The facts of the petition concern the disappearance and the killing of the 15-year old María Isabel Véliz Franco who disappeared on December 16, 2001 as she was leaving work.

The Inter-American Court framed its analysis within the context of the invisibility of violence against women in Guatemala to develop standards on the state obligation of prevention in light of the special risk of gender violence that women face, as well as criteria for the assessment of evidence in such cases.