Amicus Curiae in the Monitoring of the State of Ecuador’s Compliance in Paola Guzmán Albarracín y otras vs. Ecuador

Judge Nancy Hernández López
President
Inter-American Court of Human Rights
San José, Costa Rica
New York, August 21, 2024

Subject: Human Rights Watch Amicus Curiae in the Monitoring of the State of Ecuador’s Compliance in Paola Guzmán Albarracín y otras vs. Ecuador

I. Purpose and Summary

In virtue of Human Rights Watch’s previous request to be accepted as Friends of the Court in the case of Paola Guzmán Albarracín y otras vs. Ecuador,[1] Human Rights Watch respectfully requests that this Honorable Court accept us again as Friends of the Court to present this submission.

With this submission, Human Rights Watch wishes to highlight key findings from our research in Ecuador and offer a brief legal analysis that could assist the Court in its determination of the Court’s process to review the state of Ecuador’s compliance with measures ordered by this Court (paras. 245 – 246). With this submission, Human Rights Watch recommends that the Court maintain the process of review of Ecuador’s compliance with the Court’s guarantees of non-repetition, acknowledging both the scale and duration of measures needed for the state of Ecuador to effectively tackle and ultimately end school-related sexual and gender-based violence, as well as the need for States to adopt structural and systemic measures to redress violations of the right to education and other interrelated rights.

II. Our Interest in the Inter-American Court of Human Rights’ Process to Review the State of Ecuador’s Compliance

Human Rights Watch has conducted research on the right to education in over 40 countries. We have also documented the consequences of school-related sexual and physical violence, and its impacts on girls’ education, in various countries in Latin America and Africa. In addition, we have investigated and reported on the denial of adolescents’ sexual and reproductive health rights, including a lack of access to comprehensive sexuality education and adolescent-friendly sexual and reproductive health services, including in Ecuador.

III. Human Rights Watch Analysis of International Law and Relevant Frameworks

The process to review the state of Ecuador’s compliance with this Honorable Court’s decisions raises important questions for the Court regarding the scope and length of its supervision of measures adopted by states’ to comply with its decisions, as well as the threshold for states to meet in order to satisfy the Court’s orders for guarantees of non-repetition, specifically in cases involving the infringement of the rights of girls and women to education under article 13 of the Protocol of San Salvador, the right to measures of protection under article 19 of the American Convention of Human Rights, and provisions in the Convention of Belém do Pará related to freedom from discrimination, sexual and reproductive health rights, and states’ obligations to prevent and address sexual violence under articles 3, 7, 8 and 9.

The violations of rights involved in this case require a comprehensive, long-term, structural and systemic response by the state of Ecuador. The state’s response should include adequate and effective prevention measures that seek to tackle and end school-related sexual violence, adequate and effective judicial remedies for victims and survivors, and adequate budgetary resources to implement such comprehensive range of measures.

The Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) has outlined measures that states should adopt at the legislative, executive and judicial levels to fully comply with their obligations to prevent and protect women and girls from gender-based violence, prevent its reoccurrence and provide or ensure funding for reparations. Such measures include the design of focused public policies, the development and implementation of monitoring mechanisms and the establishment and/or funding of competent national tribunals.[2] The Committee emphasizes that such measures should be underpinned by a duty to allocate adequate budgetary resources. The Committee has also outlined state parties’ obligations to eliminate institutional practices and individual conduct of public officials that constitute gender-based violence, tolerance of such practices, as well as negligent responses. The Committee notes that states should adequately investigate and adopt sanctions for “inefficiency, complicity and negligence by public authorities responsible for the registration, prevention or investigation … or for providing services to victims/survivors.”[3]

Regarding the long-term approach required to respond to violations perpetrated against women and girls and provide effective remedies for survivors, the United Nations Basic Principles and Guidelines on the Right to a Remedy and Reparation for Victims of Gross Violations of International Human Rights Law and Serious Violations of International Humanitarian Law, adopted by the UN General Assembly in 2005, outline that remedies for gross violations of international human rights law and serious violations of international humanitarian law include the victim’s right to equal and effective access to justice; adequate, effective and prompt reparation for harm suffered; and access to relevant information concerning violations and reparation mechanisms.[4] The Nairobi Declaration on Women’s and Girls’ Right to a Remedy and Reparation, developed by women’s rights advocates and activists as well as survivors of sexual violence in situations of conflict, from Africa, Asia, Europe, Central, North and South America, applies the basic principles of the right to remedy, including access to justice and key aspects for access to reparation, to the specific situation of women and girls. Among its principles, the Declaration emphasizes the “multi-dimensional and long-term consequences” of sexual violence and other gender-based crimes, and underscores that “Reparation must go above and beyond the immediate reasons and consequences of the crimes and violations; they must aim to address the political and structural inequalities that negatively shape women’s and girls’ lives.”[5]

Regarding the long-term perspective to tackle structural discrimination, the Inter-American Court observed in the “Cotton Field” case that reparations in the context of structural discrimination against women and girls “must be designed to change the situation, so that their effect is not only of restitution, but also of rectification.”[6]

Human Rights Watch submits that the case in question is the Inter-American Court’s first case on school-related sexual violence, and one of its most comprehensive cases outlining the impact of a state’s actions and omissions on girls’ enjoyment of their rights. To recognize the landmark nature of its decision, the Court should be sensitive to the fact that its deliberations on the state of Ecuador’s compliance with guarantees of non-repetition would set an important precedent for other states and, indeed, provide a framework for the contemporary interpretation of states’ obligations to effectively guarantee children’s right to education and other inter-related rights, including the right to learn in a safe and inclusive environment, and measures to guarantee adequate and effective justice and reparations for child survivors of sexual violence.

