Human Rights Commission accuses Guatemala of forcing raped girls to get pregnant
City of Guatemala (AP) – The independent panel of experts that formed the UN Human Rights Commission said Thursday they found Guatemala violated the rights of a 14-year-old girl who was raped and forced to continue her pregnancy.
She was a former director of a government-run daycare facility, and she attended as a child. She raped her multiple times since she was 13 in 2009, but no longer attended the center, but she was denied contact with an abortion compared to torture and was forced to give birth and care for her children.
Committee member Hélène Tigroudja said in a statement: “Her rapist’s children should not be forced to carry her dignity, future and most basic rights.
The Commission monitors the State’s compliance with international civil and political rights covenants.
When the girl’s mother discovered the abuse, she reported it to the authorities. The man and his wife tried to bribe and threaten the girl’s family to withdraw the report. The case caused nine years of injury in Guatemala’s judicial system, but the man was never punished.
“Guatemala did not properly investigate rape and did not take effective action to prosecute the perpetrators,” the committee said.
“Guatemala is one of the Latin American countries that compel mothers and systemic violence to be harmful to impunity,” the committee said. “While the Guatemala Penal Code allows for abortion under certain circumstances to avoid a threat to the mother’s life, it is practically impossible to obtain legal abortion.”
The Committee calls on Guatemala to establish a system to record and monitor such cases. As far as the girl is concerned, it says the state should support her in completing her higher education and achieving her goals.
Catalina Martínez, the Caribbean vice president of the Center for Reproductive Rights in Latin America and the Caribbean, said there was a society’s agreement that protection for girls was preferred.
“But when we don’t offer opportunities for all health services, including abortion, this promise is breached and we force them to take on mothers they don’t want and mothers they don’t prepare for,” she said.
