Peru’s forced sterilisation policy could constitute a crime against humanity

More than 300,000 women were sterilised under the guise of a family planning scheme during the 1990s

Peru’s forced sterilisation policy could constitute a crime against humanity, a United Nations committee has said.
More than 300,000 women were sterilised under the guise of a family planning scheme, enacted by the government of ex-president Alberto Fujimori during the 1990s. Estimates suggest less than 10 per cent gave consent.
For decades the women – who were primarily rural and indigenous – have fought for justice, eventually taking their case to the UN women’s rights committee in 2020 over the lack of effective investigations, accountability, and adequate reparations.
On Wednesday, in a landmark ruling, the UN committee found that Fujimori’s policy amounted to sex-based violence and intersectional discrimination. It also said that widespread and systematic forced sterilisation could constitute a crime against humanity under the Rome Statute, though such a decision would fall under the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court.
“The victims described a consistent pattern of being coerced, pressured, or deceived into undergoing sterilisations at clinics lacking proper infrastructure or trained personnel,” said committee member Leticia Bonifaz. 
Bonifaz added that the forced sterilisations were carried out as “part of a systematic and generalised attack against rural and indigenous women”, and that the policy “resulted in the nullification and substitution of their reproductive autonomy”.
It took years for the scale of abuse in Peru to become public knowledge, in part because it happened against the backdrop of a brutal internal conflict that left nearly 70,000 dead. Many of Fujimori’s supporters have continued to deny that forced sterilisations ever happened.
Speaking to The Telegraph, the president of the Association of Victims of Forced Sterilisations of Lima and Callao celebrated the outcome.
“It is gratifying to obtain – through international bodies what in Peru they would not do – the justice  we were all waiting for,” said María Elena Carbajal, aged 54, who was forcibly sterilised 26 years ago.
She said that the ruling was important for all the women who “thought there would be no justice”. 
“Successive governments have failed to recognise the crime, and branded us as liars,” Carbajal said. “Now the state must accept the UN’s decision and respect the rights of the victims who have fought for dignity and respect for more than 28 years.” 
In March, The Telegraph reported on the fight for justice. Florentina Loayza, 45, recalled how at the age of 19 she was sterilised under the pretence of receiving vaccinations. “The doctor put a drip in my arm and I fell unconscious. That is when they mutilated me,” she said. “Since then, I have been living in hell.”
In another case, then 27-year-old Mavila Rios De Rengiro, went to a clinic believing she was having a smear test. “They told me I was having a pap smear, and then they locked us in,” she said. “I was afraid. The doctor didn’t speak to me. I woke up in terrible pain and with a lot of blood.”
Other victims told the committee that they were intercepted and forced onto trucks like cattle before being taken to temporary health centres, where, as one of them described, “medical practitioners sharpening knives and cutting us like animals”.
The victims say they have also suffered severe and permanent consequences for their physical and mental health. Eighteen women died shortly from the operations, after the programme failed to ensure minimum health standards or provide proper pre- and post-operative monitoring, rights groups have said.
Peru has argued the sterilisation programme was part of a broader reproductive health policy, with officials previously saying the policy would decrease poverty, reduce maternal and infant mortality rates, and lower fertility. “Peruvian women should be the owners of their destiny,” Fujimori, who died in September, had declared at the time.
Dr Ñusta Carranza Ko, an associate professor of global affairs and human security, and an expert on indigenous Peruvians, said Fujimori’s supporters have rejected the UN’s ruling with “hate and denial”. 
“They reject that this is a crime tied to the former president, noting that ‘not even in death, they leave him in peace’. Their reaction resembles many authoritarian leader’s supporters who develop a cult following of the leader,” she said.
The UN concluded its finding by raising concerns about a law promulgated by the State party in August, which prevents the prosecution of crimes against humanity committed before 2002. It warns such a decision contravenes international law.
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