Uruguay: new steps towards transforming access to justice in response to sexual violence

From 11 to 14 August, Equality Now, together with CLADEM Uruguay and Proyecto Ikove, carried out advocacy, capacity-building and institutional coordination activities to drive reforms and improve the response to sexual violence in Uruguay, as part of the Regional Day of Solidarity with Victims and Survivors of Sexual Violence, which is observed every 9 August.

Uruguay has taken significant steps to prevent and respond to gender-based violence. However, for many girls, adolescents and women who are survivors of sexual violence, accessing justice continues to involve overcoming legal, institutional and geographical barriers.

The numbers highlight the scale of the challenge: approximately one in three people under the age of 18 has experienced some form of sexual violence, and in seven out of ten cases of sexual violence reported to the police, the victim is a child or adolescent.

Against this backdrop, the new alliance between Equality Now and local organisations seeks to drive legislative and institutional change to improve access to justice for victims and survivors of sexual violence in Uruguay.

A roadmap to strengthen access to justice

The week began on 11 August at the Legislative Palace with the event ‘Barriers to access to justice in cases of sexual violence’, which brought together national authorities, female legislators from different political parties, members of the judiciary, public prosecutors, civil society organisations and survivors.

During the opening session, the Vice-President of the Republic, Carolina Cosse, expressed Parliament’s commitment to continuing to drive this agenda forward: “You can count on Parliament to promote laws that enable better access to justice.”

At the event, together with our national partners, we presented Strengthening Access to Justice for Survivors of Sexual Violence in Uruguay, a document that analyses the extent to which international standards have been incorporated into the country’s legislation and institutions, identifies the main challenges and proposes recommendations to move towards a more effective state response, with a focus on human rights, gender and intersectionality.

The analysis acknowledges the significant regulatory and institutional progress made in Uruguay, but also identifies structural deficits and regulatory gaps that continue to limit effective access to justice for women, girls and adolescents who are survivors of sexual violence.

As Sofía Quiroga, Advocacy Officer at Equality Now, explained during the opening of the event, the challenge has two closely connected dimensions: improving the implementation of existing laws and continuing to align the legal framework with international human rights standards. In this sense, the document seeks to acknowledge the progress made in Uruguay, while also encouraging discussion around the challenges that remain, including the need to ensure timely, specialised justice that is free from stereotypes and discrimination for victims and survivors of sexual violence.

Consent must be at the centre

Currently, the Uruguayan Criminal Code does not define sexual offences on the basis of the absence of consent, but rather on the basis of the use of violence or threats, or of certain circumstances in which the law presumes violence. Uruguayan legislation has already taken significant steps by establishing that silence, a lack of resistance or the victim’s sexual history cannot be interpreted as indications of consent. However, lack of consent does not yet constitute the central element of criminal classification.

Gabriela Kletzel, Senior Legal Advisor at Equality Now, emphasised that incorporating consent as the cornerstone of the legislation would not mean introducing a paradigm entirely foreign to the Uruguayan legal system. On the contrary, it would allow for the deepening of transformations that have already begun in other areas of the law and bring them into line with international standards.

During the parliamentary meeting, Equality Now, together with ParlAmericas, also shared the ‘Guidelines for Legislating on Sexual Violence: A Consent-Based Approach’, a tool designed to support parliamentarians in drafting and reviewing laws on sexual violence.

Time for the victims

Another key debate centred on the removal of the statute of limitations for sexual offences against children and adolescents, a matter currently under discussion in Uruguay. Trauma, fear, dependence on the perpetrator and other factors can mean that it takes a person many years to understand, articulate or report what has happened; as a result, legal time limits can become a real barrier to accessing justice.

Victoria Marichal, from Proyecto Ikove, brought this reality to the centre of the discussions from the perspective of survivors’ experiences, noting that the timeframes established by law often do not align with those of people who have experienced sexual violence.

