Bolivia must pass Brisa’s Law to strengthen its response to sexual violence

La Paz, Bolivia, 14 April 2026: Bolivia has a long-overdue obligation to survivors of sexual violence.  The Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACtHR) established that three years ago, when it held the State responsible for failing to investigate and punish with due diligence the case of Brisa de Angulo, a victim of sexual violence at the age of 16. Since then, Bolivia has had an obligation to reform its legal framework. The Chamber of Deputies now has the opportunity to fulfil that obligation: Brisa’s Law is that reform.

The IACtHR ruled that Bolivia must reform its sexual violence law

In 2022, the IACtHR concluded that Bolivia violated Brisa de Angulo Losada’s right to access to justice. Brisa was an adolescent when she was raped by an adult family member. The justice system responded with delays, discriminatory stereotypes, and revictimisation. The result was impunity.

The judgment set out clear standards. Consent must be at the centre of how these crimes are defined and assessed. It cannot be inferred from silence, lack of resistance, or the victim’s prior conduct, especially where power imbalances exist.

Criminal offences such as estupro, which relativise sexual violence against adolescents by relying on notions of seduction or vitiated consent, are incompatible with international human rights standards and must be eliminated.

What the Brisa Law would change in Bolivia’s Penal Code

Bill No. 010 (“Brisa’s Law”) seeks to turn those standards into law. It is the result of a process driven by Brisa, Bolivian human rights organisations, survivors, and experts who have pushed for this reform for years.

The legislative process of Brisa’s Law has generated broad public debate, in which misinformation and disinformation about its content have also circulated.

One of the most distorted arguments concerns estupro (a legal provision that can be applied when an adult rapes an adolescent girl who is above the legal age of consent but below the age of 18). It has been claimed that, by abolishing the offence of estupro, the law would remove protections for adolescent girls. That is false. Conduct currently classified as estupro, much of it committed through deceit or seduction, would instead be recognised under the criminal offence of rape of an infant, child, or adolescent. Adolescents would receive greater protection, not less.

It is also untrue that this reform would lead to an increase in false reports of sexual violence. That argument is repeated to stir fear, but it is not supported by evidence. What the cases do show is the persistence of institutional obstacles, a lack of gender- and child-sensitive perspectives, and revictimising practices that continue to weaken the justice system’s response.

What Bolivia has already done, and what still remains

In the three years since the IACtHR’s judgment, the Bolivian State has taken some steps. It has trained some judges, prosecutors and police officers. The Attorney General’s Office has begun adapting the Ibero-American Protocol for the Investigation of Cases of Sexual Violence to the Bolivian context. Those advances are real, but insufficient.

Without the law’s passage, these protocols lack a legal foundation. Justice system officials do not have clear directives. Transforming practices rooted in discriminatory stereotypes requires legal reform, not only awareness-raising.

Passing the law would open the door to the next steps: securing a budget for implementation, establishing mechanisms to monitor compliance with the IACtHR judgment, and producing disaggregated data to understand what is happening with sexual violence complaints in Bolivia.

Passing the Brisa Law is an international obligation

At Equality Now, an organisation that litigated Brisa’s case before the IACtHR, we are closely following the Bolivian legislative process. What is at stake is not only compliance with an international judgment. It is also the message the State sends to every survivor about whether her experience matters and whether justice is possible.

The Chamber of Deputies now has the opportunity to advance a reform that Bolivia has postponed for far too long. Passing the Brisa Law would be a concrete step towards strengthening the State’s response and advancing justice for Brisa and for so many survivors.

This op ed was originally published by Urgente.bo, in Spanish.