Lawyer Noelia Núñez, who represents children and adolescents who are victims of abuse in Paraguay, has denounced that access to justice for girls and women is a race with 'glass barriers,' in which revictimization is perpetuated through procedural formalities. In an interview, she recounted a emblematic case: a 12-year sentence for sexual abuse was overturned because a seal was missing on digital evidence — a medical diagnosis confirming a sexually transmitted disease. The victim, who was 16 at the time of the crime, will now have to face a third trial.
'Forcing a victim who was assaulted at age 16 to face a third oral trial — after already obtaining a twelve-year sentence — is a cruel form of revictimization,' Núñez said. 'It’s not just the trauma of the abuse; it’s the trauma of a system that won’t let the wound heal because it demands a physical seal on digital evidence that no one questioned.'
The lawyer classified the process as 'institutional violence,' when the state apparatus, instead of seeking justice, exercises a bureaucratic violence that undermines the victim’s psychological integrity. She cited the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, which in the case 'V.R.P. vs. Nicaragua' considered that repeating procedural acts due to surmountable formal defects is a violation of human rights. 'Justice should heal, not wear down until impunity,' she said.
Núñez highlighted that in other countries, the victim’s testimony is already sufficient to reach a conviction, thanks to advances in the psychology of testimony. 'The mother and vital evidence is the victim’s testimony,' she stated. She also criticized the social tendency to minimize reports and blame the victim, especially when they are women. 'We think that because the numbers aren’t skyrocketing, the situation has improved, but what we have is a response of silence out of fear of stigmatization.'
The unconstitutionality action filed by Núñez seeks to mark a 'milestone' in the history of victims of sexual abuse and rape, by demanding that the justice system adopt a gender perspective and recognize institutional violence as a violation of rights. 'The state is the primary guarantor, but responsibility falls on all operators,' she concluded.