IV. Human Rights Watch Findings Relevant to the Court’s Deliberations on Compliance with Measures and Guarantees of Non-Repetition

In 2019, Human Rights Watch conducted research in Ecuador and found that school-related sexual violence (SRSV) is a long-standing, endemic problem in Ecuador’s education system, with high levels of sexual violence from pre-school to secondary school.[7] Human Rights Watch ascertained that, for decades, the state of Ecuador has failed to protect hundreds of children and adolescents from SRSV, impacting their right to education, their right to be protected from violence, the integrity of their sexual and reproductive rights, and their right to effective justice. Cases documented by Human Rights Watch, and analysis of data provided by the Ministry of Education and the Attorney General’s office, shows that teachers, school staff, janitors, school bus drivers, and students perpetrated abuses.

Human Rights Watch conducted further research from December 2022 to June 2024 to evaluate steps taken by the Ecuadorian government to tackle and prevent school-related sexual violence, including digital and technology-enabled sexual violence. Human Rights Watch found that despite commitments by government institutions, led by the Ministry of Education, sexual violence remains endemic in Ecuador’s schools. This report shows that Ecuador has put in place numerous measures to comply with this Court’s ruling. However, these measures have not progressed at the scale and pace needed to ensure that all children are safe from sexual violence in school settings.

Human Rights Watch presents findings below to provide the Court with relevant information regarding the State’s compliance with measures and guarantees of non-repetition ordered by this Court. Human Rights Watch submits a report with the entirety of its findings in an Annex to this submission.

A. Providing continuously updated statistical information on school-related sexual violence against children

From January 2014 until June 2024, the Ministry of Education received reports of 6,438 cases of SRSV, perpetrated by teachers, school authorities, other school staff, janitors, or students, and affecting 7,303 children.[8] In the last four years alone, between January 2020 and June 2024, ministry data analyzed by Human Rights Watch shows 2,827 cases within the educational system.[9]

Human Rights Watch’s analysis shows that these numbers understate the true total. The Ministry of Education classifies externally contracted staff, such as school bus drivers, as perpetrators outside the educational system even though they are part of the educational environment and are essential for children to reach school.[10] Supplemental data from the ministry shows that between January 2014 and June 2024, bus drivers were alleged perpetrators in 78 cases, raising the number of reported school-related sexual violence cases to 6,516.

Further, Human Rights Watch found that there is often a mismatch between statistics of sexual violence registered by the Ministry of Education and those registered by the Attorney General’s Office. The ministry downloads statistics from its Registry of Violence (Registro de Violencia del Ministerio de Educación, or REDEVI) database, which tracks complaints the Ministry receives, and collects periodic statistics on cases of sexual violence reported since 2014. Since 2018, the Ministry sends the Attorney General’s Office all cases not reported to prosecutors’ offices on a monthly basis.[11] According to the ministry, 98.9 percent of cases have an official complaint lodged in the Attorney General’s Office.[12] In a letter to Human Rights Watch, the Ministry of Education acknowledged that there are cases that are not reported either because the prosecutor’s office does not accept them, or members of the educational community face threats or extortion.[13] The Ministry has sent the Attorney General’s Office several official requests to verify or initiate complaints and their respective investigations.[14]

Most cases of sexual violence go unreported. The government estimated that less than 10 percent of survivors report to authorities.[15] Reporting continues to be undermined by entrenched discriminatory attitudes among education staff and practices that retraumatize survivors, such as not believing survivors, minimizing abuse, and having survivors retell their stories countless times.

Challenges with Inter-Ministerial Data Collection

Ecuador’s Public Policy to Eradicate Sexual Violence in Schools (which, at time of writing, was approved by Ecuador’s Planning Secretariat in April 2024, but has yet to be launched) outlines the government’s objectives to strengthen data collection, and to provide updated and ongoing information and statistics on school-based sexual violence and on policies, plans, and actions to address it.[16] Since 2018, the government has undertaken important efforts to improve data collection and reporting. Notably, the Ministry of Education created a comprehensive database and tool, referred to as the Registry of Violence, or REDEVI database.[17]

Ecuador’s Comprehensive National System to Prevent and Eradicate Violence against Women is composed of several local and national institutions with the responsibility to plan and coordinate government actions on violence against women and girls.[18] These institutions have the responsibility to contribute to the Unified Violence Registry (Registro Único de Violencia, RUV), which tracks all reported cases of sexual violence, including those that take place outside the education system.[19] In November 2022, the first phase of the RUV was launched.[20] All institutions are required to share the information they collect on survivors of violence through complaints, cases, or services provided. Officials have stressed the importance of the RUV as a way to avoid revictimization, so survivors of violence do not have to file a complaint every time they seek services at various government institutions.[21]

