Insufficient funding for public healthcare caused delays, shortages and expenses for patients and their families. A new bill and a parliamentary commission of inquiry threatened freedom of association and expression for civil society organizations and the media. Rulings on 10 lawsuits regarding the legal recognition of the names of transgender people were still pending. Gender-based violence was a huge concern. Children continued to suffer sexual abuse and mistreatment, and the number of adolescent pregnancies remained worryingly high. Climate and environmental disasters, as well as forced evictions, disproportionately affected Indigenous Peoples.
Background
The alarming surge in organized crime became a pressing domestic and international concern, prompting an expansion of the military forces for internal security across four departments (administrative areas).
Inequality persisted, with the National Institute of Statistics reporting that 17.2% of the population were experiencing multidimensional poverty, impacting their rights to work, social security, adequate housing, health, healthy environment and education. Additionally, 22.7% were living below the monetary poverty line and 4.9% were living below the extreme poverty line, affecting their rights to food and an adequate standard of living. In 2024, the wealthiest 10% of the population earned nearly 20 times more than the poorest 10%.
In February, Eusebio Torres Romero, a former police officer, was sentenced to 30 years in prison for torture committed in 1976, during the military regime.
Civil society organizations expressed concern about the violations of due process in the expulsion of an opposition senator from the National Congress.
Economic, social and cultural rights
The government allocated insufficient resources to the public health system, undermining the right to health, particularly for groups that face discrimination, including Indigenous Peoples and transgender women.1 Public health investment stood at 4% of GDP, below the 6% recommended for universal coverage by the Pan American Health Organization.
The government failed to increase progressive taxation and strengthen primary healthcare provision, leaving families to cover 38.4% of total healthcare costs from their own resources, one of the highest out-of-pocket health expenditures among countries with similar development levels.
The legislature rejected a bill to increase the tobacco tax by 6% to fund healthcare for cancer patients, missing an opportunity to fulfil the right to health.
In April, students held demonstrations and occupied universities, protesting at the government’s decision to change the financing of free tuition and scholarship programmes at public universities. They called for more meaningful consultation on the issue and a new tax agreement that would fund social policies, including higher education.
Freedom of expression, association and assembly
Congress approved a vaguely worded bill that threatened freedom of association and could increase control over civil society organizations and lead to arbitrary restrictions, including the suspension of their activities.2
The Paraguayan Journalists Union reported that journalists and organizations investigating political power had been subjected to harassment and defamation through fake news disseminated by senators during deliberations about this bill.
In August a parliamentary commission of inquiry into money laundering was established, aimed at investigating civil society organizations and the media. The hearings were kept confidential, raising concerns about the transparency of this new scrutiny mechanism.
Three activists charged with arson and disorderly conduct relating to protest during the Covid-19 pandemic were acquitted after an eight-month trial.
LGBTI people’s rights
The judiciary had yet to issue final rulings on 10 lawsuits filed by transgender people seeking legal recognition of their names in accordance with their gender identity. Two of the plaintiffs, transgender women Yren Rotela and Mariana Sepúlveda who sued in civil courts for such recognition in 2016, were awaiting a decision from the UN Human Rights Committee regarding communications submitted under the Optional Protocol to the ICCPR.
Women’s rights
Gender-based violence remained prevalent. The Ministry of Women reported 31 femicides and 52 attempted femicides in 2024, compared with an average of 37 femicides per year for the period 2019-2023.
Alexa Torres, a survivor of sexual harassment by a Catholic priest, filed a complaint before the CEDAW Committee after the judiciary overturned her alleged aggressor’s conviction on the basis of statutory limitations.
Children’s rights
Children’s rights continued to be violated. In 2024, the Public Prosecutor’s Office registered 3,524 complaints of child sexual abuse and 1,679 complaints of child mistreatment, compared with 3,543 complaints of child sexual abuse and 1,559 complaints of child mistreatment in the previous year.
Adolescent pregnancies continued to be high, and child survivors of rape continued to be forced to carry pregnancies to term due to an almost total ban on abortion. The Ministry of Public Health and Social Welfare registered 8,578 births by adolescent girls aged between 15 and 19 years, of whom 602 were Indigenous, and 339 births by girls aged 10 to 14, of whom 82 were Indigenous.
The Committee on the Rights of the Child called on Paraguay to adopt sexual and reproductive health and gender-related education in schools. The committee also called on Paraguay to ensure, among other things, that in cases of child abuse, including sexual violence, the criminal justice system applies a child-friendly and multisectoral approach to avoid re-traumatization.
Indigenous Peoples’ rights
Climate and environmental disasters disproportionately affected Indigenous Peoples. In July, the Coordinator of Indigenous Leaders of the Bajo Chaco reported that local communities had exhausted their drinking water reserves and were not receiving humanitarian assistance. In September, a wildfire affected the Cerro Chovoreca National Park, ancestral territory of the Ayoreo Indigenous People who live in voluntary isolation.
Forced evictions of Indigenous Peoples continued. The Tekoha Sauce Indigenous community of the Avá Guaraní Paranaense people were still awaiting the restitution of their ancestral territory, appropriated by the Itaipú Binacional hydroelectric dam, violating their rights. The community still faced an unresolved eviction lawsuit before an appeals court.
