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DRI files international case to protect children and adults detained in Guatemala’s dangerous Federico Mora institution
Washington, DC – October 29, 2014 - Disability
Rights International (DRI) filed a case today in the Inter-American
Commission on Human Rights of the Organization of American States (OAS)
on behalf of people with disabilities detained in Guatemala’s Federico
Mora psychiatric institution.
“Federico Mora is the most violent and dangerous facility we’ve discovered anywhere in the Americas,”
said DRI Executive Director Eric Rosenthal. “We are fighting to protect
the 340 children and adults detained at Federico Mora – and
institutions like this throughout the Americas.”
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| Women detained in the Federico Mora psychiatric institution, where they are at high risk of sexual abuse and trafficking |
The Federico Mora psychiatric institution is located next to a prison
in one of the most crime-ridden parts of Guatemala City where gangs are
powerful. Armed police and soldiers with machine guns assigned to guard
detainees also prey on children and adults with disabilities. Staff
and patients have reported that rape, violence, and other forms of abuse
are routine. DRI has received reports that patients are trafficked into
the prison and outsiders are brought into the facility to exploit
detainees for sex. People subjected to sexual abuse are exposed to
HIV/AIDS, which is widespread at the facility, and almost no medical
care is available. Staff report that there have been three recent
deaths.
“There is a palpable climate of fear among detainees and
staff. Witnesses tell us they will be killed if they are identified by
the perpetrators,” said DRI attorney Humberto Guerrero. “We are
meeting today with the Inter-American Commission to ask for urgent
‘precautionary measures’ to protect these witnesses. We are also seeking
protections for DRI investigators who have been threatened with
violence for monitoring conditions at Federico Mora.”
“Detaining people with disabilities in snake pits like this violates
international law. Federico Mora can’t be fixed up – it must be closed
down,” says Rosenthal. “This case will set a powerful new precedent in
challenging the segregation of people with disabilities,” says DRI legal
advisor Tara Melish, a professor at SUNY Buffalo Law School, one of the
authors of the brief. “
We are asking the Human Rights
Commission to protect the right of people with disabilities to live and
receive treatment in the community. Our case argues that
Guatemala’s law on guardianship improperly strips people of their legal
identity and denies their right to decide where they will live or what
treatment they receive. People under guardianship lose any right to file
a complaint about abuse.”
“When our team first visited the facility, we found a boy held in a
barren isolation cell. We were told by staff he was there for his own
safety – as he would be raped as soon as he was released among the other
patients,” said Priscilla Rodriguez, Director of DRI’s Women’s Rights
Initiative. “
The rampant sexual abuse is dangerous for all the patients, but women and girls are especially vulnerable. All women in the facility are given birth control without their knowledge.”
DRI is bringing the case in collaboration with the Human Rights Office of the Archdiocese of Guatemala City (ODHAG).