PRESS RELEASE

 

N° 23/10

 

IACHR TAKES CASES INVOLVING ECUADOR AND PERU TO THE INTER-AMERICAN COURT

 

Washington, D.C., March 2, 2010—The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) filed applications with the Inter-American Court of Human Rights in cases related to Ecuador and Peru.

 

On February 24, 2010, the IACHR filed an application in Case 11.535, Pedro Miguel Vera Vera et al., Ecuador. The case has to do with the lack of adequate medical attention, the physical and psychological suffering, and the subsequent death of Pedro Miguel Vera Vera while he was in the custody of the State. Pedro Miguel Vera Vera was detained by the police on April 12, 1993. He had a gunshot wound and was taken to a public hospital. The next day he was released and transferred to a detention center, where he remained for four days without medical treatment. On April 16 a court order was issued for his transfer to a hospital for surgery. He was transferred the following day but the surgery was done on April 22, and he died hours later. The facts in the case have not yet been clarified, nor have those responsible been identified or punished.

 

In another matter, on January 16, 2010, the IACHR filed an application in Case 12.384, Members of the Union of Employees, Professionals, and Technicians of the Lima Water and Sewerage Service Company (SEDAPAL), Peru. The case involves the violation of the right to judicial protection, to the detriment of 233 members of that trade union, due to the failure of the State to provide them with an effective recourse to the retroactive application of decrees that eliminated the wage scale system governing them between 1991 and 1992, despite the fact that the applicable Political Constitution established the guarantee of the non-retroactive application of the law. The State of Peru recognized its international responsibility for the lack of judicial protection; however, to date it has not adopted effective measures to provide adequate reparation.  

 

A principal, autonomous body of the Organization of American States (OAS), the IACHR derives its mandate from the OAS Charter and the American Convention on Human Rights. The Commission is composed of seven independent members who act in a personal capacity, without representing a particular country, and who are elected by the OAS General Assembly.

 

Useful links

 

Application in Case 12.384, Members of the Union of Employees, Professionals, and Technicians of the Lima Water and Sewerage Service Company, Peru

Applications filed by the IACHR to the Inter-American Court

IACHR Web site

 

 

 

Read this press release in Spanish / Lea este comunicado de prensa en español

 

Press contact: María Isabel Rivero
Tel. (202) 458-3867
E-mail:
mrivero@oas.org

 

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