The Political Constitution of Peru (the “Constitution”) has several articles that directly and indirectly support women’s rights and gender justice. The Constitution recognizes that the supreme purpose of society and the State is to defend and respect the dignity of human beings (Article 1).
The appellant was convicted of femicide for killing a 17-year-old girl when she attempted to defend herself against his efforts to sexually assault her. The appellant argued on appeal that the facts did not support a finding that he was guilty of femicide, petitioned for the re-classification of his crime, and argued that his sentence should have been reduced because he had consumed alcohol before the events that led to the girl’s death.
In 1978, the court of first instance ruled in favor of Graciela Ato del Avellanal on a claim for overdue rent owed to her by tenants of two apartment buildings she owned in Lima. The Superior Court reversed the judgment in 1980 because article 168 of the Peruvian Civil Code stated that when a woman is married, only the husband is entitled to represent matrimonial property before the Courts; therefore, Avellanal did not herself have standing to sue.
The IACHR lodged an application against Peru for the violation, among other things, of the right to free association. Garcia-Santa Cruz was founder of a women's organization in a mining community, and provided support to the families of miners during a mining strike. Garcia-Santa Cruz was executed, and the Court held that her execution was an attempt to intimidate miners into not unionizing. The Court held this type of intimidation to be a violation of the freedom of association (Article 16 of the American Convention).
De La Cruz-Flores was detained, charged and convicted by a "faceless judge" for the crime of terrorism. In 2003, laws were passed ordering the annulment of judgments made by secret judges and practitioners. De La Cruz-Flores, however, remained in captivity, captivity she argued was arbitrary. The Court held that Peru violated De La Cruz-Flores's rights under Articles 1(1), 5, 7 and 8 of the American Convention on Human Rights.
The appellant brought a constitutional grievance appeal against the resolution issued by the Second Civil Chamber of the Superior Court of Justice of Lima regarding the prosecutorial decisions made in her underlying rape case. The Constitutional Tribunal (the “Tribunal”) concluded that the internal-control offices’ dispositions did not sufficiently explain why an investigation against the local prosecutor was not pursued.
A public defender challenged the constitutionality of Article 337 of the Civil Code, which stated that in domestic disputes, a judge could take into consideration the education, custom and conduct of both spouses when dealing with cases of cruelty, dishonest behavior or grave injury. He argued that such a law violated the constitutional right of equality before the law. The Constitutional Tribunal agreed in part and disagreed in part, holding that such considerations could only be examined when dealing with cases of grave injury.
In Exp. No. 03378-2019-PA/TC, the petitioner sought to annul a family court decision, upheld on appeal, which granted protective measures to the petitioner’s partner after she accused him of committing psychological violence against her. The Constitutional Tribunal (the “Tribunal”) explained that the petitioner’s fundamental rights to be heard and to defend himself were not absolute but were limited by the victim’s right to live a life free of violence.
A male schoolteacher was accused of sexually abusing one of his female students, a third-grader, and was removed from his job pending the outcome of his trial. He filed a constitutional challenge to his removal, arguing that it violated his due process right to a presumption of innocence, as enumerated in Article 2 of the Peruvian Political Constitution. The court of first instance agreed with the teacher, ordering the school system to reinstate him. The school system argued that the Law of Teachers ("Ley de Profesorado") allows for termination of a teacher without a conviction.
In April 1992, the Petitioner was arrested during a raid by DINCOTE, the counter-terrorism branch of the Peruvian police. The police believed that the Petitioner was a member of the Sendero Luminoso, a communist militant group in Peru. During the raid, the Petitioner was blindfolded, beaten and raped by some of the police officers. When she protested the sexual violence, the officers beat and kicked her. After the raid, the officers took the Petitioner to a DINCOTE facility, where she was detained for more than a year in cells infested with roaches and rats.
