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🇵🇾 Paraguay /Crime & Justice

OAS experts visit Peru region reporting hundreds of cases of sexual violence against Indigenous girls

From ABC Color · () Spanish

Translated from Spanish and summarized by DistantNews. Read the original for the full story.

At a glance

Newswire Named sources Ongoing story
  • A delegation from the OAS monitoring mechanism for the Belém do Pará Convention began visiting Condorcanqui, where Indigenous girls have faced reported sexual violence for more than a decade.
  • Peru’s Women and Vulnerable Populations Ministry says specialized services have handled 556 violence cases in the province this year, with minors accounting for 62.6% of victims.
  • Officials cited barriers involving distance, language, culture and inequality, while the delegation said it would examine obstacles to preventing and prosecuting violence.

An OAS delegation has begun visiting Peru’s Amazonian Condorcanqui province after years of reported sexual violence against Indigenous girls linked to relatives and teachers in rural communities.

The delegation from the Committee of Experts of the Follow-up Mechanism to the Belém do Pará Convention first met national authorities in Lima. It then traveled to Santa María de Nieva, from where it planned to visit Indigenous communities in the districts of Cenepa and Río Santiago, near the Ecuadorian border.

Adolescent pregnancy in Condorcanqui reached 14.5% in 2024 among adolescents aged 15 to 19, compared with 9.2% nationally.

· Elvia BarriosThe Supreme Court judge cited the pregnancy rate while describing the scale of the crisis in the Amazonian province.

The situation involving girls from the Awajún and Wampis peoples recently sparked national outrage after Education Minister Morgan Quero appeared to justify it as “cultural practices.” Peru’s Ministry of Women and Vulnerable Populations said its specialized services had handled 556 cases of violence in Condorcanqui since the start of the year. Minors represented 62.6% of the victims.

Supreme Court judge Elvia Barrios said adolescent pregnancy in Condorcanqui reached 14.5% among girls aged 15 to 19 in 2024, compared with 9.2% nationally. She also cited complaints against teachers and administrative staff, saying some cases were coming to light while others had not received an urgent response.

Justice is not guaranteed by creating courts, approving laws or issuing rulings. Justice is guaranteed when it effectively reaches people, and in Amazonian territories that means understanding the distances, languages, culture and multiple inequalities faced by an Indigenous girl.

· Elvia BarriosBarrios argued that formal legal measures must translate into accessible justice for victims.

Barrios said the specialized justice system had issued 630 protection measures and 62 convictions in Condorcanqui. She called that progress, but said more remained to be done. Justice, she said, must reach victims in practice, taking account of the distances, languages, culture and inequalities faced by Indigenous girls.

Mónica Maurera, vice president of the OAS expert committee, said the mission would analyze the barriers to preventing, investigating, punishing and eliminating violence against women and girls. Barrios also called for a system that centers victims, prevents their revictimization and acts firmly when justice officials are involved in violence.

Our mission is to analyze, study and diagnose what these barriers to preventing, investigating, punishing and eradicating violence against women and girls consist of.

· Mónica MaureraThe OAS expert described the purpose of the delegation’s visit.
About this summary

Originally published by ABC Color in Spanish. Translated, summarized, and contextualized automatically by DistantNews, with a note on how the source frames the story. Not individually reviewed before publishing. How this works.

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