16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence: Reaffirming Our Commitment to End Impunity for Sexual Violence
As part of the 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence Campaign, the Academy on Human Rights and Humanitarian Law and the War Crimes Research Office of American University Washington College of Law reaffirm their commitment to end impunity for sexual violence in conflict and other situations of violence in Latin America.
Professor Susana SáCouto, Director of the War Crimes Research Office, and Professor Claudia Martin, Co-Director of the Academy on Human Rights and Humanitarian Law, have been working to fight impunity against sexual violence in Latin America through the project “Ending Impunity for Conflict-Related Sexual and Gender-based Violence in Latin America.” The project commenced in March 2017 with a conference in Bellagio, Italy, supported by the Rockefeller Foundation that convened 22 victim’s advocates, judges, and prosecutors from Guatemala, Peru, Mexico, Colombia, Chile, and Argentina to share information about common challenges in combating impunity, establish a regional network for advocacy, and develop legal strategies for strengthening accountability across the region. Since then, Professors Martin and SáCouto have supported victim’s’ advocates’ work through the submission of amicus briefs in various domestic and international jurisdictions throughout Latin America, including in the cases of Sepur Zarco in Guatemala, forced sterilization in Peru, and El Mozote in El Salvador, as well as the cases of Linda Loaiza López Soto v. Venezuela and Selva Gómez and Others v. México (Atenco), before the Inter-American Court of Human Rights. The struggle against impunity for sexual violence perpetrated in conflict and other forms of violence is not over, and our institutions remain committed to supporting the victims and advocates who are fighting this fight in the field!