UIS Legal Clinic achieves landmark ruling on care for victims of gender-based violence
The Gender Line of the Carlos Gaviria Díaz Legal Clinic at the School of Law and Political Science of the Industrial University of Santander (UIS) has secured a landmark ruling that sets a key precedent for the protection of women’s rights in Colombia.
The Ministry of Health and Social Protection must, within six months, issue regulations governing comprehensive care for victims of gender-based violence within the health sector.
How the UIS Legal Clinic Achieved This Landmark Ruling
This achievement is the result of a rigorous research process carried out throughout 2025. Faculty members and students identified the State’s failure to meet its legal obligations in addressing violence against women. In response, a compliance action was filed. The Administrative Tribunal of Santander ruled in their favor at first instance, and the Council of State partially upheld the decision on appeal on December 11, 2025.
This work is part of the Legal Clinic’s pedagogical model, which combines social and political grounding, applied research, and legal intervention. It showed that the Ministry lacks updated guidelines and protocols to address violence against women comprehensively, despite the legal mandate established in Article 13 of Law 1257 in 2008.
The ruling recognizes the need to address multiple forms of violence, including psychological, physical, sexual, economic, domestic, and obstetric. It highlights obstetric violence as a historically invisible form that violates human rights during pregnancy, childbirth, and the postpartum period.
This milestone represents not only a legal victory but also a call to transform how the health system responds to these forms of violence. When a woman seeks health services, she must feel protected, heard, and treated with dignity. Now, that right has strong judicial backing.
The Carlos Gaviria Díaz Legal Clinic reaffirms its commitment to the defense of human rights and to the training of legal professionals capable of generating real social change. This case demonstrates that academia, when connected to social realities, can directly influence the development of fairer public policies.
