The issue of violence against women is being forced up the political agenda, of a seemingly reluctant Guatemalan political establishment. In a recent meeting (18-05-2006) of the UN Committee on Elimination of Discrimination against Women, Guatemala was required to present its report and answer questions from leading international experts.

Maria Gabriela Nuñez, Minister of the Presidential Secretariat for Women (SEPREM), who introduced the country report and fielded questions from the Committee’s experts, said: "There were some gaps, indeed, large gaps, especially in the legislative sphere, particularly with regard to violence against women."

...On the criminalization of inter-family violence, she said a draft law on that subject was just beginning to be processed. Unfortunately, it did not include clauses to cover domestic violence, which was a difficult subject for Congress to swallow...

(Interesting expanation for why many members of Congress have been blocking reference to domestic violence in proposed legislation).

...Another delegate of the 10-member Guatemalan delegation said that just 13 women held official congressional posts, compared to 158 men, making it difficult to implement some women’s policies such as the current harassment bill...

...She said no one had been jailed for racism...

...Turning to “femicide”, the delegate said the upward trend of such crimes in the last five years was alarming.  In 2006, 14 men had been tried and imprisoned for murdering women, but she admitted that problems did exist in collecting evidence that could be used in court.  Prosecutors offices and police were currently working to ensure that statistical registers were being harmonized, so that better data was collected.  According to one count, as many as 2,070 women had been murdered, mostly involving 14-35 year-olds.  Organized crime and drug trafficking were seen to be contributing factors.  But there were information gaps.  She also said the protection of witnesses and families of victims was a significant weakness in the Guatemalan legal system.

In terms of sexual health:

Ms. AROCHA DOMINGUEZ, expert from Cuba, said the country report raised issues about reproductive and sexual health care and rights of rural and indigenous women.  She requested a statistical breakdown by ethnic group regarding mobility and mortality rates. On page 37, a table of the 2004 breakdown of women’s mortality revealed that 20 per cent of those deaths were due to bronchitis and pneumonia. However, the cause of death was not given for almost 55 per cent of the cases.  Could more exhaustive information be provided on this?  Could statistical information also be provided on deaths due to illegal abortions or abortions performed by unqualified people?  Given the fact that more than 45 per cent of Guatemalan girls had their first sexual experience by the age of 12, the scope of reproductive health statistics was rather limited.  It would help the Committee to get an idea of the priority given to access to contraceptives.  While the report noted that such access was growing particularly for women ages 15 to 30, what was being done for sexually active girls under age 14?  What kind of training was there?  What kind of access was there in remote areas and in indigenous areas?

Responding to Ms. Arocha Dominguez’s questions on the reproductive health of women, another delegate explained that a programme had been developed by the Health Ministry to provide support and advice on family planning methods and to provide post-abortion counselling.  A programme to provide sexual education to young people was also being developed.

HUGETTE BOKPE GNACADJA, expert from Benin, said that violence against women generally had its roots in the subordination of women.  A large number of women murdered by their husbands occurred after women lodged complaints about poor treatment by their husbands.  The younger the women, the more vulnerable they were to abuse and violent acts against them.  The representative had acknowledged that the path to justice was a difficult one...

...She wanted to know whether marital law had been amended, or whether the “legal door was still open for marriage under the age of 16” if the person exercising parental authority or guardianship gave his/her consent.  If so, that still contravened the Convention.  Twelve years had elapsed since Guatemala had first reported to the Committee.

The Guatemalan government's response was:

"The whole chapter on the family within the civil code had been “reformulated”, and a provision had been made to improve the quality of life for women in the home and provide “conjugal representation” for minor women.  Laws were still pending to change the penal code further, but considerable progress had been made in that regard.  Reforms in the civil code with regard to the legal age of marriage should be discussed, but there had been a failure on the part of the Congress to do so.  A commitment to have such a dialogue, however, had been indicated." more

In other words, blame Congress. Ex-GSN member Hannah Roberts wrote a recent article for the Lancet on the need for a coordinated approach to sexual health policy in Guatemala.

The UN Committee considered an extensive range of issues, far more than we can include in this blog post. So for more info: read the full report from the meeting. For more information on the issue of femicide, the International Federation of Human Rights, published (19-04-2006) an in-depth report in Spanish on the issue in Guatemala and Mexico. The report makes a number of key recommendations, and is another indicator or international pressure on Guatemala to take action on violence against women.

UPDATE: This recent investigation in Guatemalan paper El Peridico was published (5th June 2006) in the death of Claudina Velasquez.

This follows a week where international pressure was built with the Washington Office for Latin America (WOLA) succeding to get a letter to US State Department Assistant Secretary for Western Hemisphere Affairs, Thomas Shannon, with more than 100 U.S. Members of Congress are expressing deep concern for the brutal killings of women in Guatemala and urge the Department of State to publicly support efforts for the protection of women and human rights defenders in that country.