IACHR: States Must End Sexual Violence Against Indigenous Girls and Adolescents

October 17, 2024

Washington, D.C. – In commemoration of the International Day of the Girl, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) urges States in the region to take concrete measures to prevent and eradicate sexual violence against Indigenous girls and adolescents. These measures should incorporate gender, age, and intercultural approaches that address the multiple structural factors of discrimination that increase their vulnerability to violence. Moreover, Indigenous girls and adolescents must be fully included in the design and implementation of these measures.

Generally, there is a lack of disaggregated data on violence against Indigenous girls and adolescents, both within and outside their communities. However, available global and regional data indicate that they face higher levels of violence compared to non-Indigenous girls. Additionally, the IACHR and other international bodies have documented that sexual violence against Indigenous girls and adolescents tends to increase in specific contexts, such as armed conflicts, forced displacement, the execution of development, investment, and extraction projects, militarization of Indigenous lands, and situations of living in rural or street environments, among others.

Across the Americas and the Caribbean, numerous reports have documented sexual assaults, including gang rapes, against Indigenous girls and adolescents from various ethnic backgrounds and regions. These assaults are often committed by members of armed forces, landowners, illegal or temporary workers, teachers, and tourists, who exploit their positions of power and/or the girls' precarious socioeconomic situations to assault or even sexually exploit them. Within these contexts, the violence experienced by Indigenous girls and adolescents within their communities remains largely invisible.

The Inter-American Commission reminds States that, under the Belém do Pará Convention, they have an enhanced duty and accountability to prevent, sanction, and eradicate sexual violence against Indigenous girls and adolescents, taking into account their particular vulnerability to violence based on gender, age, and ethnic-racial origin, among other factors. States must also consider the disproportionate impact of sexual violence on Indigenous girls and adolescents, who, in addition to being at risk of sexually transmitted infections and unwanted pregnancies, often face rejection and ostracism from their communities and may be forced into early marriages.

For these reasons, the IACHR calls on States to adopt diligent measures to address the root causes of violence against Indigenous girls and adolescents, particularly sexual violence. This includes establishing systems for collecting disaggregated data that highlight the incidence and differential impact of violence against them, thereby enabling the adoption of effective measures for the prevention and protection of their rights.

Additionally, in accordance with the American Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, States should create culturally appropriate spaces for the full participation of Indigenous girls and adolescents in the formulation and implementation of measures that affect or concern them.

Finally, the Commission urges States to investigate, prosecute, and sanction sexual violence with reinforced due diligence, as well as to provide comprehensive services and reparations to victims. Such reparations should adopt an intercultural, intergenerational, and gender-sensitive approach that considers both the individual and collective impact of sexual violence on Indigenous girls and adolescents, and should aim at their full recovery, rehabilitation, and reintegration into the community.

The IACHR is a principal and autonomous body of the Organization of American States (OAS), deriving its mandate from the OAS Charter and the American Convention on Human Rights. The Inter-American Commission is charged with promoting human rights in the region and acts as a consultative body to the OAS on this matter. The IACHR is composed of seven independent members elected by the OAS General Assembly in their personal capacity, and they do not represent their countries of origin or residence.

No. 251/24

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