However, Human Rights Watch found that the roll-out of the RUV has been hampered by limited institutional advancements in data collection and development, as well as poor coordination among institutions. These shortcomings have posed challenges for the institutional response to sexual violence—such as follow-up on compliance of protection measures.[22]

Since institutions collect different categories of data and have their own separate databases, it can be difficult to compare data sets,[23] resulting in an incomplete picture of the prevalence of sexual violence in schools. For instance, while the Ministry of Education collects information on the relationship between the victim and aggressor to establish whether the violence occurred in school settings, the Judiciary Council collects information on the profession of the aggressor.[24] An official of the Judiciary Council, which administers the three branches that make up the justice sector—judges, prosecutors, and public defenders—told Human Rights Watch that some institutions participating in the RUV had not developed parameters for contributing to the database, and that some appear to have inadequate resources for collecting data and monitoring cases.[25] Even for institutions that have developed parameters, such as the Judiciary Council, no staff member had been assigned to receive statistical information from the Council.

The RUV will include a variable on sexual violence committed in schools by mid-2025, and statistics on gender-based violence are expected to be available by the end of 2025, according to an April 2024 version of the Public Policy to Eradicate Sexual Violence in Schools.[26] The first publication of RUV statistics in November 2023, with data provided by seven government institutions, included breakdowns by race/ethnicity, disability type, and type of violence.[27]

Despite progress in collecting and publishing statistics on sexual violence in the REDEVI and RUV databases, important limitations include the following:

• The first RUV report, with data provided by seven government institutions, did not include or publish data on digital violence.
• The Ministry of Education, the Attorney General’s Office, and the Judiciary Council do not collect data on the type of platform or messaging service where digital sexual violence occurred, according to information provided to Human Rights Watch.
• The Ministry of Education does not publish data on disability status, despite collecting this information.
• The Ministry of Education does not classify school transportation drivers as actors within the educational system, meaning that the number of school-related sexual violence cases is underestimated.
• The Ministry of Education does not collect information on race/ethnicity. However, the ministry states that even though it does not collect data on race or ethnicity, it provides comprehensive services to all survivors, and works with other government institutions to promote rights and prevent sexual violence taking these factors into account.[28]

In a written response to its letter, the Ministry of Education told Human Rights Watch it is working with the National Institute of Statistics and Censuses (Instituto Nacional de Estadística y Censos, or INEC) to strengthen its REDEVI system, and with the Ministry of the Interior and the Ministry of Women and Human Rights to improve the RUV database.[29]

B. Detecting and reporting cases of school-related sexual violence

Since this Court’s ruling, Ecuador has taken steps to improve detection, reporting, and prevention of school-based sexual violence. However, media, civil society, and the Attorney General’s Office continue to report on egregious cases, including those in which teachers or school staff sexually abuse several students.[30] National crises, including confinements ordered to contain the Covid-19 pandemic and widespread organized crime and gang-related violence, have also affected the government’s response in areas with high levels of gender-based violence.[31] Online learning posed unique challenges for keeping children safe from sexual violence, including the ability of school staff to detect and respond to possible abuse.[32]

Structural issues, including the ability to initiate protocols for addressing sexual violence, a shortage of student welfare teams, and educational institutions’ willingness to prioritize school prestige over student protection continue to hamper schools’ timely detection and response of cases.

Institutional Challenges with Responding to Abuses

In 2020, the Ministry of Education updated its 2014 protocols for responding to cases of sexual violence detected in schools.[33] It emphasizes the legal obligation that teachers, student welfare teams, and other staff have to report allegations of sexual violence within 24 hours.[34] In September 2023, in response to a 2021 Constitutional Court ruling on nonconsensual sharing of intimate images among adolescents, the ministry published specific protocols for addressing digital violence detected in the educational system.[35]

Shortages in Student Welfare Teams

Student welfare teams–known as “Departamentos de Consejería Estudiantil” (DECE) and composed of school counsellors, psychologists, and social workers at the school and district level—are responsible for responding to and reporting sexual violence.[36] Student welfare staff in public schools are selected by district staff, who are in turn selected by a network of student welfare staff; private schools are responsible for the selection of their staff.[37] Yet there is a critical shortage of teams, which leaves many overworked and overburdened, and limits children’s access to trained personnel.[38] This notable gap in critical staff also hampers the Public Policy to Eradicate Sexual Violence in Schools’ response objectives of ensuring specialized, comprehensive, and timely care for child and adolescent school-based sexual violence survivors in need of medical, psychological, social, and legal services.

