UPR Sexual Rights Database

National Report:
Para 7) ... Act No. 5446/15 on public policies on behalf of women in rural areas.

Para 8) ... Act No. 4675/12 to upgrade the Secretariat for Women into a Ministry.

Para 67) The Ministry for Women was organized by Act No. 4675/12, which established it as the body responsible for directing, setting standards for and coordinating government policy to promote equal rights and opportunities for men and women and for encouraging full participation by women in politics, the economy, society, culture and civil life within the framework of the third national plan for 2008 to 2017 to provide equal opportunities for men and women.

Para 68) The plan determined three strategic lines of action for poverty reduction based on empowerment and social inclusion: a) design of models for action to incorporate the gender perspective into sectoral public policies and to improve the competitiveness of small-scale producers of stevia-ka'a he'e (Stevia rebaudiana) and to increase its exports, b) a social programme to empower women in peri-urban settlements, c) support for women entrepreneurs on family farms.

Para 69) Act No. 5446/15 on public policies on behalf of rural women underpins efforts to promote the economic, political, social and cultural rights of women living in rural areas for their empowerment and advancement. A total of 2,711 women benefited from the project to encourage women's participation in the labour market in the departments of de San Pedro, Caazapá and Canindeyú and it has been extended to include the departments of Alto Paraguay, Paraguarí and Misiones for the direct benefit of 1,686 women.

Para 70) Steps have been taken to encourage women to stand as candidates for decisionmaking positions as part of the programme to improve women's capacity to participate in politics. Work is also under way to develop an agenda to further the political rights of women, to train women holding elected positions and to raise awareness among men. The legislative branch is examining a bill to amend article 32, paragraph r) of Act No. 834/96, on the Paraguayan Electoral Code in respect of the percentage of women in elected positions.

Para 108) The National Career Development Service (SNPP) has provided training for a total of 1,792 women in the different geographical regions of Paraguay; the highest percentages were in Central (27 per cent) and Itapuá (17 per cent) departments (2014). In the same year, as part of its policy to ensure that at least 50 per cent of its trainees are women, the National Professional Skills and Training System (SINAFOCAL) held six courses for women in rural areas. In 2015, 58 courses are being organized.

National Report:
Para 133) The Family Planning Programme, designed to reduce maternal, fetal and neonatal mortality, and the Plan for the Accelerated Reduction of Maternal, Fetal and Neonatal Mortality, which has an implementation committee that in 2020 presented the Plan’s lines of action and indicators, have been launched pursuant to article 61 of the Constitution. The aim of the National Sexual and Reproductive Health Plan 2019–2023 is to ensure universal access, without discrimination, to sexual and reproductive health.
Para 137) The curriculum of the Ministry of Education and the Sciences provides for sex education at different educational levels and at educational institutions of different kinds, while respecting the psychological development of students and the domestic legal framework.

UN Compilation:
Para 39) CEDAW was concerned about the high rates of maternal mortality, mainly owing to unsafe abortions and health professionals refusing to conduct therapeutic abortions. The HR Committee expressed similar concerns.
Para 40) Two Committees and the Special Rapporteur on health noted that the legislation on voluntary termination of pregnancy was extremely restrictive.
Para 45) … The absence of comprehensive sex education in the formal system remained a shortcoming repeatedly pointed out by the authorities.
Para 56) The CEDAW, while welcoming the adoption of a national adolescent health plan covering the period 2016–2021, was concerned at the negative effect on the development of adolescents, specifically on their physical and mental health, their education and their future opportunities for decent work, of the high pregnancy rates among girls aged 10–19 years and the high rates of sexual violence against adolescent girls. The United Nations country team reported that the pregnancy rate among girls aged 10–19 years remained worrying, as did the high maternal mortality rate among 15- to 19-year-olds.

Stakeholder Summary:
Para 60) ADF International stated that maternal mortality remained a pressing concern.
Para 61) Several submissions informed about the alarming number of girls and adolescent pregnancies. JS18 reported that indigenous girls and adolescents were the most vulnerable.
Para 70) JS9 was concerned that the lack of comprehensive sex education had resulted in high rates of sexual abuse, early sexual initiation and early pregnancy. JS9 added that church representatives provided faith-based sex education in public schools and incited discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity. Two submissions mentioned that the Ministry of Education and Science had suspended the implementation of the comprehensive sex education teaching framework and had adopted an anti-gender stance through its decisions No. 29664/17 and No. 1761/19.

