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Human Rights Watch reported Tuesday that successive governments in Guatemala failed to meet their obligations toward girls facing forced pregnancies due to sexual violence. The right’s organization’s new 85-page report focused on several obligations, including access to abortion, healthcare, education, financial support, and justice.
HRW interviewed 31 representatives of civil society organizations, 41 government officials, and experts such as healthcare workers and lawyers who worked with the girls. The girls themselves were not interviewed, the report noted, as HRW wished to avoid re-traumatizing survivors.
The HRW report began with a statement that due to the lack of specifically allocated data collection resources for sexual violence and forced pregnancies in girls, there is an inconsistency in the number of cases documented.
The report highlighted a lack of access to abortion as being one of the obligations that Guatemala is not meeting. Abortion is a criminal offence under the Guatemalan Penal Code and is only legally permissible when the life of the pregnant person is at risk. This exception requires the threat to be immediate and certain before the procedure can be considered lawful.
HRW also pointed out that survivors of sexual violence face barriers to accessing health care, including emergency contraception, prenatal, birth, and postnatal care. The HRW report also asserted that the justice system is often under-resourced and fails to prioritize cases of sexual violence against girls.
The HRW report pointed out Guatemala’s obligations under international law. Article 12 of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), to which Guatemala is a party, stipulates that:
The CEDAW Committee’s General Recommendation No. 24 elaborated on states’ obligations under CEDAW and determined that they include providing access to comprehensive reproductive health care, including abortion services. HRW report stated that the CEDAW Committee has previously expressed concern over the criminalization of abortion in Guatemala and recommended amending the relevant article of the Penal Code.
The post HRW criticizes Guatemala for not providing girls facing forced pregnancies with access to abortion and resources appeared first on JURIST - News.
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HRW interviewed 31 representatives of civil society organizations, 41 government officials, and experts such as healthcare workers and lawyers who worked with the girls. The girls themselves were not interviewed, the report noted, as HRW wished to avoid re-traumatizing survivors.
The HRW report began with a statement that due to the lack of specifically allocated data collection resources for sexual violence and forced pregnancies in girls, there is an inconsistency in the number of cases documented.
The report highlighted a lack of access to abortion as being one of the obligations that Guatemala is not meeting. Abortion is a criminal offence under the Guatemalan Penal Code and is only legally permissible when the life of the pregnant person is at risk. This exception requires the threat to be immediate and certain before the procedure can be considered lawful.
HRW also pointed out that survivors of sexual violence face barriers to accessing health care, including emergency contraception, prenatal, birth, and postnatal care. The HRW report also asserted that the justice system is often under-resourced and fails to prioritize cases of sexual violence against girls.
The HRW report pointed out Guatemala’s obligations under international law. Article 12 of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), to which Guatemala is a party, stipulates that:
- States Parties shall take all appropriate measures to eliminate discrimination against women in the field of health care in order to ensure, on a basis of equality of men and women, access to health care services, including those related to family planning.
- Notwithstanding the provisions of paragraph 1 of this article, States Parties shall ensure to women appropriate services in [connection] with pregnancy, confinement and the post-natal period, granting free services where necessary, as well as adequate nutrition during pregnancy and lactation.
The CEDAW Committee’s General Recommendation No. 24 elaborated on states’ obligations under CEDAW and determined that they include providing access to comprehensive reproductive health care, including abortion services. HRW report stated that the CEDAW Committee has previously expressed concern over the criminalization of abortion in Guatemala and recommended amending the relevant article of the Penal Code.
The post HRW criticizes Guatemala for not providing girls facing forced pregnancies with access to abortion and resources appeared first on JURIST - News.
Continue reading...
Note: We don't have any responsibilities about this news. Its been posted here by Feed Reader and we had no controls and checking on it. And because News posted here will be deleted automatically after 21 days, threads are closed so that no one spend time to post and discuss here. You can always check the source and discuss in their site.