The national law on education requires a ratio of at least 1 student welfare team staff person for every 450 students.[39] Yet, the Ministry of Education informed Human Rights Watch that the ratio in 2021 was 1 for every 1,354, and in 2022, 1 for every 1,129 students.[40] The number of psychologists can vary by province and area: the Galápagos islands, for example, had only 2 or 3 student welfare staff to serve a student population of over 7,000 students in 2023.[41] Ecuador pledged to close the gap by 2025, according to the Ministry of Education.[42] By December 2023, throughout Ecuador, there were 3,153 psychologists, well short of the ratio required by law.[43]

School Prestige Over Student Protection

In 2020, based on cases we documented, Human Rights Watch found that some school personnel tend to protect their colleagues, including alleged perpetrators, as well as the image, reputation, and prestige of the school.[44] In its most recent research, Human Rights Watch found that this attitude—often referred to as “espíritu de cuerpo” in Spanish—continues to permeate in some schools’ response to sexual violence.[45] This continues to drive impunity at the school level, which results in the slow detection and reporting by district officials.

C. Training education staff regarding the response to and prevention of sexual violence

Government institutions have delivered trainings and conducted other awareness-raising activities on sexual violence against children.

The Ministry of Education, in particular, has reported taking various steps to ensure all relevant authorities of the education system are aware of the protocols, including disseminating the protocols to schools and training thousands of education staff.[46] Despite increased awareness of their binding nature, many school staff do not always abide by these protocols, including by taking the basic step of reporting cases to the correct authorities.[47]

The government has also focused its efforts on training teachers and others in the educational community on comprehensive sexuality education (CSE)—a powerful, evidence-based intervention in the government’s prevention efforts. Teaching quality CSE requires adequately trained and sensitized teachers. Working on implementation for teachers and student welfare teams requires challenging gender roles and stereotypes, ensuring that sexist attitudes among staff are not reinforced, and understanding sexual and gender diversity.[48]

Due to these challenges, Human Rights Watch found that there is need to provide ongoing trainings, as well as to adapt curricula for children and adolescents from different contexts, groups, and areas.[49]

V. Other Evidence Affecting the State of Ecuador’s Guarantees of Non-Repetition

Setbacks in Administrative Sanctions of Teachers Accused of Sexual Violence

Progress in tackling impunity within the education system through sanctions of teachers has suffered setbacks due to a harmful 2021 Constitutional Court ruling, which has been widely criticized by civil society organizations, and has had ripple effects on other sexual violence cases.[50]

Sanctions against private school institutions are determined through administrative procedures called sanctioning processes, and depending on the infraction can result in fines, separation of staff from the establishment, or revocation of the school’s authorization to operate.[51]

Administrative sanctions against public school officials are determined through inquiries handled within the Ministry of Education. Sanctions depend on the type of infraction committed. Dismissal is only considered for a very serious infraction, such as an act of sexual violence or failure to report cases of violence to authorities.[52] Between 2020 and 2022, a total of 38 public school teachers have been dismissed by the Ministry of Education due to allegations of sexual violence, according to Ministry of Education data requested by Human Rights Watch.[53]

The case in which the Constitutional Court issued its 2021 ruling began in 2019, at a public school in Latacunga, Cotopaxi province, where a gym teacher sexually harassed a 13-year-old student by touching her inappropriately. The school director reported the case to the prosecutor’s office, but the prosecutor determined that there was no evidence to charge him and closed the case. An administrative inquiry was also opened, and the teacher was dismissed from his position. He appealed the sanction, and after it was denied, submitted an extraordinary appeal for review, which was also unsuccessful. The teacher then presented a protection action against the Ministry of Education, alleging his rights had been violated when he was dismissed. The teacher successfully appealed, his dismissal was annulled, and he was reinstated to his post. The Ministry appealed the decision, and the case eventually reached the Constitutional Court.[54]

The Constitutional Court’s ruling confirmed that the student experienced sexual harassment. The Court determined that the proportionality between a violation and its sanction can be determined by the extent of harm, effects on the victim, and the possible consequences on the accused.[55] Since the student was not found to have suffered physically or mentally, and because a dismissal would negatively impact the teacher, the court ruled that the dismissal was “excessive” and “not proportional” to the “light” violation he committed. The appropriate sanction would have been suspension, the Court ruled.[56] In this case, the Court considered that the time the teacher was suspended while the case was being investigated was sufficient.[57] Further, the Court ordered the Ministry of Education to consider restorative justice in conflict resolution practices, in addition to making official complaints.[58] However, restorative justice in cases involving teachers and students fail to consider the power imbalances between students and perpetrators in positions of power, and the possible re-traumatization of survivors, as presented by the Observatorio Paola Guzmán Albarracín to the Inter-American Court.[59]

Analysis by the Ministry of Education found that of 49 cases where teachers have appealed administrative dismissal for sexual violence since the 2021 ruling, courts overturned ministerial decisions in 23 cases, meaning that all 23 teachers were reinstated to their positions.[60]

To pay financial compensation to reinstated teachers, zonal and district offices diverted funds from their budget for prevention and protection measures, such as school maintenance—for example for bathrooms—and halted hiring of teachers and judicial staff, according to the former vice minister of education.[61]

To prevent re-traumatization of students, who may be forced to see teachers who previously committed abuses against them, the Ministry of Education told Human Rights Watch that it has taken emergency measures to ensure that teachers reinstated following judicial decisions do not have contact with survivors. Some have been placed in administrative roles.[62]

Inadequate Prevention Efforts

The Ecuadorian government has acknowledged that prevention is a critical component of its efforts to eradicate sexual violence in schools. Its new Public Policy to Eradicate Sexual Violence in Schools seeks to strengthen the education system’s prevention efforts once implemented. The government has focused its efforts on training teachers and others in the educational community, ensuring education actors and students are informed about its protocols and reporting mechanisms, and adopting comprehensive sexuality education (CSE), both in its curriculum and in a national strategy, all of which it plans to institutionalize in its Public Policy once implemented.