National Report:
Para 141) At all levels and in all modes of education, the curriculum takes a rights-based approach and promotes proper treatment and the equality of men and women, with emphasis on the prevention of violence against children and women.
Para 167) Act No. 5777/16 on the Comprehensive Protection of Women from All Forms of Violence was adopted. The Act provides for prevention, care, protection, punishment and comprehensive reparation in the public and private spheres, covers various forms of violence – sexual, physical, psychological, remote, economic, political and workplace violence – and establishes penalties of 10 to 30 years’ imprisonment for femicide. The regulations implementing the Act were adopted under Decree No. 6973/2017.
Para 168) The second National Plan to Combat Violence against Women (2015–2020) was adopted by Decree No. 5140/16, which also established the Inter-Agency Board for the Prevention of Violence against Women. Eighteen agencies from the three branches of government, as well as civil society organizations, are represented on the Board; it is coordinated by the Ministry for Women, which is the advisory body for implementation of Act No. 5777/2016. The implementing regulations were adopted in 2019.
Para 169) The Women’s Support Service provides comprehensive care, information and counselling to women in situations of domestic, sexual, physical, economic and psychological violence in the regional women’s centres and at the Ciudad Mujer Centre Ñande Kerayvoty Renda. The provision of these support services for a life from violence is coordinated by the Ministry for Women.
Para 170) The National Houses of Justice Programme provides free legal advice. An office in Asunción provides advice and legal representation as a result of an agreement between the Ministry of Justice and American University (Paraguay).
Para 171) In 2016, the Civil Service Secretariat adopted a protocol for intervention and guidelines for responses to discrimination and harassment in the workplace (decision No. 516). In 2018, the Secretariat drafted a protocol for action in cases of workplace violence and a guide to ensuring that internal rules are informed by a gender perspective and the imperatives of non-discrimination and respect (decisions No. 387 and No. 388). In 2019, it set up a permanent commission of inquiry and an office for confidential advice in respect of workplace violence.
Para 172) In 2019, the Ministry of Labour, Employment and Social Security created an office to respond to and prevent workplace violence and defined a procedure for responses to such violence (including physical violence, psychological violence or mobbing and sexual violence).
Para 173) The health services follow the instructions in a handbook on comprehensive assistance to victims of domestic and gender-based violence, in which uniform procedures for such assistance and for the collection of evidence are laid out. The Mercedes Sandoval House for Women ensures care and protection by providing housing, security, psychological support, legal assistance, medical care, educational support for children and opportunities to generate income.
Para 174) The Ministry for Women administers the free helpline 137, an operating system designed to provide security for women victims of violence that has nationwide coverage and is available 24 hours a day. Since 2019, the Observatory on Women’s Right to a Life Free from Violence has monitored and conducted research on violence against women with a view to designing public policies, informed by data collected in coordination with other observatories, for the prevention and elimination of such violence.
Para 175) The Public Prosecution Service has a specialized unit that investigates cases of domestic violence and a technical gender office that has a facility for the reception of complaints at the Centre Ciudad Mujer. The Service’s General Instruction No. 9/11 provides for immediate assistance to women victims within the framework of investigations into domestic and gender-based violence.
Para 176) The Ministry of the Interior’s Comprehensive Management of Public Safety Programme contributes to the prevention of domestic violence. The Department for the Assistance of Victims of Domestic Violence was created in 2018.
Para 177) Following a competitive examination, the Council of the Judiciary hired 16 defence lawyers specializing in matters relating to gender-based violence (2018) to work in 11 departments and the Capital District. Public defenders receive ongoing training in this area at the Education and Training Centre for Public Defenders.
Para 178) Since 2017, the Judicial Secretariat for Gender Issues has monitored the application of Act No. 5777/16 by courts and tribunals in order to build a database of relevant jurisprudence. It collects information on equality indicators, which are published by the Gender Observatory. Since 2019, the Secretariat, serving as a link to the court system, has been more heavily involved in cases at the Centre Ciudad Mujer.
Para 179) Through the Regional Programme to Combat Violence against Women in Latin America, the Supreme Court conducts analyses and provides training for magistrates and other officials of judicial districts to ensure the proper application of the Act. A memorandum of understanding was signed with United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women in 2018. In October 2020, magistrates from magistrates’ courts and employees of the Office for the Assistance of Victims of Violence – an office created pursuant to agreement No. 642/2010 and made a part of the magistrates’ courts of Central Department in accordance with agreement No. 1415/2020 – began receiving training on nonworking days or outside working hours.
Para 180) Several institutions undertook outreach and awareness-raising initiatives in connection with violence against women and the related legal framework, including by organizing campaigns, training sessions and publications or by taking other steps.
Para 181) The Ministry for Women and the Judicial Secretariat for Gender Issues are working on a draft bill that would create courts and tribunals specializing in violence against women.
Para 182) The project “Paraguay Protects Women, Children and Adolescents from Violence in the Context of the COVID-19 Emergency”, promoted by the United Nations Development Programme, facilitated the development of protocols for the issuance of protection orders by magistrates’ courts in cases of domestic violence and responses to workplace harassment, sexual harassment and mobbing in the judicial sphere.

