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	Inter-American Court of Human Rights orders reparations for forced sterilisation case in Peru by IACHR, OHCHR, news agencies   Mar. 2026   The Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACHR) has ordered Peru to pay reparations to the family of Celia Ramos, a mother of three whose death resulted from a campaign of forced sterilisations during the 1990s.   The ruling stated that the 34-year-old Ramos was coerced into sterilisation against her will, causing an allergic reaction that led to her death. The court ordered Peru to pay her family $340,000 as part of the ruling.   It noted that the Peruvian government had “failed to fulfill its obligation to initiate and conduct a thorough investigation” into Ramos’s case, heightening the strain on her family.   “Ms Ramos Durand’s family members — especially her three daughters, who were children at the time of the events — suffered profound harm as a consequence of the sterilization and death of Celia Edith Ramos Durand and the impunity surrounding the case,” the IACHR wrote in its decision.   Peru’s campaign of forced sterilisation took place under the late President Alberto Fujimori, whose tenure included widespread human rights abuses that continue to cast a shadow over the country.   The scheme largely targeted poor and Indigenous women who were often tricked or coerced into sterilisation procedures.   This week’s ruling is the first time the human rights court has weighed in on the issue, which has been the subject of years of legal contestation in Peru.   “After almost 30 years of searching for justice, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights recognised the responsibility of the Peruvian state in the forced sterilisation and death of Celia Ramos,” the Peruvian feminist organisation DEMUS said.   “This ruling marks a fundamental step in reparations for Celia, her family and the thousands of victims of forced sterilizations in Peru.”   As many as 314,000 women and 24,000 men were sterilised against their will in Peru under Fujimori’s government. The procedures were particularly invasive for the women involved, leading to long-term complications, including death.   Family members often received little information about the circumstances that led to loved ones dying after the unnecessary operations. Some survivors did not realise what had happened to them until years later, when they discovered they were unable to have children.   In Ramos’s case, the 34-year-old mother had gone to a state health clinic for medical assistance on July 3, 1997, but was instead forced to undergo tubal ligation. Ramos, however, suffered a severe allergic reaction during the procedure. She was placed in a recovery room, but the clinic was not able to treat her adequately.   In its decision, the IACHR explained that the clinic “lacked the necessary equipment and medications for adequate risk assessment or to handle emergencies”.   Ramos was ultimately transferred to an intensive care unit in the city of Piura, where she died 19 days later, on July 22, 1997.   The state did not carry out an autopsy and declined to share details with her family.   In October 2024, the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women at the United Nations ruled that Peru’s sterilisation programme amounted to sex-based violence and discrimination against poor, rural and Indigenous women.   The committee’s statement cited a lack of adequate medical facilities and a lack of informed consent, just as the IACHR did in its decision this week.   “The victims described a consistent pattern of being coerced, pressured, or deceived into undergoing sterilisations at clinics lacking proper infrastructure or trained personnel,” committee member Leticia Bonifaz said.   “The procedures were carried out without informed consent from these victims, with some of them, especially those from remote areas, unable to read and speak Spanish, or fully understand the nature of the procedure.”   Scholars have concluded that Fujimori’s sterilisation campaign was driven, in part, by racist views among government officials who saw rural, Indigenous communities as an obstacle to economic modernisation.   But Fujimori’s legacy remains contested in Peru. Victims who have spoken out about their experiences have reported being harassed and threatened by supporters of Fujimori, whose daughter Keiko remains an influential figure in national politics. She is a candidate for the presidency in Peru’s upcoming general elections in April.   Formerly a representative in Peru’s Congress, Keiko Fujimori served as first lady under her father from 1994 to 2000. She has denied that her father is guilty of any human rights abuses, reflecting a trend of denialism in the country.   In 2009, the elder Fujimori was convicted of human rights violations and sentenced to 25 years in prison, but in 2017, then-President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski issued a pardon for Fujimori that was subsequently contested in court. He was ultimately released in December 2023 but died several months later, in 2024.   Since his death, advocates have continued to push for accountability from other high-level government officials in his administration.   Mar 2026   Inter-American Court finds Peru guilty of Forced Sterilization, Reproductive Violence, and Denial of Autonomy - Center for Reproductive Rights:   "Today marks a historic turning point for justice in the Americas. For the first time, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights—the region’s highest tribunal—has held the State of Peru accountable for the forced sterilization and subsequent death of Celia Ramos. The ruling advances the protection of women’s reproductive autonomy, consolidating the principle that the right to health is inseparable from civil and political rights, and that States bear a heightened duty to guarantee free, prior, full, and informed consent — with particular rigor in surgical sterilization procedures.   Celia Ramos was a Peruvian mother of three living in poverty who sought medical care in 1997. Under a discriminatory state policy targeting poor and marginalized people, she was subjected to forced sterilization and died 19 days later. The Court confirmed that this was part of an unjust policy that violated women’s reproductive autonomy — and established that consent must result from a genuine, coercion-free process, never the product of pressure, deception, or the substitution of a woman’s will.   The judgment is a foundational pronouncement on reproductive violence — recognizing it as a form of institutional violence and gender-based discrimination. The Court found that Peru’s National Reproductive Health and Family Planning Program set coercive numerical targets directed almost exclusively at women of reproductive age, disproportionately affecting women in poverty, indigenous women, and rural women, and generating systemic violations that national oversight bodies identified and the State left unaddressed.   Peru was found responsible for violations of the right to life, personal integrity, health, private life, equality before the law, and the prohibition of violence against women".   http://reproductiverights.org/news/inter-american-court-finds-peru-guilty-of-forced-sterilization-reproductive-violence-and-denial-of-autonomy/ http://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2024/10/peru-fujimori-governments-forced-sterilisation-policy-violated-womens-rights http://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2026/mar/06/peruvian-state-responsible-for-mothers-death-in-forced-sterilisation-court-rules
