Guatemala's Sexual Violence Scourge
Guatemala is failing to prevent and address systemic sexual violence, resulting in forced pregnancies among girls under 14.
Between 2018 and 2024, nearly 15,000 girls in Guatemala ages 14 and under gave birth and became mothers, often against their will.
In a new report, Human Rights Watch documents the numerous barriers that girls who are survivors of sexual violence face accessing essential health care, education, social security, and justice.
Access to health services for girls in Guatemala is severely limited for a variety of reasons including long travel distances, shortages of trained personnel, and even stereotypes. Additionally, girls from rural and Indigenous communities, who are disproportionately affected by inequalities, face even larger barriers to access services.
Meanwhile, lack of support from schools and government, stigma, family pressure, and violence contribute to high dropout rates for pregnant girls and girls who are mothers, especially in rural communities. Many are pressured to drop out of school permanently and are often sent to live with their assailants.
A government program meant to assist pregnant girls and mothers in accessing social security is also not working as it should, due to poor coverage and restrictive eligibility requirements. Last year, 1,953 girls ages 10 to 14 gave birth in Guatemala. Yet only 129 girls were enrolled in the program.
There is a path to justice for survivors of sexual violence in Guatemala, but even this is fraught with obstacles. Courts often dismiss cases without resolution and reparations are rarely sufficient to address harms.
“Without meaningful reforms,” said Cristina Quijano Carrasco, women’s rights researcher at HRW, “girls in Guatemala will continue to face shocking levels of sexual violence and insurmountable barriers to realizing their rights.”
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Freelance Consultant
1 周Please provide statistics or numbers of cases per year from 2018 to2024, and indicate who is involved (by general ID) in supporting Human Rights Watch reports. a lot can be concluded
Maternal Mental Health Government Policy Fellow, Behavioral Health Subject Matter Expert, BSN RN, Writer and Activist.
1 周This is imoortant information, but th whol time I read, I thought ~ what can we do and what is being done? I'm interested in reading about what WE can do and you and others are doing? That's the real news. Please provide this. Otherwise it's gasoline on an already raging fire.
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1 周Thank you for giving these young girls a voice. In a country that is failing to prevent and address systemic sexual violence, it is vital to provide these issues with visibility, both on a national and an international scale, to obtain comprehensive reforms that offer social security and justice.
Investigador psicosocial - Salud Mental en Todo por los ni?os donde
1 周https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1HdgJqGBaD/
President at Collier County Osteopathic Medical Society
1 周Thank you for bringing this to light as the first step of fixing such a sad situation. Now that the grave problem is presented, what is the proposed solution? What can we do to help? If we do nothing about it then we are just accomplices of this human rights violation.