put in place by the bodies in charge of implementing the Colombian Constitutional Court’s Decision T-760/2008, which ordered extensive reforms of the health system. Following a comprehensive human rights approach, the Court required this process to ensure the participation of the scientific community as well as users of health services. The decision should be seen in the context of Colombian politics, where issues concerning the health system are highly polarised. The aim of this paper is to describe and analyse the process of implementation of T- 760/2008 during the three years following the decision. The use of the comprehensive human rights framework, adopted by the Court itself, as an analytical tool brings to the analysis some elements needed to evaluate the extent to which the process was participatory, and to describe the reasons for this.
In this paper we compare recent efforts towards the constitutionalization of the right to water i... more In this paper we compare recent efforts towards the constitutionalization of the right to water in Brazil, Colombia, and Peru to understand the opportunities and limitations related to the attempts to enhance access to piped water to the highest normative level. Peru passed a constitutional amendment in 2017 while Brazil and Colombia have seen much right-to-water activism but have not succeeded in passing such reforms. We explore the role of the existing domestic legal frameworks on drinkable water provision and water management towards the approval of constitutional amendments. We find that all three countries have specialized laws, water governing institutions, and constitutional jurisprudence connecting access to water with rights, but the legal opportunity structures to enforce socio-economic rights vary; they are stronger in Colombia and Brazil, and weaker in Peru. We argue that legal opportunity structures build legal environments that influence constitutional reform success. ...
Peru is often highlighted as an example of the internationalization of sexual and reproductive he... more Peru is often highlighted as an example of the internationalization of sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) norms, through supra-national litigation. Yet, the impact to petitioners and other similarly situated women in Peruvian society has fallen far short of expectations. This Article argues that the reasons underlying the need to use international SRHR litigation in the first place are indeed the same as those that give rise to poor implementation. Through an analysis of four cases—two that relate to indigenous women’s rights to be protected from abuses of SRHR and two that relate to women’s rights to access abortion under circumstances when it is legal—this Article traces the drivers, origins, and effects of these cases, on both litigants and broader population groups and institutions. In particular, we analyze the impact and limitations of these cases on SRHR norms in Peru. DOI: https://doi.org/10.15779/Z38Z31NP3Z † Researcher, Chr. Michelsen Institute; Global Fellow...
Los que trabajamos en salud indígena sabemos que es muy común que los pobladores indígenas o camp... more Los que trabajamos en salud indígena sabemos que es muy común que los pobladores indígenas o campesinos sean representados como culpables de sus problemas de salud, desconociendo que los pobres indicadores de salud en los lugares con mayor porcentaje de población indígena son, en gran medida, consecuencia de un Estado negligente incapaz de garantizar acceso y disponibilidad de servicios de salud de calidad a las comunidades indígenas del país. En el marco de la pandemia del COVID-19 que viene afectando intensamente a la población indígena amazónica del Perú, los pueblos indígenas están mostrando que sus prácticas culturales, ignoradas y discriminadas por el sector salud pueden contribuir en el cuidado de aquellos afectados por el COVID-19. A partir del análisis de la iniciativa del Comando Matico en la Amazonía peruana mostramos la capacidad de los pueblos indígenas para implementar iniciativas interculturales autónomas al Estado central. Este artículo muestra que en el Perú no nos ...
This brief highlights some of the main strategies deployed to restrict
the right to safe and lega... more This brief highlights some of the main strategies deployed to restrict the right to safe and legal abortion in Latin America. Challenging beliefs that movements towards restriction of abortion rights are local in character, it argues that – similar to the movement for the decriminalization of abortion – country movements against women’s abortion rights are part of regional alliances, and there is a high level of exchange amongst organizations from different countries.
In 2010, a UN Resolution explicitly recognized the human right to water and sanitation (HRtWS). B... more In 2010, a UN Resolution explicitly recognized the human right to water and sanitation (HRtWS). But has this international recognition improved the ability of poor and marginalized people to secure access to water? Of the countries discussed in this brief, Brazil, Costa Rica, India, Peru and South Africa voted in favor of the resolution, while Ethiopia and Zambia did not. All have experienced significant attempts to enforce the human right to water through litigation, legal reforms, use of UN mechanisms (such as shadow reports), and/or political mobilization, and increased attention have been given to vulnerable and previously neglected areas and groups. This brief explores whether the resolution has been followed by changes in the national framework concerning the human right to water, and in the way countries are reporting on this right to the UN's Universal Periodic Review (UPR).
Millennium Development Goal number 5 (MDG 5) aims to reduce maternal mortality. In this brief we ... more Millennium Development Goal number 5 (MDG 5) aims to reduce maternal mortality. In this brief we argue that, in the current global context more rigorous research focusing on the legal battles around women’s sexual and reproductive rights – over who gets to control women’s bodies – is of critical importance if this goal is to be reached.. When Pope Francisco I was elected last week, his position on sexual and reproductive rights and his stand on abortion was one of the main topics in the media and on social networks all over the world. The debates surrounding the election of the new pope signal the close links between religion, conceptions of morality, public policies and sexual and reproductive rights. For many people in countries where the majority are Roman Catholic, these are key issues. Whether these countries are secular or non-secular states, the Catholic Church is seen as an authority with regard to sexual and reproductive rights (SSR), and on public policies and laws that regulate and define these rights.
Civil-military relations constitute a crucial element in the transition to substantive democracy ... more Civil-military relations constitute a crucial element in the transition to substantive democracy all over the world. During periods of authoritarianism or civil war, the military in Latin America has been responsible for extensive violations of human rights and humanitarian law. Since the reintroduction of democracy in the region in the 1980s and 1990s, the military has gradually been brought back under civilian rule. The balance of power between military and civil political actors has shifted. How and in which ways have civilian governments curtailed military power? What is the relationship between the military and civilian governments today? And what new roles have been assigned to or taken on by the military in areas such as maintaining national security? Based on a review of the literature on civil-military relations in Latin America, this paper explores three main themes: (1) the military as a political actor; (2) the military as an economic actor; and (3) changing military self-perceptions and roles in a democratic era.
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the right to safe and legal abortion in Latin America. Challenging
beliefs that movements towards restriction of abortion rights are
local in character, it argues that – similar to the movement for the
decriminalization of abortion – country movements against women’s
abortion rights are part of regional alliances, and there is a high level
of exchange amongst organizations from different countries.
When Pope Francisco I was elected last week, his position on sexual and reproductive rights and his stand on abortion was one of the main topics in the media and on social networks all over the world. The debates surrounding the election of the new pope signal the close links between religion, conceptions of morality, public policies and sexual and reproductive rights. For many people in countries where the majority are Roman Catholic, these are key issues. Whether these countries are secular or non-secular states, the Catholic Church is seen as an authority with regard to sexual and reproductive rights (SSR), and on public policies and laws that regulate and define these rights.
Based on a review of the literature on civil-military relations in Latin America, this paper explores three main themes: (1) the military as a political actor; (2) the military as an economic actor; and (3) changing military self-perceptions and roles in a democratic era.