Bolivia – Submission to the Human Rights Committee – 130th Session, 2020

This joint submission details our concerns with regard to laws related to rape and other forms of sexual violence, and procedures and practices which effectively deny access to justice to young and adolescent survivors of sexual violence.

Specifically, we would like to express our concern about particular provisions of the penal code that constitute a violation of Bolivia’s obligations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), namely its provisions on rape and estupro (a provision that provides for lesser punishment for perpetrators of rape against adolescent girls), as well as the government’s systemic failure to grant access to justice to adolescent girls who are victims of sexual violence.

Submitted by: Equality Now, A Breeze of Hope Foundation, Fundacion Una Brisa de Esperanza, Oficina Jurídica para la Mujer, the Committee for Latin America and the Caribbean for the Defense of Women’s Rights – (CLADEM) Bolivia, and Coordinadora de la Mujer.