Jessica Lenahan of Colorado today will become the first U.S. victim of domestic violence to bring her case before a international human rights body, reports Women’s eNews. Lenahan, who lost a Supreme Court case against a police department for failing to enforce a restraining order against her now deceased ex-husband, will speak to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. She will urge the panel, part of the Organization of American States, to find the U.S. government responsible for such human rights violations.
In 1999, Lenahan’s ex-husband Simon Gonzales shot and killed the couple’s three daughters after abducting them from outside Lenahan’s home in Castle Rock, Co. Later he opened fire on the police department and was killed by police. In 2005, the Supreme Court said Lenahan’s due process rights were not violated because she had no personal entitlement to police enforcement of her restraining order. Dianne Post, a Phoenix lawyer, will file a plea to the Inter-American panel on behalf of 15 domestic violence victims who say they have been harmed by what she calls the “policy and practice of giving child custody to abusers and molesters.”