Case of Eulogia Guzmán and her son Sergio v. Peru

Eulogia is a Quechua woman who wanted to have a vertical birth according to her traditions and in the same way she had delivered her other five children, but the Peruvian government ignored her cultural practices regarding pregnancy and afterbirth care. Sergio, the baby, was diagnosed with a functional diversity that led to multiple disabilities and eventually died when he was only 12 years old.

The Center for Reproductive Rights and Promsex took Eulogia’s case to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights to guarantee the protection of women’s rights, particularly those belonging to ethnic minorities. We identified that in Peru there is a context of maternal health mistreatment against rural and indigenous women, particularly Quechua-speaking women.