The defense of the human and fundamental rights of people with disabilities in the case of Guachalá Chimbo VS. Ecuador

Abstract

The rights of people with disabilities are a topic of great relevance, especially in the field of human rights. With the objective of understanding the performance of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights in the Guachalá Chimbo case, aiming at the protection of the rights of people with disabilities, the present work seeks to analyze the Guachalá Chimbo case, which resulted in the conviction of the State of Ecuador for violation of psychiatric hospital patient rights. The research is limited to observing the case in question and analyzing the changes and measures taken by the State of Ecuador to prevent cases like Guachalá Chimbo from recurring. The methodology of bibliographical and documentary research is used, with sentence analysis. It is possible to see that, given the time for a sentence to be handed down, the State was offered a considerable time lapse to improve the treatment of people with disabilities who are hospitalized, even so, the advances were limited, even with the significant amount of legislation and ratification of human rights treaties ratified by the country. The work reveals its originality in view of the fact that the case in parts resembles the Ximenes Lopes case, the first conviction of the Brazilian State by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights.