Human Rights Watch: ‘Ecuador must investigate police abuses during Women’s Day marches’

The organization Human Rights Watch (HRW) issued a statement in which it criticizes the police repression during the mobilizations of March 8, for International Women’s Day, in Ecuador, and asks to investigate the actions of the uniformed who participated in the sessions.

“Ecuadorian police responded to peaceful demonstrations in commemoration of International Women’s Day with a excessive use of force, which included hit a journalist with a baton and indiscriminate use of tear gas and pepper spray”, noted HRW.

The statement highlights that in the marches Hundreds of women demanded protection from the authoritiesthat their rights are guaranteed. The protesters also called for the law that regulates abortion in cases of rape.

“The President Lasso He stated on March 8 that his government is working to ensure the well-being of women and contribute to a more just and equitable society,” he said. Tamara Taraciuk Broner, Acting Director for the Americas of Human Rights Watch. “It should start by securing the accountability for police abuse committed during the marches for International Women’s Day”.

HRW also questions the President’s Partial Objection Guillermo Lasso to the Law that guarantees the termination of pregnancy in cases of rape. It is noted that the veto “undermines the work carried out by the Constitutional Court and the Ombudsman, as well as the majority vote in the National Assembly, to allow Ecuadorian women and girls to regain control over their lives after the trauma of sexual violence.”

There are three requirements that President Guillermo Lasso proposes for rape victims who want to opt for an abortion

The organization mentions, among others, the case of journalist Viviana Erazo, from the digital media Wambrawho was attacked by a uniformed man, while covering the mobilization of March 8 in Quito. “A policeman cornered her and hit her with a baton.”

The institution that promotes and defends human rights maintains that “the excessive and indiscriminate use of force by agents of the Ecuadorian security forces is not a new phenomenon.” He cites as an example the strike protests of October 2019, which took place against the economic measures of then President Lenín Moreno.

In this sense, HRW points out that “Ecuador needs a law that regulates the legal, proportional, adequate and necessary use of force based on international human rights standards. (I)