Raped Girl’s Family Accepts Protection Program for Change of Name and Residence

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The family of the 10-year-old girl who became pregnant after being raped in Espírito Santo and underwent a procedure to interrupt her pregnancy agreed to join the Support and Protection Program for Witnesses, Victims and Relatives of Victims of Violence (PROVITA), provided by the State Government with assistance such as a change of identity and address.

The child’s discharge from the Integrated Health Center Amaury de Medeiros (CISAM), in Pernambuco, where the abortion was performed, was confirmed on Wednesday, August 19th, but its date and time and the girl’s destination were not disclosed.

The child’s grandparents have custody, because her mother died and her father is in prison.

According to the State Secretariat of Human Rights (SEDH), the program is confidential, therefore additional details about the child and her family will not be disclosed.

According to data available on the ECHR’s website, the program aims, among other features, “to provide the protected individual with social reintegration into a new territory, different from the place of the event and threat; to promote support for the exercise of civil and administrative obligations that require personal attendance; to safely foster access to rights, including family and community coexistence.”

Abortion in Pernambuco

The ten-year-old girl from the city of São Mateus, in Espírito Santo, became pregnant after having been raped by her uncle since she was six years old.

On Tuesday, August 18th, the hospital management reported that the girl was well and able to be discharged from the facility, but that this would only be possible after measures were taken to preserve the victim’s integrity.

The child’s discharge from the Integrated Health Center Amaury de Medeiros (CISAM), in Pernambuco, where the abortion was performed, was confirmed on Wednesday, August 19th, but its date and time and the girl’s destination were not disclosed.

Her uncle, the suspect in the crime, was arrested on Tuesday, August 18th in Betim, Minas Gerais. According to the victim’s report, the crime had been occurring since the girl was six years old. The girl did not report it because she said she was threatened.

After being arrested, the uncle was interviewed by the police, but the substance of the deposition has not been disclosed. “Informally” he would have confessed to the abuse to the officers who made the arrest.

The girl was forced to travel to Recife to have her pregnancy interrupted because, in her home state, the doctors at the hospital where she was seen stated that they did not have the technical capacity to perform the procedure.

On Tuesday, the CISAM’s chief physician, Olímpio Morais, said the child smiled again following the procedure. While in the healthcare facility, the girl received gifts such as perfume, makeup, books, toys and flowers.

Protests

On Sunday, August 16th, the day the girl reached the state, religious zealots protested against the termination of her pregnancy and tried to break into the maternity ward after right-wing extremist Sara Giromini violated the Statute of the Child and Adolescent by publishing on the Internet the name of the victim and the location where she would be attended.

In Recife, social worker Bruna Martins, who assisted the girl, said neither she nor her grandmother, who is the child’s maternal reference, heard the protests outside the CISAM.

Protests advocating for the child’s right to abortion also took place outside the hospital on that same day. The abortion was granted by a court ruling.

Prison

According to the Civil Police, the 33-year-old man who is suspected of raping the child did not resist arrest and was located in Minas after investigative efforts. He was in the home of relatives. The police officers obtained his contact and negotiated his surrender. The officers left Vitória, Espírito Santo, on Monday, August 17th, and headed to Betim to make the arrest.

The man was taken to the Xuri Penitentiary Complex, in Vila Velha, Grande Vitória. He was indicted for rape of a vulnerable person and threat.

Following the procedure, teams from the Pernambuco Forensic Police collected genetic samples of the fetus and the child, after a ruling by the Espírito Santo Court.

UN

A United Nations branch in Brazil expressed solidarity with the girl and declared its support for the national authorities’ initiatives to investigate and prosecute this crime in accordance with due legal process.

“Sexual violence, in many cases silenced, destroys childhoods, undermining the right of every girl and boy to live a life free of violence and other human rights violations. Cases like this have consequences that negatively impact these children’s lives for many years, hindering the full development of their potential as human beings,” reads an excerpt from the letter.

Source: G1