Commission Calls for Guatemala to Protect Patients

[Judi Lynn]

Commission Calls for Guatemala to Protect Patients
By RANDAL C. ARCHIBOLD
Published: November 29, 2012

MEXICO CITY — An international human rights commission has told Guatemala that it must take steps to protect patients at a psychiatric hospital where two human rights groups found them subjected to abuse and terror at the hands of gangs and guards.

The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights this week acted on the findings of the groups, including Disability Rights International, which has investigated psychiatric hospitals across Latin America and said that the Federico Mora Hospital in Guatemala City was among the most troubling.

Children and adults were abused at the hospital, basic medical care was denied and women were subjected to sex trafficking, often controlled by guards from the national police and gang members given access to the hospital from an adjacent prison, the commission said.

On an inspection of the grounds last summer, investigators from Disability Rights International and the Office of Human Rights of the Archdiocese of Guatemala City, along with a reporter, found evidence of neglect.

More:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/30/world/americas/commission-calls-for-guatemala-to-protect-patients.html?_r=0

[Judi Lynn]

1. Probe cites rampant sexual and physical abuse at Guatemala mental hospital

November 30, 2012, 3:13 PM
Probe cites rampant sexual and physical abuse at Guatemala mental hospital

GUATEMALA CITY Human rights groups say they found hundreds of women and children subjected to sexual and physical abuse at a public psychiatric hospital in Guatemala's capital.

The Human Rights Office of the Archbishop of Guatemala led an investigation by groups including the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights and Disability Rights International. Executive director Segun Nery Rodenas said Friday that the probe found patients in the Federico Mora hospital suffering from a lack of medical attention, along with abuse by staff and inmates from a neighboring prison who were allowed into the hospital. The commission called for Guatemala to swiftly address conditions in the hospital.

Investigators found more than 300 children in solitary confinement, and patients in locked cells who died of preventable diseases due to lack of medical attention.

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-202_162-57556521/probe-cites-rampant-sexual-and-physical-abuse-at-guatemala-mental-hospital/
(Short article, no more at link.)

[polly7]

2. God, how horrifying.

[ocpagu]

3. My God, that's horrible.

They do need to protect these people and stop the abusers. This is barbaric.

Thank you for letting us know.