UN Compilation:
Para 14) The United Nations country team noted that, in a historic 2019 judgment, a person had been convicted of femicide in the death of a trans woman. However, discrimination on grounds of sexual orientation and gender identity or expression remained pervasive in the practice of public institutions.
Para 53) [HR Committee] was concerned about the increase in domestic and sexual violence against women, girls and adolescents and about reports of an alarming number of femicides. The fact that only a very small number of femicides had been investigated since it was established as a crime in 2016 was of particular concern. The United Nations country team was of the view that the 78 per cent rise in the number of calls to the domestic violence centre between 2019 and 2020 was a sign of the stress families were under.

Stakeholder Summary:
Para 15) JS9 emphasized … the double discrimination faced by women of African descent, who are vulnerable to various forms of sexual violence.
Para 74) Two submissions reported that Act No. 5777/16 on the Comprehensive Protection of Women from All Forms of Violence established femicide as a criminal offence; however, the fact that the Act contained no reference to gender was detrimental to transgender and lesbian women and could lead to it being applied in a discriminatory way. KR added that political violence against women had not been defined as a specific offence.
Para 75) Several submissions noted that during the COVID-19, gender-based violence and child abuse and mistreatment had increased. JS12 added that the State had done little to provide protection and the courts had done nothing. UC was concerned about the limited provision of prevention and support services for women.

National Report:
Para 133) The Family Planning Programme, designed to reduce maternal, fetal and neonatal mortality, and the Plan for the Accelerated Reduction of Maternal, Fetal and Neonatal Mortality, which has an implementation committee that in 2020 presented the Plan’s lines of action and indicators, have been launched pursuant to article 61 of the Constitution. The aim of the National Sexual and Reproductive Health Plan 2019–2023 is to ensure universal access, without discrimination, to sexual and reproductive health.
Para 137) The curriculum of the Ministry of Education and the Sciences provides for sex education at different educational levels and at educational institutions of different kinds, while respecting the psychological development of students and the domestic legal framework.

UN Compilation:
Para 39) CEDAW was concerned about the high rates of maternal mortality, mainly owing to unsafe abortions and health professionals refusing to conduct therapeutic abortions. The HR Committee expressed similar concerns.
Para 40) Two Committees and the Special Rapporteur on health noted that the legislation on voluntary termination of pregnancy was extremely restrictive.
Para 45) … The absence of comprehensive sex education in the formal system remained a shortcoming repeatedly pointed out by the authorities.
Para 56) The CEDAW, while welcoming the adoption of a national adolescent health plan covering the period 2016–2021, was concerned at the negative effect on the development of adolescents, specifically on their physical and mental health, their education and their future opportunities for decent work, of the high pregnancy rates among girls aged 10–19 years and the high rates of sexual violence against adolescent girls. The United Nations country team reported that the pregnancy rate among girls aged 10–19 years remained worrying, as did the high maternal mortality rate among 15- to 19-year-olds.

Stakeholder Summary:
Para 60) ADF International stated that maternal mortality remained a pressing concern.
Para 61) Several submissions informed about the alarming number of girls and adolescent pregnancies. JS18 reported that indigenous girls and adolescents were the most vulnerable.
Para 70) JS9 was concerned that the lack of comprehensive sex education had resulted in high rates of sexual abuse, early sexual initiation and early pregnancy. JS9 added that church representatives provided faith-based sex education in public schools and incited discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity. Two submissions mentioned that the Ministry of Education and Science had suspended the implementation of the comprehensive sex education teaching framework and had adopted an anti-gender stance through its decisions No. 29664/17 and No. 1761/19.

Stakeholder Summary:
Para 50) JS1 noted advances such as the adoption of standards for post-abortion care under a resolution of the Ministry of Public Health and Social Welfare, which aimed to establish standards of care for women who came to health-care services with incomplete or ongoing miscarriages ...

Para 52) AI noted that recommendations calling for a reduction in maternal mortality rates and for the introduction of measures to safeguard women's universal right to life and health through the provision of safe and legal abortion, have yet to be implemented. In 2014, a National Plan on Sexual and Reproductive Health (Plan Nacional de Salud Sexual y Reproductiva 2014 -2018) was published. Despite one of its objectives being the reduction of maternal mortality, the plan makes no reference to changing current legislation.