9.
As I mentioned previously, in my concurring opinion in the judgment in the Case of
the Workers of the Fireworks Factory in Santo Antônio de Jesus and their families v. Brazil,2
I understand intersectionality as the confluence in a single person or group of persons, of
the violation of different rights, which makes them victims of enhanced discrimination. The
confluence of numerous discriminations increases the devastating effects on the human
dignity of the persons who suffer from them and results in a greater and more diverse
violation of rights than when these discriminations are constituted in relation to a single
right.
10. The first person to address the concept of intersectionality was Kimberle Crenshaw
when indicating that black women encounter combined race and sex discrimination. Thus,
compared to a white woman or an Afro-descendant man, their situation may be similar or
different, but involves greater vulnerability.3 She also developed the importance of its
significance when designing and evaluating policies in order to avoid remedies focused on
the acceptance of the predominant factor of discrimination that make the intersection of
other factors of discrimination invisible.4
11.
The concept of intersectionality, as a hermeneutic element, allows the Court to
determine persons or groups who suffer discrimination and analyze the causes of this
situation. As it has in this judgment, the assessment of this phenomenon, the adequate
understanding of its severity and the analysis of its causes and effects for the individual,
helps the Court decide the merits of the cases submitted to its consideration and, also,
provides the necessary perspective for establishing reparations that include, inter alia,
appropriate measures of non-repetition that impose on the States lines of action aimed at
overcoming discrimination and the violation of rights.
12. The IACtHR used the concept of “intersectionality” for the first time in the analysis of
the discrimination suffered by a child in access to education in the case of Gonzales Lluy
et al. v. Ecuador.5 In that case, it asserted that: “numerous factors of vulnerability and risk
of discrimination intersected that were associated with her condition as a minor, a female,
a person living in poverty, and a person living with HIV. The discrimination experienced by
Talía was caused not only by numerous factors, but also arose from a specific form of
discrimination that resulted from the intersection of those factors; in other words, if one
of those factors had not existed, the discrimination would have been different. Indeed, the
poverty had an impact on the initial access to health care that was not of the best quality
and that, to the contrary, resulted in the infection with HIV. The situation of poverty also
had an impact on the difficulties to gain access to the education system and to lead a
decent life.”6
13. In addition, the Commission, in an analysis of poverty,7 has referred to the
differentiated impact of poverty as a factor of vulnerability that is increased and
exacerbated when it is added to the vulnerability of certain groups of the population such
as women.
Case of the Workers of the Fireworks Factory of Santo Antônio de Jesus and their families v. Brazil.
Preliminary objections, merits, reparations and costs. Judgment of July 15, 2020. Series C No. 407, Concurring
opinion of Judge Ricardo C. Pérez Manrique
2
Cf. Kimberle Crenshaw, «Demarginalizing the Intersection of Race and Sex: A Black Feminist Critique of
Antidiscrimination Doctrine, Feminist Theory and Antiracist Politics», University of Chicago Legal Forum 1, No. 8,
1989, p. 149. Available at:
https://chicagounbound.uchicago.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1052&context=uclf.
3
4
Cf. Kimberle Crenshaw, supra, p. 152.
Cf. Case of Gonzales Lluy et al. v. Ecuador. Preliminary objections, merits, reparations and costs. Judgment
of September 1, 2015. Series C No. 298.
5
6
Cf. Case of Gonzales Lluy et al. v. Ecuador, supra, para. 290.
7
Cf. IACHR. Report on poverty and human rights in the Americas. OEA/Ser.L/V/II.164, September 7, 2017.
3
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