Safe World for Women

Katerva Awards

22 August 2012

Girls at a rural school in Nicaragua. Credit: Oscar Navarrete/IPSGirls at a rural school in Nicaragua. Credit: Oscar Navarrete/IPS

Pregnant Nicaraguan Girls Forced to Become Mothers

Source: IPS | José Adán Silva

Carla lost everything when she got pregnant at the age of 13: her first year of secondary school, her family, her boyfriend, and her happiness. She spent a year panhandling on the streets of the Nicaraguan capital before she was taken in by a shelter for young mothers.

Her life fell apart in December 2006, when her mother discovered that she was three months pregnant as a result of being raped by one of her primary school teachers. Her mother gave her a savage beating with a belt and threw her out of the house, saying she couldn’t afford another mouth to feed.

Carla’s* baby died at birth due to respiratory problems. During the pregnancy, a neighbour let her sleep in her house, but did not give her meals. So she sold homemade sweets and begged for small change at bus stops, where she suffered continuous sexual harassment from men who offered her money, drugs or food in exchange for sex.

She was initially taken in by Casa Alianza, the Latin America branch of the New York-based Covenant House, an international child advocacy organisation. But at the age of 15 she went to stay at a school shelter, where she took cosmetology and beauty courses. Now 19, she works in that field, and is also a volunteer motivator in the centre for young mothers, which she said saved her life and taught her that she had human rights.

The case of Carla, with whom IPS was put in touch by a non-governmental organisation that works with at-risk children and adolescents, illustrates a phenomenon that takes on alarming proportions in this Central American nation, one of the few countries in the world where rape is illegal under all circumstances.

170,000 births to girls under the age of 14

In this country of 5.8 million people, one of the poorest in Latin America, there were 1.3 million births in the public health system in the last 10 years. Of that total, 367,095 births were to girls and adolescents, including 172,535 to girls under the age of 14, according to a Health Ministry statistical report covering the period 2000-2010, released in July.

That means girls and teenagers accounted for 27 percent of all births in public health institutions. And 47 percent of these youngsters were between the ages of 10 and 14 – representing 13 percent of the pregnancies attended in the public health services.

Dr. Osmany Altamirano, an adviser on sexual and reproductive rights with the Nicaraguan office of the global children’s charity Plan International, told IPS that the problem was serious but improving.

“In the year 2000, adolescent mothers were 31 percent of the total. The teen pregnancy rate has gone down, although it is still the highest in Latin America, and one of the highest in the world,” he said.

A 2007 study by the Latin American and Caribbean Demographic Centre reported that Nicaragua was the country with the highest adolescent birth rate in Latin America.

Nicaraguans of child-bearing age (10 to 49) represent 65 percent of the total female population, and 37 percent of that portion are between the ages of 10 and 19.

Cycle of poverty

Altamirano said the phenomenon of teenage pregnancy in Nicaragua forms part of the cycle of poverty in which most of the young mothers have lived.

“Pregnant girls reproduce the cycle of poverty, because they become mothers before they are biologically mature – in other words, they are underweight mothers who suffer from chronic malnutrition and give birth to low birth-weight, short-stature babies,” he said.

He also said that 47 percent of pregnant girls and teenagers do not complete primary school, effectively losing their right to an education.

“Many are forced to look for work in disadvantageous conditions, because they don’t have experience or training in a profession or trade, others are thrown out on the streets, and many end up as the victims of sexual exploitation,” he said.

According to World Health Organisation (WHO) statistics from 2009, 16 million girls between the ages of 15 and 19 years old give birth every year, accounting for 11 percent of all births worldwide.

Karla Nicaragua, with the Quincho Barrilete Association, told IPS that in a study carried out in 2011 among teenage girls in Managua, 60 percent admitted to being pressured or induced to have sex with relatives, classmates, neighbours or even their fathers.

The phenomenon is explained, among other things, by a social fabric “that sees pregnancy as something normal” and “by a legal system that forces women to give birth, even under conditions of medical risk,” said Nicaragua, whose association is dedicated to the protection of street children in Managua and to preventing violence against children.

Abortion is illegal

Since 2006, this Central American nation has been one of the few countries in the world where abortion is illegal in any circumstances, and is punishable by prison – even if the pregnancy is the result of rape or incest, or the mother’s life is in danger.

“The lack of scientific, accurate sex education in school and in the family, sexual harassment and abuse, peer pressure among adolescents, poverty and overcrowding, along with a permissive justice system, are all factors that influence the high teen pregnancy rate,” she said.

Lorna Norori with the Movement Against Sexual Abuse (Mcas) said that sexual violence is hidden behind the statistics on teenage pregnancy.

Nicaragua’s penal code establishes that sexual relations with a child under 14, even with the consent of the minor, amounts to rape, and is punishable by 12 to 15 years in prison, the activist for the human rights of women said.

Norori accused the state of Nicaragua of complicity in the public policy of forcing young pregnant girls to give birth, despite the fact that the law clearly states that they are victims of rape.

Around 40 percent of victims of rape in Nicaragua have no access to justice, according to the study “Indignación: datos sobre violencia sexual en Nicaragua 2011? (Indignation: Statistics on Sexual Violence in Nicaragua 2011), carried out by Mcas.

For the study, the organisation compared the records of the government forensic institute (IML) and of the National Police office of women and children (the Comisaría de la Mujer y la Niñez).

The study points out that while the IML reported a total of 4,409 forensic medical examinations of rape victims in 2011, the Comisaría de la Mujer y la Niñez only recorded 3,047 cases handled by the office of the public prosecutor.

The IML records show that more than 85 percent of the forensic exams were carried out on underage girls. Of them, 36.5 percent were adolescents between the ages of 13 and 17 and 49 percent were girls under the age of 12.

