President Daniel Noboa of Ecuador on August 20, 2024, signed a decree for a Public Policy to Eradicate Sexual Violence in Schools, an important step to address the problem, Human Rights Watch said today. The document details the government's plans to tackle sexual violence through 2030.
Sexual and gender-based violence is endemic in Ecuador's schools. Over the last decade, the Ministry of Education received reports of close to 6,500 cases of school-related sexual violence, affecting 7,303 children across the country. These numbers undoubtedly understate the true total, as most cases of sexual violence go unreported.
"The president's decree signals that ending sexual violence against students is of utmost importance for Ecuador's government," said Elin Martínez, senior children's rights researcher at Human Rights Watch. "A high number of students experience school-related sexual violence throughout Ecuador, often without support as they cope with the abuses and faced with limited chances of seeking justice and reparations."
The public policy responds to various measures ordered by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights in June 2020 in Paola Guzmán Albarracín v. Ecuador, the court's first case on school-related sexual violence. It outlines the government's commitments on prevention of and response to sexual violence, dissemination of information and data related to school-related sexual violence, and access to justice and reparations.
Ecuador's education system faces significant challenges in responding to abuses, including a shortage of student welfare teams, schools' tendencies to shield staff and protect their reputations over student welfare, and setbacks in sanctioning teachers who have been accused of sexual violence. The widespread levels of insecurity and violence in recent years have had a dire impact on children's rights, and have further hampered government institutions' ability to detect and respond to cases of sexual violence.
Survivors and their families face an uphill battle to find justice for abuses, including adequate reparations. Many face retraumatization due to deep discriminatory and prejudicial challenges entrenched in judicial institutions and having to retell their stories countless times. They share a prevailing feeling that impunity prevails in the judicial system. The Attorney General's Office and Judiciary Council's limited financial and human resources hamper efforts to guarantee effective justice for children.
The public policy details various actions to address hurdles identified in the education and justice systems to effectively address sexual violence in schools. Human Rights Watch analysis of the policy shows that it lacks adequate long-term funding, including adequate budgets for prevention and eradication of school-related sexual violence and gender-based violence against children. For example, the estimated budget for "access to justice and reparations" through 2030 is just US$1.5 million. The Judiciary Council has said that it needs a total yearly budget of $22 million to maintain its services specializing in addressing violence cases.
This could affect its implementation, reinforce longstanding barriers to response, and jeopardize the implementation of the policy's prevention and "access to justice and reparations" aims. The policy outlines a goal to provide 90 percent of staff involved in administrative and judicial proceedings with at least one training session on sexual violence by 2030. This limited goal overlooks the need to provide ongoing training on sexual and gender-based violence, and violence against children for judicial staff. The policy also fails to increase the number of staff needed to investigate sexual violence cases against children.
Inconsistent funding, insufficient spending, and subsequent budget cuts within various government institutions have historically stalled efforts to address school-based sexual violence. Ministry of Education funding for prevention and response of sexual violence has fluctuated over the years. Funding to address gender-based violence, part of which would go toward school-based sexual violence, was not fully spent in 2023 and was reduced in 2024.
Human Rights Watch has also found that cuts to the Judiciary Council's budget in previous years led this institution to partner with national and international organizations to fund repairs of Gesell chambers, rooms designed to protect children's wellbeing and identities during preliminary investigations.
In 2024, the National Assembly's Education Commission conducted an audit of all institutions tasked with addressing violence against children, including the Ministry of Education, the Attorney General's Office, and the Judiciary Council. The Commission's report demonstrates the gaps in government institutions' efforts to respond to violence against children. The Ministry of Economy and Finances reported to the Commission that in 2022 and 2023, none of the institutions examined had utilized 100 percent of the funding they already had to address sexual violence. It similarly found that the lack of staff, including trained and specialized staff in the judicial system, interferes with directives to adequately work with survivors, including to prevent retraumatization.
The president's decree says that the government's Interinstitutional Roundtable with representatives of various agencies is responsible for the policy and for reporting to the Inter-American Court. The Center for Reproductive Rights and CEPAM-Guayaquil, the legal representatives of Paola Guzmán's family in the Paola Guzmán Albarracín v. Ecuador case, who have been involved in development of the policy, raised concerns about the lack of involvement of Ecuadorian civil society organizations and children in the finalization and introduction of the policy. The government should meaningfully involve the legal representatives in the case, civil society organizations, and children in the development of the policy's operational plan, as well as in the implementation and evaluation of the public policy, Human Rights Watch said.
"The government should do its utmost to fully deliver on its commitment to prevent and tackle school-related sexual violence at the scale needed to end the scourge of sexual and gender-based violence against children," Martínez said. "Now that it's a national priority, the government should ensure its public policy has adequate funding and the requisite human resources to guarantee every student's right to learn in a safe environment."
