Human Rights Watch (HRW) said in a report Wednesday that Ecuador’s implemented measures to prevent sexual violence in schools were not effectively protecting children amid reports of sexual violence within the educational system.
According to the report, 2,827 sexual violence cases were reported within Ecuador’s educational system between January 2020 and June 2024, as well as 6,438 in the last 10 years, respectively. The school-related sexual violence cases were allegedly perpetrated by individuals such as teachers, janitors, and students. While male perpetrators accounted for virtually 99 percent of school-related sexual violence, 90 percent of victims were female. In addition, bus drivers allegedly perpetrated 78 other cases between January 2014 and June 2024.
The report said that Ecuador’s implemented measures to prevent school-related sexual violence still leave students vulnerable to abuse as school staff do not report all sexual violence cases to educational officials and judicial authorities, although the education ministry’s protocols require them to. The report attributed the lack of documentation to a limited understanding of the education ministry’s protocols, the prioritization of educational institutions’ reputations, and a substantial shortage of student welfare personnel.
The report also stated that barriers in Ecuador’s judicial system, such as a shortage of prosecutors and the limited expertise of prosecutors and judges in handling sexual violence cases against children and adolescents, prevented effective investigations and prosecutions of school-related sexual violence. This hindered survivors from finding justice and delivered impunity for perpetrators. According to data HRW analyzed from the Attorney General’s Office, only 17 of 647 sexual violence complaints against school personnel, teachers, and students between 2020 and 2022 went to trial.
Underscoring the importance of continuous training for prosecutors and judges to overcome barriers in Ecuador’s judicial system, the report wrote:
Though a necessary first step for all actors involved in investigations and cases involving survivors of sexual violence, training is not enough to overcome the deep discriminatory and prejudicial challenges entrenched in judicial institutions. Prosecutors and judges may retain counterproductive attitudes or biases that training alone cannot change. These attitudes and biases can lead officials to unfavorably weigh the testimony of survivors, re-traumatize survivors in the course of proceedings [] or dissuade survivors from continuing with their cases. This underscores the need for periodic and continuous training and [] evaluations of prosecutorial and judicial staff.
The Inter-American Court of Human Rights previously ruled against Ecuador in Paola Guzmán Albarracín v. Ecuador and ordered the country to implement measures to eradicate school-related sexual violence in June 2020. The measures included training educational staff on treating and preventing sexual violence, providing assistance to sexual violence victims and their families and regularly updating statistical information on school-related sexual violence.
Relatedly, Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa declared a state of emergency on May 22 in seven of the country’s 24 provinces as a response to Ecuador’s internal armed conflict. The localized state of emergency suspended constitutional rights to inviolability of the home and privacy of correspondence. According to HRW, many detainees were denied their legal rights and never brought before prosecutors or judges. HRW also stated that numerous individuals have been subjected to extrajudicial, brief detentions and reprisals, beatings, or other degrading treatment at the hands of soldiers and police officers.
Previously on September 8, 2023, UN Special Rapporteur on Extreme Poverty and Human Rights Olivier De Schutter cited poverty as the “root cause” of violence and instability in Ecuador. He stressed that limited employment options, coupled with poor education, have made young people, “easy recruits for criminal gangs” which subsequently extort small businesses and create fear and despair in the community. He stated, “Schools in Ecuador are not only unsafe; the quality of education is so low that they fail to compensate for the disadvantages experienced by children from underprivileged backgrounds[.]”