Having a sound legal framework is not enough

Law No. 19.580 on gender-based violence against women established a comprehensive framework for prevention, support, protection, punishment and redress. Uruguay also has specialised prosecution services, investigation protocols, support services and coordination mechanisms. However, these advances do not reach everyone equally, nor do they extend across the entire country.

The document presented to Parliament notes that the capital Montevideo has 12 courts specialising in domestic and gender-based violence, whilst only the departments of Rivera, Salto and Maldonado have courts specialising in sexual violence. Most of the country’s departments, therefore, still lack specialised justice in this area.

Barriers also persist within the judicial processes themselves. These include delays, an overburdened system, insufficient specialisation, the repetition of statements despite the existence of single-statement protocols, and methods of assessing evidence that continue to question victims’ credibility on the basis of gender stereotypes.

During the parliamentary panel discussion, representatives from public institutions and specialists agreed that improving access to justice also requires strengthening coordination between the various agencies involved in each case and ensuring that it is not the victim themself who has to bridge the gaps between systems that should be working in a coordinated manner.

Safeguarding progress and preventing setbacks

During the conference, warnings were issued about initiatives aimed at undermining some of the safeguards established by Law No. 19.580 and about the growing use of narratives concerning so-called ‘false allegations’. In particular, participants highlighted Article 179 bis of the Criminal Code, introduced in 2023, which provides for aggravated penalties for the offence of falsely reporting a crime when the report results in certain protective measures being imposed in cases of gender-based violence. Concerns were raised that this provision could reinforce narratives questioning victims’ credibility and discourage survivors from reporting gender-based violence.

This concern extends beyond Uruguay’s borders. Equality Now is documenting the proliferation of similar initiatives in various Latin American countries, and the Uruguayan precedent is already featuring in legislative debates across the region. In this context, advancing access to justice involves both pushing forward with pending reforms and avoiding setbacks in the safeguards that the law already recognises for all parties involved in the proceedings.

Strengthening professional capacities to tackle sexual violence

As part of the week’s programme of activities, on 12 and 13 August we ran a training session entitled ‘Sexual violence: tools for support, protection and access to justice’, aimed at over 100 professionals involved in responding to cases of sexual violence.

Over the two days, topics covered included the intersectional gender perspective, gender stereotypes and their impact on access to justice, the multiple forms of sexual violence and the power dynamics that underpin them, as well as the importance of understanding these forms of violence from a trauma-informed perspective.

The training combined professional development and knowledge-sharing amongst professionals from different fields with specific responsibilities in relation to sexual violence, with the aim of strengthening practices relating to active listening, protection, access to justice and redress for victims and survivors.

Partnerships for the next steps

During the week, strategic meetings were also held with partner institutions and organisations to define the next steps in advocacy. We held a meeting with female parliamentarians from the Uruguayan Parliament’s Bicameral Women’s Caucus to discuss draft legislation relating to sexual violence and explore opportunities for joint monitoring and advocacy.

We also met with Mónica Xavier, director of the National Institute for Women (Inmujeres) and president of the Inter-American Commission of Women (CIM), to discuss possible areas of work aimed at improving access to justice for survivors of sexual violence in Uruguay, particularly girls and adolescents. Among these, opportunities were identified both within the parliamentary sphere – to drive forward the necessary regulatory changes – and in strengthening the capacities of the judiciary and the Public Prosecutor’s Office, including through potential exchanges of experiences and best practices with other countries in the region.

The agenda also provided an opportunity to open up new avenues for regional coordination. In meetings with ParlAmericas and PARLATINO, discussions centred on their support for the development and promotion of legislative guidelines on child, early and forced marriages and unions (MUITF), aimed at strengthening regulatory frameworks in the region.

For Equality Now, this week represents an important step towards deepening our work in Uruguay alongside CLADEM Uruguay, Proyecto Ikove and other national organisations, and continuing to drive concrete changes to improve access to justice for victims and survivors of sexual violence.