IACHR 179th Period of Sessions: Hearing on the Impact of COVID-19 on Women Deprived of Liberty

FRIDAY, MARCH 19, 2021. 11:00 A.M. EST

 

Join the Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA) for the IACHR Hearing on the Impact of COVID-19 on Women Deprived of Liberty:

WOLA and partner organizations have monitored the alarming growth of women’s incarceration across the region, which has resulted in extreme prison overcrowding. The appallingly unhealthy and inadequate living conditions for these women have been exacerbated by the arrival of the COVID-19 virus. Government responses across the region have largely failed to significantly reduce prison overcrowding and to prevent the virus from running rampant through prisons, impacting all of those behind bars and in particular more vulnerable populations including trans women and mothers of newborn children that have been denied house arrest. The recognition of the enormous human cost of governments’ inadequate response to the COVID-19 health emergency in the region’s prisons, as well as the disproportionate impact on women and their families, underscore the urgent need for the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) to call on governments to implement their recommendations in Resolution No. 1/2020, Pandemic and Human Rights in the Americas, with regards to persons deprived of liberty.

For these reasons, WOLA, alongside 10 partner organizations, submitted a request to the IACHR to call attention to this alarming situation, shed light on some positive responses that have been implemented in limited jurisdictions, and present policy recommendations for reducing the number of women behind bars and addressing the health emergency in women’s prisons across the region. The hearing will take place through the IACHR’s platform on Zoom. 

Featuring: Claudia Cardona, Mujeres Libres Colombia and Corporación Humanas Colombia; Teodora Vasquez Sanchez, Mujeres Libres El Salvador; Luis Felipe Cruz, Dejusticia; Macarena Fernandez Hoffman, CELS; and Alejandra Collette Spinetti Nuñez, Colectivo Trans del Uruguay and Corpora en Libertad. 

Event Details 

Friday, March 19, 2021

11:00 a.m. EST