Yet, its prevention goals are seriously hampered by the lack of adequate budgets for prevention and eradication of school-related sexual violence and gender-based violence against children, including efforts to improve detection and response to violence, fill staff shortages, address obstacles to implementing CSE in schools.

Limited National Budgets for Prevention and Eradication

Ecuador’s prevention measures are not commensurate with the scale and urgent need to implement its commitment for zero tolerance against school-related sexual violence. Its low budgetary allocation and spending for prevention does not support its commitment to comply with the Inter-American Court’s ruling to prevent and bring to an end the types of abuses described in this report.

Funding and budget cuts have historically stalled efforts to address school-based sexual violence. For example, in 2022, education made up 3.6 percent of Ecuador’s GDP, a decrease from 4.6 percent in 2018 – a level that has failed to recover following years of austerity measures and Covid-19 effects.[63] The government has committed to increasing funding to address gender-based violence from US$4.7 million in 2020 to $24 million for 2022-2025.[64] Moreover, funding to address gender-based violence, part of which would go toward school-based sexual violence, was not fully spent in 2023 and was reduced in 2024, even as reports of sexual violence against women and children continue at levels that are at least as high as in previous years.[65]

In 2023, the Ministry of Education reported that its total budget for preventing and addressing sexual violence was nearly US$1.97 million in 2020, which was reduced to US$328,400 in 2021. The budget for these efforts increased again in 2022, reaching US$970,000, but was nearly cut by half in 2023, when the budget was US$581,000.[66] During the year, $75,650 was spent on prevention of psychosocial risks, under which sexual violence falls, according to the Ministry’s accountability report for 2023.[67] The Planning Secretariat found that the Ministry’s psychosocial risks project had “low compliance with physical goals and low budget execution.”[68]

In 2024, the education ministry has planned a budget of nearly US$203,000 to prevent and address psychosocial risks in schools, which is a component of its National Strategy on Comprehensive Sexuality Education (Estrategia Nacional de educación integral en sexualidad, or ENEIS).[69]

The Public Policy to Eradicate Sexual Violence in Schools, which requires all participating institutions to allocate funding for all activities under the four aims – prevention, response, access to justice and comprehensive reparations, and dissemination of information – has an estimated budget of $272.2 million through 2030, according to an April 2024 version of the Public Policy.[70]

The Public Policy has a budget of US$249.5 million through 2030 for its response activities, which will be led by the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Women and Human Rights.[71] The largest proportion—$236.7 million—will go toward hiring student welfare staff to reduce the gap by 50 percent.[72]

The Public Policy has a budget of US$8 million for prevention activities through 2030, US$7.6 million of which will go toward activities related to comprehensive sexuality education.[73] The current prevention allocation under the policy comes out to US$1.1 million every year through 2030.

Comprehensive Sexuality Education

The Ministry of Education has launched several comprehensive sexuality education (CSE) initiatives in schools, but efforts have been piecemeal and levels of acceptance by teachers, parents, and school staff have been mixed.

Experts and civil society organizations in Ecuador and across the region have reiterated the need for nationwide measures to guarantee children and adolescents CSE that provides them with the tools to identify, report, and defend themselves against sexual violence.[74] This Court confirmed in Paola Guzmán Albarracín vs. Ecuador that the “right to education encompasses education on sexual and reproductive rights.”[75]

When executed in line with international standards, CSE is crucial in fostering safe and informed practices when it comes to puberty, menstruation, sexual development, relationships, and safer sex, and in preventing gender-based violence, gender inequality, sexually transmitted infections, and unintended pregnancies.

Since 2021, the Ministry of Education has launched several initiatives related to CSE in schools.[76] These include the development of a methodology for all grade levels in 2021 and teaching the methodology to thousands of students and teachers;[77] online courses and awareness-raising workshops for teachers, student welfare teams,[78] and students; and rollout of materials through printed copies, videos, and comics, among others.[79] It has also launched a plan for permanent and continuous trainings for teachers, covering topics on violence prevention and CSE.[80] Though the Ministry has made advances, it faces considerable challenges.

