negative impact on criminal investigations and the assessment of the evidence.” In the area
of health care, “women facing obstetric problems are attended based, above all, on the
procedures established in the [health] manuals and guidelines.” It also indicated that, in order
to reinforce the professional capacity of public defenders, the Attorney General “had imparted
training sessions that contribute to improving the role of the defense in complex cases and to
compliance with the mandate of filing pertinent remedies at each procedural stage.”
294. The Court recognizes the important progress that the State has made in training its
public officials in the area of human rights, the use of stereotypes against women subject to
criminal prosecution, and medical attention for obstetric emergencies. Nevertheless, in this
case, the Court considers it necessary for the State to adopt, within one year, an awarenessraising and training program for both judicial officials and also the health personnel of the
Rosales National Hospital. In the case of the former, the State must adopt permanent
education and training programs for judicial officials who intervene in criminal proceedings
against women accused of abortion or infanticide, including public defenders, on the standards
developed by the Court in this case in relation to the discriminatory nature of the use of
presumptions and gender stereotypes in the investigation and criminal prosecution of women
accused of such offenses; the credibility and weight given to women’s voices, arguments and
testimony, as parties and witnesses, and the effect of the inflexible standards (stereotypes)
often developed by judges and prosecutors for what they consider to be appropriate behavior
for women.450 In addition, it must explain the restrictions to the use of handcuffs or other
similar devices on women who are about to give birth, during the delivery, or in the period
immediately after this, or who have suffered obstetric emergencies, pursuant to the standards
developed in paragraphs 198 to 200 of this judgment.
295. In the case of health personnel, the Court deems it pertinent to order the State to design
and implement, within the same time frame, a training course on medical professional secrecy
for the nursing and medical staff of the Rosales National Hospital, based on the standards
developed in this judgment concerning the scope of medical professional secrecy and its
exceptions, and on gender stereotypes, as well as on the protocol ordered by this Court for
the attention of women who require urgent medical care for obstetric emergencies (supra
para. 288).
D.4 Adaptation of the criminal dosimetry for infanticide
296. In the instant case, the Court has verified that the imposition on Manuela of a sentence
of 30 years’ imprisonment was based on a regulation that failed to take into account the
particular situation of women during the perinatal period, and this is contrary to the American
Convention. Therefore, the Court considers that the State must, within two years, amend its
criminal laws in order to make them compatible with the standards concerning the
proportionality of the punishment in this type of case, as established in paragraphs 161 to
172 of this judgment. While this amendment is being made, the Court recalls that state
authorities and, in particular, judges have the obligation to apply a control of conventionality
in their decisions.
D.5 Sexual and reproductive education program
297. The Commission asked that the Court order the State to “establish effective
mechanisms to inform women at the local level, particularly poor women living in rural areas,
of their rights with regard to sexual and reproductive health.” In addition, the
representatives requested that the State organize information campaigns on sexual and
Cf. CEDAW, General recommendation No. 33 on women’s access to justice, CEDAW/C/GC/33, August 3, 2015,
para. 29.c.
450
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