Debevoise & Plimpton LLP’s work with the Center for Reproductive Rights (“the Center”) to achieve positive rulings on behalf of three rape survivors from the United Nations Human Rights Committee (“the Committee”) against Nicaragua and Ecuador has been named as Pro Bono Initiative of the Year at The Lawyer Awards, 2025.

The case concerned work with three Latin American women who were systematically abused and raped when they were children, each becoming pregnant at the age of 14 or younger. A team from Debevoise’s London office co-counselled with the Center, and worked with Planned Parenthood Global, Mujeres Transformando el Mundo Guatemala, Observatorio en Salud Sexual y Reproductiva Guatemala and Surkuna Ecuador to develop the women’s cases, and travelled to Geneva to file them on their behalf in May 2019.

In its rulings in January, the Committee declares that Ecuador and Nicaragua violated the women’s human rights under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights: to life; to live free of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment; to live without interference with privacy and family life; to freedom of expression and information; and to remedies for rights violations. The Committee further declares that Ecuador’s and Nicaragua’s actions constituted intersectional gender and age discrimination.

The rulings set new international human rights standards to ensure access to sexual education, safe abortion services, and other protections for sexual abuse survivors.

For full details, see here.

Since the firm’s founding in 1931, Debevoise’s pro bono work has been central to its culture. The firm focuses on helping underserved and vulnerable communities tackle social problems and solve complex legal issues.