Previous CSE efforts have been piecemeal at the school level, and the Ministry of Education has struggled to implement its CSE methodologies across all schools.[81] For example, in 2022 and 2023, nearly 74 percent of schools that had completed at least one CSE intervention did not use the ministry-promoted tools, according to a Ministry of Education official.[82]

Religious and political groups inside and outside institutions have also hampered efforts to implement CSE in schools.[83] Former ministry staff leading CSE-related initiatives reported facing false accusations of “indoctrinating” children, along with criticism based on claims that sexuality education is solely the responsibility and right of the family.[84]

Teachers and parents sometimes show resistance toward trainings on topics related to adolescent pregnancy prevention and CSE.[85] Teachers and school staff also lack adequate training on gender, sexual orientation and gender identity, which are integral to CSE.[86]According to a Ministry of Education official, a 2018 guide developed to prevent and combat discrimination based on a person’s sexual orientation and gender identity was not “adequately implemented due to political reasons.”[87] This observation was in line with reports of teachers and other groups pushing back on these topics, and other reporting on limited socialization of this guide in schools.[88] The Ministry of Education has recently taken steps to socialize the guide. As of December 2023, according to the Ministry of Education, it was working with the Ministry of Women and Human Rights to train teachers and student welfare teams on these issues, and a priority of this administration is to implement the guide.[89] The prevention of and response to discrimination and violence against sexual and gender minorities is included in the tools that are part of the ENEIS strategy.[90]

On August 14, 2023, the National Day against Sexual Violence in Schools, the Ministry of Education presented its National Strategy on Comprehensive Sexuality Education (ENEIS Strategy),[91] with the aim of providing “guidelines for the implementation, support and monitoring of CSE at the national, zonal, and district levels.”

However, the ministry set a limited goal of ensuring 40 percent of public schools implement all programs related to CSE with students and families,[92] and at least 50 percent of teachers are trained in tools and methodologies to implement the CSE curriculum, by 2030.[93] Studies conducted by the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) and Facultad Latinoamericana de Ciencias Sociales (FLACSO Argentina) in 2021 and 2022 of CSE implementation status across 19 countries in Latin America found that Ecuador’s implementation was among the lowest.[94]

In October 2023, the Ministry of Education issued the ENEIS strategy, requiring its application in all schools across the country.[95] In May 2024, the Ministry of Education informed Human Rights Watch that it began implementation of the strategy in 1,120 schools, with plans to evaluate implementation in 2025, and increase the number of schools over time.[96]

The ministry has set standards to monitor a school’s compliance with the strategy, such as requiring schools to attend at least 75 percent of CSE district network meetings, requiring at least one school director and 50 percent of teachers to be trained in CSE, and requiring at least 50 percent of students to carry out a CSE-related project.[97] It is also currently developing a monitoring and evaluation plan that would assess the strategy’s implementation.[98] If a school does not implement the strategy, this could be considered negligence and the school could be sanctioned in line with Ecuador’s education law.[99]

In November 2023, the Ministry published a new curriculum for all schools in the country,[100] which covers detection and reporting of violence among other topics. The curriculum is set to begin in the 2024-2025 academic year.

Barriers to Effective Justice and Reparations

Human Rights Watch has consistently found that an expectation of impunity, the lack of prompt justice, and the lack of sanctions for perpetrators dissuade families from reporting cases in Ecuador.[101] Often, the mental health of victims and family members suffers due to a lengthy judicial process that is typically hostile and perceived to be unfair to children and their families.[102] Survivors and their families face significant barriers at every step of the judicial process, such as re-traumatization, threats to abandon cases, and time-consuming and costly legal processes. Survivors of violence choose not to report their abuser and, in many cases, abandon the process, and as a result, prosecutors decide not to continue with the investigation.[103]

Data from the Attorney General’s Office analyzed by Human Rights Watch shows that of the 647 sexual violence complaints against teachers, school personnel, and students they received between 2020 and 2022, 592 were under preliminary investigation and 17 were sent to trial.[104]

From 2018 to 2022, the Judiciary Council has spent nearly US$30 million on the creation and strengthening of judicial units, including allocation of funds for hiring staff, trainings, equipment, and infrastructure.[105] The Council states that it needs a yearly budget of US$22 million to maintain its services specializing in addressing violence cases.[106]

According to an April 2024 version of the Public Policy, the budget for the “access to justice and reparations” aim for all activities through 2030 was US$1.5 million – the lowest budget allocation of all four aims.

In an earlier draft of this policy seen by Human Rights Watch, and in a Judiciary Council letter to Human Rights Watch, the policy stated the goal to increase the number of prosecutorial staff to address sexual violence cases.[107] In the October 2023 draft submitted to the Planning Secretariat for approval, which was ultimately approved in April 2024, this action was no longer included, despite criticism from the Center for Reproductive Rights that point to the constraints that the Attorney General’s Office has to effectively investigate and prosecute sexual violence against children.[108]

The lack of additional funding and limited goals under this aim is not commensurate with the barriers survivors must overcome, as will be described below.

Investigation of Sexual Violence Cases

The Attorney General’s limited human and financial resources cause significant problems: They impede investigations or result in case closures; prosecutorial staff don’t always have the resources and expertise to work with child and adolescent survivors; and trainings are often not enough to overcome patriarchal and revictimizing attitudes.

