Human rights commission orders El Salvador to provide anti-retroviral therapy

The Interamerican Human Rights Commission in Washington, DC has ordered the government of El Salvador to begin supplying anti-retroviral medications to 26 Salvadorans who had filed a petition last September.

The Commission invoked "medidas cautelaras" which function like a temporary restraining order. In its letter dated Febuary 29th the Commission ordered the Salvadoran government to:

"provide medical attention necessary to protect the life and health of Jorge Odir Miranda Cortéz and the other 25 aforementioned people...In particular the Commission solicits that your illustrious government provide anti-retroviral medications necessary to avoid the death of the aforementioned persons, as well as hospital attention, other medications and nutritional support which strengthen the immune system and impede the development of illnesses and infections."

The restraining order is valid for six months while legal proceedings continue.

The Commission's decision is legally binding in El Salvador which has ratified the Interamerican Human Rights Convention. It may set a precedent for people living with AIDS in other Latin American countries to file similar petitions. The Salvadoran government has 15 days from February 29th to comply with the decision.

The original letter to Commission was written by activist Richard Stern in September of 1999 and referred to a group of 36 Salvadoran people living with AIDS, members of the non-governmental organization called ATLACATL, whose President is Jorge Odir Miranda. Subsequently, beginning early in 2000, Salvadoran lawyer Carlos Urquillo provided supporting legal arguments as to why the commission should adopt "medidas cautelaras."

The Commission was also notified by Stern in early January that 10 of the original 36 members of the ATLACATL group had died during the previous four months and that urgent intervention was needed to save the lives of the survivors.

The case was presented to the Commission because the Salvadoran Supreme Court had failed to act on a petition filed by the same persons in April of 1999. Cases can only be presented to the Commission when all recourse to justice on a National level have been exhausted, but the Commission recognises that unreasonable delays which may lead to death also can represent exhaustion of legal proceedings at a National level.

Notified of the decision Miranda commented "thank God that somebody has finally listened to us."

The case actually affects more than 1500 Salvadoran citizens who live with AIDS. Theoretically each of them would now be able to receive a favorable decision if they present a case to the Interamerican Commission. But Stern pointed out that "the hope is that the Salvadoran government will simply adopt procedures to provide medications to all people who need them and not continue to delay compliance in the face of the very strong action taken by the Commission.

This is what happened in Costa Rica in 1997 when the Supreme Court ordered the government there to provide medications to 4 individuals. Shortly thereafter the National Health Care system simply began to give the medications to everyone." 800 Costa Ricans now receive anti-retroviral medications.

In Salvador the case is complicated by the fact that not all of the 1500 people with AIDS are members of the Government run Health Care program. Perhaps two-thirds are completely uninsured. "It will be very important to see how this plays out," said Stern, "as this situation is parallel to that in many Latin countries where only a relatively small percentage of individuals have access to the Social Health system."

The Interamerican Human Rights Commission issues "medidas cautelares" only on rare occasions when a situation of life or death is involved.

Richard Stern

Asoc. Agua Buena, San José, Costa Rica, 506-234-2411

e-mail: rastern@sol.racsa.co.cr

Jorge Odir Miranda

President, Asoc. ATLACATL, 503-232-3942

Odir_Miranda@ads.org.sv

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