personnel who fear punishment.”97 A report published in the American Journal of Public Health
revealed that, between 1998 and 2003, 80% of obstetric gynecologists in El Salvador believed
that reporting obstetric emergencies was compulsory in all cases.98
46. Lastly, the Court notes that most of the women prosecuted for such facts had few if any
financial resources,99 came from rural or marginalized urban areas 100 and had little
schooling.101 In addition, many of them were detained and handcuffed while receiving medical
care.102
C.
Manuela and her family unit
47. Manuela was born on August 5, 1977.103 She married when she was 20 years of age,
and then had two children. Shortly after her second son was born, her husband left for the
United States and nothing more was heard of him. Manuela lived with her mother, her father,
her sister and her two sons in the village of Las Mezas, municipality of Cacaopera, department
of Morazán, El Salvador.104 Neither Manuela nor her parents knew how to read or write.105
Cf. Committee for the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, Concluding observations on the combined
eighth and ninth periodic reports of El Salvador, CEDAW/C/SLV/CO/8-9, para. 38.
97
Cf. McNaughton, H., Mitchell, E., Hernandez, E., Padilla, K., & Blandon, M. Patient Privacy and Conflicting
Legal and Ethical Obligations in El Salvador: Reporting of Unlawful Abortions. American Journal of Public Health:
Health Policy and Ethics. Vol 96, No. 11. 2006. Available at: https://ajph.aphapublications.org/doi/pdf/10.2105
/AJPH.2005.071720
98
Cf. Working Group on Arbitrary Detention. Opinion No. 68/2019 concerning Sara del Rosario Rogel García,
Berta Margarita Arana Hernández and Evelyn Beatriz Hernández Cruz (El Salvador) A/HRC/WGAD/2019/68, on March
4, 2020, paras. 100 and 101; Statement of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al
Hussein at the end of his mission to El Salvador, November 17, 2017. Available at: https://www.ohchr.org/
en/NewsEvents/Pages /DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=22412&LangID=E; expert opinion provided by David Ernesto
Morales Cruz on March 4, 2021 (evidence file, folio 3940). See also, affidavit made by María Teresa Rivera on
February 23, 2021 (evidence file, folio 3809); affidavit made by María Marina Pérez on February 26, 2021 (evidence
file, folio 3813); affidavit made by Johana Iris Rosa Gutiérrez on February 22, 2021 (evidence file, folio 3817), and
affidavit made by Teodora del Carmen Vásquez on March 3, 2021 (evidence file, folio 3827).
99
Cf. Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, Opinion No. 68/2019 concerning Sara del Rosario Rogel García,
Berta Margarita Arana Hernández and Evelyn Beatriz Hernández Cruz (El Salvador), A/HRC/WGAD/2019/68 of March
4, 2020, paras. 100 and 101, and expert opinion provided by David Ernesto Morales Cruz on March 4, 2021 (evidence
file, folio 3940). See also, affidavit made by María Teresa Rivera on February 23, 2021 (evidence file, folio 3809),
and affidavit made by Teodora del Carmen Vásquez on March 3, 2021 (evidence file, folio 3827).
100
Cf. Expert opinion provided by David Ernesto Morales Cruz on March 4, 2021 (evidence file, folio 3940). See
also, Affidavit made by María Marina Pérez on February 26, 2021 (evidence file, folio 3813); affidavit made by Alva
Lorena Rodríguez on February 24, 2021 (evidence file, folio 3823), and affidavit made by Teodora del Carmen
Vásquez on March 3, 2021 (evidence file, folio 3827).
101
Cf. Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, Opinion No. 68/2019, concerning Sara del Rosario Rogel García,
Berta Margarita Arana Hernández and Evelyn Beatriz Hernández Cruz (El Salvador), A/HRC/WGAD/2019/68, March
4, 2020, para. 101.
102
103
3160).
Cf. San Francisco Gotera National Hospital. Perinatal medical record of March 27, 2008 (evidence file, folio
Cf. Emergency record dated February 27, 2008 (evidence file, folio 3164); Affidavit made by Manuela’s mother
on September 3, 2017 (evidence file, folio 2281), and Record of the interview of Manuela’s sister on February 28,
2008 (evidence file, folios 1803 and 1804).
104
Cf. Psychological appraisal of Manuela by the Institute of Forensic Medicine of April 25, 2008 (evidence file,
folio 103); Affidavit made by Manuela’s father on September 3, 2017 (evidence file, folio 2288), and Interview of
Manuela’s mother by the representatives on February 26, 2021 (evidence file, folder of audiovisual material, minute
2:11).
105
20