	With maternity centres under attack, more women are at risk of dying in pregnancy and childbirth by UN sexual and reproductive health agency (UNFPA) Ukraine   Dec. 2025   With maternity centres under attack, more women are at risk of dying in pregnancy and childbirth in Ukraine.   In a neonatal unit at Kyiv Hospital, Anton rests in a mobile incubator. He was born premature three days earlier, an occurrence that health workers say has become increasingly common.   “Many of the women coming here are under immense stress,” obstetrician Dr. Heintz told UNFPA, the UN sexual and reproductive health agency, which provides mobile incubators to the hospital. “The fear, the uncertainty, the travel – all of it contributes to complications in pregnancy.”   The violence, stress and displacement have had devastating consequences for pregnant women and newborns in Ukraine, with a 37 per cent rise in maternal death rates from 2023 to 2024, according to the latest data from the World Health Organization (WHO) and partners.   “We’ve seen a rise in premature births, and these babies depend on ventilators, on drugs that help them breathe, and on the staff who stay even during shelling,” added the doctor, himself displaced from his home in Donetsk.   Frequent electricity cuts, infrastructure damage and stock-outs of supplies and equipment mean many premature babies like Anton rely on humanitarian supplies and equipment from organizations like UNFPA.   “It’s the difference between life and death in some cases,” explained Dr. Heintz. “When the shelling starts, we just keep going on with our duties.”   Healthcare under attack   In early October 2025, a missile struck a UNFPA-supported maternity hospital in the city of Sumy, in northeast Ukraine. More than 160 pregnant women and new mothers, newborns and healthcare workers made it to a basement shelter just before impact.   And just last week, a maternity hospital in Kherson supported by UNFPA was damaged in an attack. Health workers and patients once again took shelter in the basement unit, which was constructed with UNFPA’s support.   The Kherson City Perinatal Centre is just 1.5 km from active front lines and remains under constant threat from artillery and drone attacks. Luckily, no one was injured – and a baby girl was even safely delivered underground.   Many hospitals have relocated delivery rooms to underground facilities, adjusting to terrifying conditions that few healthcare systems globally could withstand.   For health workers, these interventions are part of a daily reality that has redefined what it means to provide maternal care. The country’s doctors and midwives now operate in wards where electricity can fail at any moment, where air-raid sirens interrupt deliveries.   The attacks are part of a broader pattern of terror across Ukraine, where more than 80 maternity and neonatal care facilities have been damaged or destroyed since Russia’s full-scale invasion began in February 2022 – among over 2,500 healthcare sites hit nationwide.   War, stress and lack of access to medical services   Each new assault adds to a deepening national exhaustion. Mental health needs in Ukraine are soaring, with a recent survey revealing that almost 60 per cent of Ukrainians now experience anxiety and intense stress linked to the constant shelling, displacement and loss.   Experts have warned that millions of people are at risk of developing a mental health condition as a result of the war.   Doctors have also linked the chronic stress, displacement and frequent disruption of medical services to rising pregnancy complications, especially among women living in combat zones.   In Kherson, UNFPA estimates the number of preterm births to have reached 11.8 per cent – almost twice the national average – and the region also has the highest stillbirth rate in the country.   Many towns and villages in Kherson remain partially cut off from electricity, heating and medical care, making the currently high rates of Caesarean section deliveries even more perilous.   The latest report also states that the average rate of Caesarean section births across Ukraine stands at over 28 per cent – well above WHO’s recommended 10 to 15 per cent – with some of the highest levels near the front line, up to 46 per cent in Kherson.   UNFPA provides hospitals across Ukraine with essentials like mobile incubators, sterile neonatal equipment and life-saving medicines for premature newborns. Among these medicines are Curosurf and Peyona, which can be instrumental in helping premature babies breathe more easily at such a vulnerable stage of their lives.   UNFPA is also supporting the construction and refurbishment of underground maternity hospitals that allow women to give birth safely, even under bombardment. In the Kherson City Perinatal Centre, the underground ward registered a total of 118 deliveries underground in 2024, with 110 deliveries so far in 2025.   A similar facility is operating in Sumy and two additional centres are underway in Kharkiv, which are supported by the Government of Ireland.   Despite the harsh conditions, maternal health workers emphasize the need for stability and continuity of care. The ability to safely deliver children, they told UNFPA, is not just a medical necessity but a sign that community life can still exist amid the war.   * A new humanitarian appeal released today by UNFPA, calls for US$ 1 billion in urgent funding for 2026 to support women and girls caught up in some of the world’s worst crises – and who suffered some of the harshest impacts of the unprecedented funding cuts to the aid sector this year. UNFPA’s 2026 Humanitarian Action Overview aims to meet the needs of more than 34 million women, girls and young people in 42 countries: http://tinyurl.com/y86y7sz5   http://www.unfpa.org/news/maternity-centres-under-attack-more-women-are-risk-dying-pregnancy-and-childbirth-ukraine http://www.unfpa.org/emergencies http://www.unfpa.org/news http://www.savethechildren.net/news/about-8-million-babies-born-conflicts-and-climate-disasters-2025 http://www.savethechildren.net/what-we-do/emergencies Visit the related web page
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