Successive governments in Guatemala have failed to meet their obligations toward girls facing early and forced pregnancies due to sexual violence, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. The authorities need to provide sexual violence survivors with comprehensive health care, education, and social security, as well as necessary legal protections, justice and reparations.
The 85-page report, "'Forced to Give Up on Their Dreams': Sexual Violence against Girls in Guatemala," documents the numerous barriers that girls who are survivors of sexual violence face accessing essential health care, education, social security, and justice. Guatemalan law classifies any sexual activity involving a child under 14 as sexual violence. Guatemala's National Registry of Persons (RENAP) reported that between 2018 and 2024, 14,696 girls under 14 gave birth and became mothers, in many cases against their will.
"Sexual violence remains a pervasive and systemic issue in Guatemala, disproportionally affecting girls under age 14," said Cristina Quijano Carrasco, women's rights researcher at Human Rights Watch. "Guatemala's failure to take adequate steps to prevent and end sexual violence and forced pregnancies among girls can have life-threatening consequences, including risks to girls' physical and mental health, and can profoundly affect the realization of their economic, social, and cultural rights."
Human Rights Watch interviewed more than 72 representatives of civil society organizations, government officials, healthcare personnel, and other experts for the report in 2023 and 2024, and analyzed government data.
In one case, an 11-year-old girl from a rural area was raped by her father and sought health care after discovering she was five months pregnant. Although she reported the case, the authorities sent her back home to her father, and she was forced to give birth at home in unsafe conditions and without assistance. The authorities never arrested the father and because the case was never the subject of a judicial ruling, the girl received no reparations for the harm she suffered.
Access to comprehensive health services for girls in Guatemala is severely limited. Long travel distances, chronic shortages of trained personnel, and inadequate resources in health centers hinder timely access to essential healthcare services and supplies, such as emergency contraception and prenatal, delivery, and postnatal care.
These barriers have a disproportionate impact on girls from rural and Indigenous communities, who often must travel for hours or even days outside of their communities to reach healthcare facilities in department capitals. Guatemala law permits therapeutic abortion when the life of the pregnant person is at risk, but stigma and lack of awareness of the law among healthcare providers obstruct access to this essential health service.
Guatemala's education system also fails to support pregnant girls and young mothers. As of November 2024, only 213 students who were pregnant were registered as enrolled in the education system nationwide from January to June. Lack of support from schools and government, stigma, family pressure, and violence contribute to high dropout rates for pregnant girls, especially in rural communities. Many are pressured to drop out of school permanently and are often sent to live with their assailants or tasked with labor in the home.
Societal views often label girls as "impure" or "dirty," further stigmatizing them and placing the blame on the survivors rather than the abusers. Lack of public policies designed to enable students who are pregnant or are mothers to continue their studies leaves girls without the necessary academic, social, and emotional support.
Social protection programs for pregnant girls and girls who are mothers are also inadequate to ensure their right to social security. The government's Vida program, which is intended to provide cash assistance to pregnant girls and mothers under 14, has low coverage due to its restrictive eligibility requirements and onerous bureaucratic hurdles. In 2024, only 129 girls were enrolled in the program, even though 1,953 girls under 14 gave birth that year.
The path to justice for girls who are survivors of sexual violence is fraught with systemic failures. From January 2018 to October 2023, prosecutors and judges dismissed 6,697 cases of sexual violence against girls under 14, including 2,271 from January 2023 to October 2023 alone; a sharp rise compared to previous years. Even when cases proceed, accountability remains rare: judges issued just 136 preliminary indictments between January 2018 and September 2023 and 102 rape convictions between January 2018 and October 2023 in cases involving pregnant girls under 14 who are survivors of sexual violence.
These failings of the justice system indicate a lack of a gender-sensitive and of a child-centered approach in legal processes. Survivors of sexual violence encounter numerous barriers, including gender-based stereotypes, mistreatment, and limited access to government offices. Indigenous girls and deaf girls face additional challenges due to language barriers and a lack of culturally sensitive trained interpreters for Indigenous languages and sign language. When reparations are granted, they often fall short of addressing the needs, reflecting a broader lack of understanding of the girls' specific circumstances and needs. The gaps in justice are further compounded by an overloaded judicial system that leads to severe delays.
Underreporting of sexual violence, poor data management, and a lack of coordination between government institutions has further hindered the government's ability to track, prevent, and respond effectively to sexual violence.
"Without meaningful reforms-including strengthening prevention, services, and access to justice-girls in Guatemala will continue to face shocking levels of sexual violence and insurmountable barriers to realizing their rights," Quijano Carrasco said. "The government needs to take urgent action to ensure that girls who are survivors of sexual violence have access to the health care, education, social security, and the legal protections to which they are entitled, in order to recover and rebuild their lives."
Key Data on Sexual Violence and Forced Motherhood in Guatemala:
- Prevalence of Sexual Violence: Over one-third of women in Guatemala (34.5 percent) experience sexual violence in their lifetime.
- Sexual Violence Against Girls: Girls are far more likely to report sexual violence than boys in Guatemala. They account for 88 percent of evaluations in cases of sexual violence or pregnancy in children ages 14 or under by the National Institute of Forensic Sciences (INACIF) between January 2018 and June 2024 (INACIF official data).
- Pregnancies Among Girls: Between 2018 and 2024, 14,696 births were registered to girls ages 10-14, 1,953 in 2024 alone. In the same period, 479,612 girls and adolescents ages 10-19 gave birth, 56,568 in 2024 (RENAP official data).
- Early Motherhood in Girls: In November 2024, only 213 pregnant girls under 14 were enrolled in school (MINEDUC official data).
- Justice: Of those who report sexual violence, few achieve justice.
- A total of 6,697 cases of sexual violence against girls under 14 were dismissed between January 2018 and October 2023.
- Between January 2018 and September 2023, judges only issued 136 preliminary indictments.
- Between January 2018 and October 2023, 102 people were convicted in cases of pregnant girls under 14 who are survivors of sexual violence (MP official data).
- Social Security and Economic Support: From January to June 2024, only 129 girls were registered in the Vida program, significantly fewer than the 1,953 birth mothers aged 10 to 14 reported that year (MIDES official data).
