Structural inequality, prohibition of discrimination and the right to sexual and (non)reproductive health as part of the economic, social, cultural and environmental rights: The case law stelae of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights

Abstract

This paper focuses on the combination of the standards developed by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights on sexual and (non)reproductive health as one of the Economic, Social, Cultural, and Environmental Rights and the structural inequality intersecting gender, poverty, and rurality in the Manuela and others v. El Salvador case. Our approach does not revolve around the opportunities that the Inter-American Court missed when it ruled on the case, but rather the potential of the standards to uphold, within the framework of the right to sexual and reproductive health, access to voluntary interruption of pregnancy so as not to incur discrimination based on gender, poverty, and rurality. This includes demanding that the State fulfill its positive obligations to create material conditions so that populations suffering from structural inequality can effectively enjoy their Economic, Social, Cultural, and Environmental Rights, which requires rebuilding the standards beyond the specific case in which the Inter-American Court applied them (case law precedents). On this basis, we explore their application in the Manuela and others v. El Salvador case, as well as how they could have been applied (that is, their potential for the case) and for the resolution of other similar cases (case law projections of the standards).