A dearth of prosecutors and investigation teams countrywide continues to slow down or stall investigations.[109] Staff are overworked, assigned to cases in which they may not have expertise,[110] or have limited resources,[111] all of which can negatively affect investigations. The Attorney General reported a deficit in prosecutors in 2023: Ecuador has 4.3 prosecutors per 100,000 inhabitants, almost half the regional standard of 8 per 100,000.[112] It would need to hire nearly 1,700 more prosecutorial staff to fill the gap.

While the government has issued protocols on forensic interviewing methods that aim to minimize re-traumatization and the number of times a child has to retell their story,[113] this does not always happen in practice. According to the protocol, interviews with victims under 18 should take place in Gesell chambers, a room where children are interviewed by a specialized child psychologist, while legal counsel and prosecutors observe from another room through a one-way mirror.[114] Prosecutors fail to request this specialized testimony process from the judge or judges do not grant it, said a Judiciary Council official.[115] Reasons vary, according to the Judiciary Council: either because of a lack of experts, adequate child-responsive infrastructure, training, or instances where judges opt not to request it to avoid re-traumatization of children in the absence of adequate safeguarding measures.[116] Though the Judiciary Council publishes statistics on requests of this specialized testimony,[117] it is not able to accurately quantify how many are presented by prosecutors, how many of them are granted or denied by judges, and what the results of this testimony are.[118]

As of June 2024, the country had more than 100 Gesell chambers operated by the Judiciary Council; 74 of which are currently functional.[119] In areas where there are no operational Gesell chambers, testimony is collected by other means, including in chambers operated by prosecutors’ offices, in nearby areas, or by Zoom.[120] However, in 2023, the government reduced the Judiciary Council’s budget,[121] and failed to allocate funds for ongoing repairs of other Gesell chambers, according to a Judiciary Council official. The institution had to partner with national and international organizations to fund these repairs.[122]

Investigations often stall, or cases are closed because of a lack of experts, such as psychologists, doctors, and sign language interpreters, to evaluate or accompany child and adolescent complainants in judicial proceedings where they are victims. Because they are limited in number, child-focused experts are sometimes booked up for months, which leads to delays in evidence gathering, according to experts interviewed.[123] Some children with disabilities have been denied procedural accommodations and inclusive and tailored ways to provide testimony, including sign language interpretation.[124]

Among prosecutors and judges, as among expert witnesses, expertise in cases involving children and adolescents is lacking.[125] Prosecutors and judges in some provinces are expected to be “multicompetent,” meaning they must be able to take on a wide range of cases in addition to sexual violence cases.

Following the Law to Prevent and Eradicate Violence Against Women of 2018, the Judiciary Council carried out a study to assess the capacity of judicial units across the country to adjudicate cases of gender-based violence against women and children. The analysis determined that some cantons (an administrative division below provinces, or a district) benefited from having a specialized unit to attend to violence cases, while other cantons with multicompetent or criminal judicial units could continue to attend to violence cases, but would need increased capacity.[126] The study resulted in the creation of 10 judicial units specialized in violence in regions with high levels of violence, and improvement of 55 multicompetent units in areas with low population density.[127] As a result of these changes, a Judiciary Council official said approximately 80 percent of cases of violence against women and children are assigned to specialized units, and 20 percent are assigned to multicompetent units.[128] The latter is usually the case in cantons that have small populations, where, according to the official, it is not necessary to have specialized units for different types of cases. The official referred to the Judiciary Council study that determined that it was more convenient for survivors in areas with small populations to see the closest judge, regardless of specialization, than to travel long distances to see a specialized judge.[129]

In other provinces, and better funded offices, sexual violence cases involving children are assigned to prosecutors in specialized units, such as gender units.

However, representatives from the Coalition Against Sexual Abuse of Children and Adolescents (COCASEN) noted that this lack of specialization means that children are not getting the appropriate attention they need during judicial processes that rely on multicompetent units.[130]

Trial and Sentencing

Delays in cases due to scheduling practices, low rates of cases that reach trial, and prioritization of other crimes over sexual and gender-based violence are severe obstacles to ensuring survivors find swift and adequate justice.

Sentencing rates for sexual violence vary. A 2023 analysis by Ecuador’s Ombudsperson’s Office found that based on the Attorney General’s Office data, only 4.2 percent of complaints of sexual violence against children and adolescents between January 2015 and June 2023 received a sentence; based on Judiciary Council data, 28.5 percent of cases between January 2018 and June 2023 resulted in a sentence.[131] An analysis of the Observatorio Paola Guzmán Albarracín, based on information received from the Judiciary Council and the Attorney General’s Office, found that of all sexual violence cases reported to the Attorney General’s Office between January 2020 and October 2023, only 8.9 percent resulted in a sentence.[132]

Human Rights Watch analysis show high rates of impunity for school-based sexual violence. In its previous 2020 investigation, Human Rights Watch found that between 2015 and 2019, only three percent of reported cases of sexual violence against children and adolescents had gone to trial.[133]

From January 2020 to December 2022, an even smaller percentage of cases went to trial, according to Human Rights Watch’s analysis of data from the Attorney General’s Office. The data shows that of the 647 complaints of sexual violence against teachers, school personnel, and students they received between 2020 and 2022, only 17 had gone to trial by February 2023.[134] One case resulted in a conviction. No trials for cases of school-based sexual violence took place in 2021, according to data from the Attorney General’s Office.

