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PIDESC REPORT

CLADEM  - GUATEMALA

Guatemalan women’s access to full enjoyment of economic, social and cultural rights is still far from being a reality.  In spite of the fact that women make up 51% of the population, this does not guarantee their access to basic rights:  six million people, which is equivalent to 57% of the total population, continue to live in poverty, and of these, 75.6% are located in the rural area.  Furthermore, 74.2% of the indigenous population is poor and is being excluded from development.  Guatemala is one of the countries in Latin America with the highest rates of poverty; more than 80% are in the range of extreme poverty.  Three million people have an average monthly income of Q. 480.00 and 2.9 million have a monthly income of Q. 240.00.  More than half of the population struggles to survive in circumstances of inequality.

Of the total female population, 59% live in rural zones, 48% are indigenous and 20% of the households in the country are headed by women.  The average rate of illiteracy among indigenous women is 51.5 % and the school drop out rate for girls reaches 81.5% in the rural area and 50% in urban areas.  Thus, only 17 of every 100 girls finish primary school and in the rural zones, 66% drop out of school before finishing third grade.  These data reflect the fact that the State is not investing in women’s education.  Only 54% of the population over seven years of age knows how to read and write and of these, 47% are women.

The current fertility rate is 4.4 children per woman and the adolescent population initiates sexual activity at very early ages given that 70% of the youth had their first sexual experience before they turned 20 and 33% of adolescents have had sexual encounters before the age of 18.  Approximately 44% of young women aged 19 are mothers or are pregnant and only 38% of women who are married or have a partner are using some family planning method.

The housing crisis and the lack of access to basic services is overwhelming with 40.6% of families living in overcrowded and unhealthy conditions, a factor which especially affects the health of women, girls, and boys due to their heavy work loads.  It is almost impossible for women to have access to land, only 27% of women work on their own land, while 41% of men do so.  All these factors are a reflection of the lack of improvement in women’s situation and position in society and in comparison with men, this is 0 to 46 which puts Guatemala in 49^th place out of a total of 70 countries.

Women’s and Human Rights organizations have made efforts to achieve some progress within a context of economic, social and cultural relations that are exclusive, discriminatory and unjust.  This situation is presented in this alternative report.  While some progress has been made in terms of the creation of legal frameworks and public policies on economic, social and cultural rights, these have not resulted in development for women because they do not result in operationalization of the changes as can be seen in the findings presented below:

Ø       The right to equality has been the focus of major efforts on the part of women’s organizations in order to oblige the State to assume its responsibilities; in spite of the fact that important norms have been approved in the past five years, where the protection of girls, boys and women’s rights is concerned, no changes or repeals of the Penal Code have been achieved since its approval in 1973.   It is urgent that new penal areas be created to deal with situations such as:  Sexual harassment, intra-family violence, sexual tourism, sexual trafficking, forced prostitution, and sexual exploitation of children and adolescents.  Modifications are also needed with regard to rape with the inclusion of situations of rape within marriage, abortion, abduction, incest, sexual relations with minors, molestation, the corruption of minors, and the procurement of sexual favors which are not clearly defined or classified.  It is also important that the denial of penal responsibility by means of legitimate marriage of the victim with the offender be abolished.  Unfortunately, the State continues to demonstrate a lack of interest regarding these legislative changes and thus violence and discrimination against women, girls and boys is increasing along with murder and rape without any application of measures of protection and sanction due to the lack of concrete legislation and political will on the part of the State.

Ø       Women are not ensured the right to work in jobs that are freely chosen and accepted.  Labor discrimination against women due to their marital status and maternity is a constant and the State does not give it the necessary attention in spite of the many complaints that have been filed.  The clothing assembly industry (maquila) takes advantage of the female labor force at the cost of low salaries, long work hours, application of pregnancy tests, and violations of maternity laws, lactation rights and the obligation to establish child care centers.  This crisis is further aggravated by the sexual harassment that is present in the work place.  To date it has not been possible to ensure that women’s right to equal pay is respected, including the right to equal pay and treatment for equal work.

The majority of indigenous women work in the service sector:  commerce, agriculture, hotels and restaurants, domestic labor, ambulatory sales, sale of clothing (informal sector) and are part of the manufacturing sector, specifically clothing assembly where approximately 80% of the employees are women.