26 July 2011

Fatima Hernandez

Source: José Adán Silva/Terra Viva

NICARAGUA: Court Downgrades Rape to "Fit of Passion"

The rape of a young woman that has become a symbolic case in Nicaragua was ruled a "crime of passion" by the Supreme Court in a verdict that is suspected to have political overtones.

"There is no excuse. It is a bad precedent for Nicaraguan justice that such a serious crime against a woman should be viewed by the Supreme Court as a lesser case, and that it would let a rapist off the hook," Juana Jiménez, a member of the Autonomous Women's Movement, one of the organisations that held a protest vigil against the verdict, told IPS.

The Supreme Court decided July 22 to reduce Farinton Reyes' prison sentence from eight to four years for the rape of Fátima Hernández, on the grounds that his sexual assault was not violent and was committed "in a fit of passion under the influence of alcohol," and with " permissive cooperation" by the victim, because she had had a few beers with him.

Court orders rapist to be released

Furthermore, it ordered the release of Reyes, who had spent 18 months in jail on remand, on the grounds that there were mitigating factors such as no criminal record, good behaviour, and lack of malicious premeditation, which in the criminal code are reasons for lighter sentences.

Paradoxically, less than a month ago the Supreme Court launched with great fanfare a campaign with the slogan "Woman, You Are Not Alone", which aims to combat violence against women, and at the same time announced that a seminar will be held in October, focused on sexual violence, which is the third largest cause of medico-legal treatment in the country.

The verdict, in a case that drew a great deal of attention because of Hernández's persistence in demanding justice, and her assailant's links with circles of political power, was rejected by human rights activists, independent jurists and women's rights organisations which have supported her throughout the trial.

After a number of different protests, including a 25-days hunger strike, 23-year-old Hernández succeeded in getting a court to sentence Reyes to eight years in prison for aggravated rape, committed the night of Jul. 25, 2009, when they were both working for the Interior Ministry.

Sentence reduced to six years

In December, the Managua appeals court reduced the sentence to six years, and soon afterwards Reyes' lawyers called on the Supreme Court to overturn the sentence and acquit the defendant.

Remarkably, the public prosecutor's office supported Reyes "because of reasonable doubts," although it had had none during the first trial when he was convicted.

The Supreme Court ruling, which cannot be appealed in any national court, is viewed by women's organisations and political analysts as politically motivated, because Reyes is a member of the governing Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN), as is his mother, Xiomara Larios, a famous former athlete with connections in the different branches of government.

The judge who handed down the ruling, Juana Méndez, is linked to the leftwing FSLN, and became famous in December 2001 for issuing another sentence for sexual assault on a woman, which had resounding political implications.

On that occasion, the Supreme Court dismissed the case against then lawmaker and leader of the FSLN and now incumbent President Daniel Ortega, for charges brought against him by his adopted stepdaughter Zoilamérica Narváez, for abuse, rape and sexual harassment, from 1978 when she was 11, until 1998.

The case was dismissed on the grounds that the statute of limitations for bringing legal action for the alleged crimes had expired, and this smoothed the way for Ortega's re-election to the presidency in 2007, after a previous term of office (1985-1990).

Reyes' main defence attorney, Ramón Rojas, also represented Ortega in his case before the Supreme Court.

An 'excess' in the sexual act

Judge Méndez told the press that Reyes "did commit a crime, but without premeditation or malice," and "the victim was permissive," since she had been chatting with him and apparently went willingly to the scene of the crime, although Hernández denies this. "What did happen was an excess in the sexual act," Méndez said.

The verdict was signed by 15 of the 16 Supreme Court justices. The dissenting vote was from Judge Yadira Centeno, who in her minority opinion said the reduction of the sentence was "unlawful."

In the light of the facts and allegations in the case, "I do not find proof that (Reyes') behaviour was due to such a violent emotion or powerful stimulus as to have undermined his will and diminished his responsibility, in a way that would justify reduction of his sentence," said Centeno.

Vilma Núñez, head of the non-governmental Nicaraguan Human Rights Centre (CENIDH), told IPS that the Supreme Court verdict violated basic principles that favour the victim over the aggressor, especially since the fact of the rape was proved.

"There is a victim, an assailant, a crime, a sentence, evidence, witnesses and proof, but in the Court's own judgment, it decided the criminal should go free, and that the victim was to some extent responsible for allowing the crime to happen. This is unheard of," said Núñez.

In her view, establishing the precedent of a "cooperative victim" is "extremely serious" for Nicaraguan women suffering sexual attack, as is the view taken by the Supreme Court that a "fit of passion", producing a state of "fury" and sexual "excitement", constitutes extenuating circumstances for rape.

Although Hernández did not expect the Supreme Court to uphold the original eight-year sentence, hearing that Reyes would be freed was an emotional shock for her. She was readmitted to the hospital, where she has been admitted several times since May. The last time was in June, after another 12-day hunger strike in front of the Supreme Court building.

Her father, Esteban Hernández, said she was in no condition to make statements, but that when she recovers she will make her position clear in an appearance together with her lawyers and national and international human rights activists.

"I can only tell you that in spite of her frail health, she remains strong and dignified, and will continue to demand justice, even if it means we have to go into exile," he told IPS.

Fátima Hernández had said in advance that if the ruling went against her, she might accept the political asylum offered by an unidentified country, and would take her case to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights to begin proceedings that could put the state of Nicaragua in the dock before the Inter-American Court of Human Rights.

Reyes' lawyers and family did not respond to requests for statements from IPS and local news media.

According to the Institute of Legal Medicine, there were an average 14 cases a day of sexual violence against women in Managua during the first five months of this year.

In 2010, there were 89 murders of women in this country of 5.8 million people, almost all of them "femicides" or gender-based killings. During the first five months of 2011, 40 women were killed.