Severe delays in the court system—from initial complaint to trial and appeal— affect survivors and their families, drawing out an already re-traumatizing process. Human Rights Watch documented cases resulting in convictions within a year of reporting. However, Human Rights Watch has also documented cases with severe delays, including cases that took well over two or three years to reach a decision, or were pending a decision following appeals.[135] Despite advancements, protracted case resolution times run contrary to the judicial system’s constitutional obligation to expedite cases involving children and adolescents and can undermine an accused person’s right to a fair trial.[136]

Ecuador’s “pull system,” or lottery, randomly assigns judges and other staff to cases.[137] This system causes unjustifiable delays as it can be difficult to reconcile the agendas of several judicial staff who need to be present during hearings.[138] Criminal judges in Ecuador handle gender-based violence as part of broad caseloads that may also include fraud, drug, theft, and other criminal offenses. This set-up can lead to delays.[139] When preventive prison measures are set to expire, for example, in cases of killings or extortion, scheduling of hearings will take priority over gender-based violence cases, according to experts interviewed by Human Rights Watch.[140] Human Rights Watch notes that the Judiciary Council has been working to change the lottery system to a court system,[141] which would mean judges have fixed hearing schedules, as opposed to random assignments. However, it might take a few years for the system to be fully implemented.[142]

Training of Prosecutorial and Judicial Staff

Ecuador’s judicial institutions have a long way to go to ensure child and adolescent survivors feel comfortable and supported when reporting, while making every effort to prevent re-traumatization. Some prosecutorial or police officials exhibit revictimizing and victim-blaming attitudes, according to experts, which highlights the need for staff at all stages of the investigation and trial to improve their approach to working with survivors.

The Judiciary Council and Attorney General’s Office told Human Rights Watch that both institutions have made efforts to train a wide range of staff encompassing multiple disciplines, and to increase the judiciary system’s capacity to address violence against children, gender-based and domestic violence, and restorative justice.[143] However, some prosecutorial staff who are transferred from units not related to gender-based violence are unaware of the processes for collecting expert testimony on it.[144]

Though a necessary first step for all actors involved in investigations and cases involving survivors of sexual violence, Human Rights Watch submits that training is not enough to overcome the deep discriminatory and prejudicial challenges entrenched in judicial institutions. Prosecutors who are trained may retain counter-productive attitudes or biases that trainings alone cannot change.[145] This underscores the need for periodic and continuous training and evaluations of prosecutorial staff. The Judiciary Council has requested support from its human resources department to build indicators and parameters to evaluate staff on gender-focused trainings.[146]

The Public Policy to Eradicate Sexual Violence in Schools, which seeks to ensure access to specialized justice, non-revictimization in administrative and judicial processes, and comprehensive reparations, compels the Attorney General’s Office and Judiciary Council to design a strategy of trainings for staff involved in judicial and administrative proceedings, and evaluation of staff after trainings, among other measures.[147] In its “access to justice and reparations” aim, the policy outlines a goal to provide 90 percent of staff with at least one training on sexual violence by 2030.

VI. Conclusion

The present process to review the State of Ecuador’s compliance presents this Honorable Court with an opportunity to clarify what guarantees of non-repetition states should consider to address cases involving violations of the right to education and other inter-related rights. Further guidance from this Court will be particularly helpful for states that confront contexts of endemic sexual and gender-based violence, for which a structural and systemic response is necessary to ensure access to adequate and effective justice and remedies.

Notwithstanding significant measures adopted by the state of Ecuador in the timeframe provided by this Court, the rectification of the violations in a context of endemic school-related sexual violence necessitates a long-term framework of measures and monitoring to assess the effective implementation of such measures. Human Rights Watch notes that the state of Ecuador has specified a deadline of 2030 to implement relevant measures dictated by this Court, included in its Public Policy to Eradicate Sexual Violence in Schools. The State has also outlined its plans to conduct regular evaluations, including intermediate, final, and ex-post evaluations, to assess the impact of the implementation of the policy.[148]

We therefore respectfully call on the Court to apply a long-term perspective to assess Ecuador’s compliance with its human rights obligations and with all the guarantees of non-repetition applicable in this case.

Human Rights Watch respectfully invites the Court to consider three conclusions in its deliberations, based on the evidence submitted by Human Rights Watch, presented above, namely that the Inter-American Court of Human Rights:

1. Acknowledge the scale and long-term nature of measures states need to adopt and implement to effectively tackle and ultimately end school-related sexual and gender-based violence.
2. Conclude that states should adopt structural and systemic measures to redress violations of the right to education and other inter-related rights, including measures in the judicial system required to guarantee adequate and effective justice and reparations for child survivors of sexual violence.
3. Maintain the process of review of Ecuador’s compliance with the Court’s guarantees of non-repetition; and retain supervisory powers to assess the state’s prevention and response measures, as well as the implementation and evaluation of its Public Policy to Eradicate Sexual Violence in Schools.

Elin Martínez
Senior Researcher, Children’s Rights Division
Human Rights Watch

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