 Unemployment, informal employment and underemployment are on the rise and mainly affect women.  This has resulted in low rates of human development that reach more than 80% of the population.  In the year 2000, 25.8% of girls coming from the urban areas were occupied in clothing assembly plants, compared to 20% of those from the rural area, and 25% were indigenous girls compared to 14.5% coming from the non indigenous population.

Ø       Unionization continues to face serious problems, women workers are threatened, and they are coerced to avoid free exercise of this right.  Only two of the 1,578 unions that have been registered are composed of women.  The rest of the unions that are registered are composed of a mixed population and among them, there are 23,568 women.  Nevertheless, leadership positions in the unions with mixed membership are predominately held by men. 

Ø       The Social Security system continues to be sectoral in nature and is in a constant state of crisis, with access to care being constantly reduced for its members and coverage has not been increased to cope with demand especially in the rural areas.  Agricultural workers do not have benefits for retirement, disability, lactation and old age, among others.  There is no universal social security coverage that would cover workers in the informal and agricultural sectors; for workers in clothing assembly plants access is discriminatory and nearly non-existent:  they are denied their work certificates and they are often not registered as members in spite of the fact that the 4.83% quota is deducted from their salaries.

Ø       The right to a family and to special care for mothers, girls and boys is denied due to the lack of protection by the state with regard to paternal irresponsibility, lack of child support, even reaching the extreme of changing the penal persecution of the crime of denial of child support to a public action dependent on a particular petition which has caused women’s organizations to lodge a complaint of unconstitutionality in order to correct this in harmony with the constitution based on Article 24Ter of the Penal Process Code and to recover the public action for this serious offense.  The penal order undermines the basis of marriage by continuing to maintain a norm (Art. 200 Marriage of the offended party with the offending party) that allows penal responsibility and penalty to be negated by means of legitimate marriage when a rape, sexual relations with minors, molestation, or abduction have occurred.  

The economic and social exploitation of girls, boys and adolescents predominates, child labor is increasing in spite of being prohibited, work in the streets has increased with minors carrying out a variety of activities including window washing, sale of basic items, flame throwers, stone work, lime production, brick work, making fireworks, all of which put them in danger.

Ø       The level of well being of women is marked by malnutrition which is the consequence of the existing inequities in society.  Women’s access to land, credit and housing is marked by discriminatory practices which do not allow the majority of women to be land owners or to obtain credit, because they generally do not have any assets that can serve as collateral.  They only have access through the fiduciary route.  In order to obtain credit women are confronted by great limitations such as:  lack of proper identification documents, being housewives, their work in the field is not taken into account, and illiteracy, conditions which make them ineligible for credit.

Ø       With regard to the right to health, women continue to receive care primarily in their reproductive role, and they also suffer from the persistence of inadequate water and housing services which further add to the deterioration of their health.  Child mortality is predominantly caused by diarrheal diseases and malnutrition.  During adolescence, 91.29% of deaths are due to injuries and accidents and of this percentage, 39% is attributed to men, however, 21% of deaths are caused by intra-family violence.

This problem has not been given due attention and thus the health of women and girls continues to deteriorate.  There are no signs yet of implementation of concrete actions for their protection, nor any interest in reforming the Penal code with regard to sexual crimes; violence against women does not hold a place of importance in the obligations of the State towards its citizens.

Women are not informed about, nor given emergency contraception, either neither by the justice sector nor by the state health services when they are victims of sexual violence.  This is a right that is denied to girls, teens and women when they find themselves unprotected against sexual violence, nevertheless, the aggressors are offered the possibility of marriage with their victims so that the penal responsibility or penalty can be avoided.  This demonstrates the pervasive levels of inequality and discrimination that exist.  Health policy, in practice, still not does integrate reproductive health and family planning services.

The rights of patients with HIV/AIDS are violated by the state medical services when they are not provided with treatments to improve their quality of life.  

Ø       Cultural rights in Guatemala are a source of discrimination due to the asymmetrical power relationships between indigenous groups and non indigenous groups (ladinos).  This is especially true with regard to women, as is illustrated in the reports of the Izabal case and the Velásquez Case, demonstrating levels of intolerance and racism because of which more than half of the population is denied this right.  This continues in spite of the fact that in the Peace Accords the existence of domination and racism were recognized along with the need for constructing a nation based on recognition of cultural diversity.  In practice, these rights continue to be denied. 

After this summary of the problem, some recommendations for the Guatemalan Government are presented:

Ø       It is urgent that the State promote the legal actions that are pending and which keep women and girls totally defenseless.  It is urgent that reforms to the penal code be approved with regard to crimes that are committed against girls, boys and women.

Ø       Compliance with and operationalization of the international treaties regarding women’s rights, the law for Integrated Promotion and Dignity for Women, and the National Policy should be accomplished.

Ø       The conditions, recognition and protection of women workers should be improved especially for those in agriculture, clothing assembly plants, and domestic service.  The State should be obliged to enforce compliance with the minimum rights that women workers do have.

Ø       The crime of sexual harassment in the work place should be included in the law given that it is a type of rape and discrimination.  Reforms to the Labor Code with regard to domestic work and that of clothing assembly plants should be instituted and include equal pay and social security guarantees among others.

Ø       Overly long work schedules, obligatory pregnancy and HIV/AIDS testing, and the lack of childcare facilities should be sanctioned.

Ø       Union organization of women should be promoted and stimulated as well as their participation in decision-making bodies.

Ø       Social security services should be extended for women in the informal sector, for household workers, and especially for indigenous workers.   Compliance with these rights should be enforced in specific sectors such as that of the clothing assembly plants.   Additionally the quality of services should be improved and extended to women workers in the rural area.

Ø       The program for sexual and reproductive health and the national health system should provide obligatory attention for those who have AIDS, cancer, multiple sclerosis, as well as renal and cardiovascular illnesses, osteoporosis and depression without any minimum quota being required.

Ø       Effective mechanisms of control should be put in place as well as sanctions for the owners of clothing assembly plants who  refuse to provide work certificates, who do not provide adequate hygiene and security conditions, who require that their laborers work extra hours, who sexually harass female workers, who do not register them in the Social Security system, who do not pay benefits and who give late and ineffective judgments with regard to permissions for leave.

Ø        The State should take a greater interest in implementing actions against irresponsible paternity such as incompliance with child support payments, and repeal from the Penal code those articles related to marriage of the victim to the aggressor, and should also introduce new types of legislation against intra-family violence, sexual harassment, rape within the marriage, commercial sexual exploitation, sexual trafficking, pornography, exploitation of children and adolescents, modifications to the code with regard to abortion, rape, incest, abduction, sexual relations with minors, molestation, human slavery, corruption of minors and procurement of sexual services.

Ø       Urgent attention should be given to the overwhelming increase in malnutrition that primarily affects children and women given that poor feeding is causing deterioration of the health and living conditions especially in indigenous groups and rural dwellers.

Ø       Actions should be incorporated that will effectively give women access to credit and to purchase land and housing, reviewing the pending agrarian policy and taking into account the needs of women.

Ø       The situation where one witness is required for women to have surgical sterilization should no longer be permitted. Furthermore, the justice sector should offer the victims of sexual violence emergency contraception which is currently not being applied by the State.  Education on women’s health should be presented in several languages and not only in the official language.

Ø       The need for attention to the high rates of repetition and school drop outs as well as the working conditions of teachers, the lack of infrastructure, furnishings and school snack programs are urgently in need of attention.

Ø       Bilingual Intercultural Education should be effectively implemented with an adequate budget.

Ø       The State should stop promoting mono-cultural policies that violate guaranteed rights.  It should implement an effective policy to eradicate racism and to promote the necessary constitutional reforms in order to establish the nation’s multicultural and multilingual character.

Ø       The asymmetric relationships that promote and maintain the power imbalance between indigenous and ladino populations should be reviewed and eradicated in all its cultural manifestations especially with regard to women.

This first alternative report from the critical point of view of women before the Committee for Economic, Social and Cultural Rights expects to provide the commission members with a better vision of the state of these rights.   It was prepared with the significant participation of women’s and human rights organizations, and was coordinated by Cladem Guatemala (comprised of CARE, Cerigua, Codefem, Alicia Rodríguez, Dinora Gil, Floridalma Contreras, and María Isabel Grijalva).

In addition to the promoting entity, the following organizations participated in this reporting process: FLACSO, CALDH, UNAMG, CICAM, CARE Guatemala, CODEFEM, the Human Rights Office of the Archbishop’s Office, the Guatemala Foundation, COPMAGUA, Cerigua, Women’s Voices, the Cuerda, Tierra Viva, Vamos Mujer, CUNOC, CENTRACAP, AVANCSO, CONAVIGUA, CONFEDECOOP, Civic and Political Convergence of Women, CUC, Rigoberta Menchu Foundation, Guatemalan Women’s Group, Mama Maquin, MOLOJ, Network of Women for Construction of Peace,  COODESC.

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