Guatemala

29% of women in Guatemala are married or united before their 18th birthday and 6% before the age of 15.

10% of men in Guatemala are married or united before the age of 18.

In Guatemala, most unions are informal where male partners are on average five years older than girls and adolescents. These unions are not registered, which makes them difficult to track.

Child, Early and Forced Marriage and Unions (CEFMU) are driven by gender inequality and the belief that women and girls are somehow inferior to men and boys. In Guatemala, CEFMU is also driven by:

Level of education: Education is particularly poor among Mayan communities, which make up about 40%of Guatemala’s population. One studyshows that parents are less inclined to invest in education for girls and adolescents because it is not considered beneficial for their assumed future role as a wife and mother. DHS statistics show that Guatemalan girls and adolescents with higher levels of education delay marriage.

Poverty: Many indigenous communities have poor access to drinking water, health services, education and livelihoods. Girls and adolescents in these areas are often married off young in order to reduce their perceived financial burden on families. In 2020, Guatemala’s poverty rate increased from 45.6% to 47%, with 68% of children living in poverty.

Adolescent pregnancy: Guatemalan girls and adolescents are pressured by their families to enter into a union or get married when they become pregnant (even when it is the result of sexual violence) in order to uphold the family honour. Adolescent pregnancies are frequently the result of insufficient sex education, and can lead tosevere health consequences for young girls (maternal mortality rates in Guatemala are among the highest in the region). Between 2015 and 2020, for girls between the ages of 15 to 19, the adolescent birth rate in Guatemala was 77% and 20% of girls between the ages of 20 to 24 giving birth before the age of 18. According to the Guatemalan Reproductive Health Observatory Network, in January 2019 there were 114,858 adolescent pregnancies amongst girls between the ages of 10 and 19. From January 2020 - December 2020, there were 99,656 adolescent pregnancies.

Humanitarian settings can encompass a wide range of situations before, during and after natural disasters, conflicts and epidemics. They exacerbate poverty, insecurity, and lack of access to services such as education, factors which all drive child marriage. While gender inequality is a root cause of child marriage in both stable and crisis context, often in times of crisis, families see child marriage as a way to cope in greater economic hardship and to protect girls from increased violence.

In recent years, gang warfare and violence have transformed parts of Central America, including Guatemala, into some of the most dangerous places on earth. Over half a million people, many of them women, children and unaccompanied minors, have fled and many are seeking asylum in the United States.

Gang violence: Guatemala remains one of the most dangerous countries for women and girls with one of the highest rates of femicide in the world. In 2017, there were 59,667 reported cases of violence against women and girls.

Guatemala has committed to eliminate child, early and forced marriage by 2030 in line with target 5.3of the Sustainable Development Goals. The government reiterated commitment to this target during its Voluntary National Review at the 2017 High Level Political Forum. The government submitted a Voluntary National Review at the 2021 High Level Political Forum but there was no mention of child marriage.

Guatemala co-sponsored the 2017 Human Rights Council resolution recognising the need to address child, early and forced marriage in humanitarian contexts, and the 2015 Human Rights Council resolution to end child, early and forced marriage, recognising that it is a violation of human rights.

Guatemala co-sponsored the 2013 and 2014 UN General Assembly resolutions on child, early and forced marriage, and the 2013 Human Rights Council resolution on child, early and forced marriage.

Guatemala ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1990, which sets a minimum age of marriage of 18, and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women in 1982, which obligates states to ensure free and full consent to marriage.

During its 2018 review, the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child recommended that Guatemala implement awareness-raising campaigns on the harmful effects of child marriage on the physical and mental wellbeing of girls, particularly targeting households, local authorities, religious leaders, judges and prosecutors.

In 2017, the CEDAW Committee expressed concerns that many girls and adolescents in Guatemala are still getting married or entering into a union. The Committee recommended Guatemala to ensure the strict application of minimum age of marriage, address the root causes of early marriage and unions, carry out public awareness-raising programmes to end such practices, and adopt measures to protect the rights of girls already in child marriages and unions.

Guatemala, as a member of the Organization of American States (OAS), is bound to the Inter American System of Human Rights, which recognises the right of men and women of marriageable age to marry and calls to governments to strengthen the respond to address gender-based violence and discrimination, including early, forced and child marriage and unions from a perspective that respected evolving capacities and progressive autonomy.

Guatemala ratified the Inter-American Convention on the Prevention, Punishment, and Eradication of Violence against Women (known as the Belém do Pará Convention) in 1995. In 2016, the Follow-up Mechanism to the Belém do Pará Convention (MESECVI) recommended State Parties to review and reform laws and practices to increase the minimum age for marriage to 18 years for women and men.

Guatemala, as a member of the UN Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), adopted the Montevideo Consensus on Population and Development in 2013, which recognises the need to address the high levels of adolescent pregnancy in the region as usually associated with the forced marriage of girls. In 2016, the Montevideo Strategy for Implementation of the Regional Gender Agenda was also approved by ECLAC countries. This Agenda encompasses commitments made by the governments on women’s rights and autonomy, and gender equality, during the last 40 years in the Regional Conferences of Women in Latin America and the Caribbean. The Agenda reaffirms the right to a life free of all forms of violence, including forced marriage and cohabitation for girls and adolescents.

Guatemala is one of the countries where UNICEF, UNFPA and UN Women are working together under the Latin America and the Caribbean Joint Programme for a Region Free of Child Marriage and Early Unions (2018-2021) to: align national frameworks with international standards, empower girls, promote policies and services that address the drivers of child marriage and early unions and break the silence nationally and regionally.

In November 2015, UN Women, UNFPA, UNAIDS, UNICEF and the Pan American Health Organization launched a regional programme on preventing violence against women and girls in Ecuador, Guatemala and Mexico. The programme promotes changes in law to eliminate all exceptions to the minimum age of marriage.

Guatemala is one of the countries where the Spotlight Initiative (a global, multi-year partnership between the European Union and the United Nations) is supporting efforts to end all forms of sexual and gender-based violence and harmful practices against women and girls. The Spotlight Initiative in Guatemala has focussed on decreasing gender-based violence and femicide rates, particularly amongst Xinka, Garifuna, Mayan, Mestizo and Afro-descendant women. Between 2019 and 2022, the European Union has invested $ 8 million USD. The funds have been distributed as follows:

Policy: The recognition of Indigenous customary law; facilitation of dialogue between Indigenous and judicial authorities to incorporate cultural approaches to the judicial system; mainstreaming cultural considerations into dispute resolution and legal judgements; working closer with indigenous women to share knowledge and strengthen the Legislative Agenda for the Advancement of Women, Girls and Adolescent girls.

Institution: In line with the Model Latin American Protocol for the Investigation of the Violent Deaths of Women, the Initiative will support the development of a national model for criminal investigation, penal prosecution and transformative reparation of femicide.

Prevention: Implementation of programmes and safe spaces that promote gender equality, violence prevention.

Data: Strengthen and standardize the collection of data on violence against women through the National Information System.

Women’s movement and civil society: Reinforce Xinka, Garifuna, Mayan, Mestizo and Afro-descendant organizations by establishing alliances that advocate for the prevention and elimination of all forms of violence and discrimination against women.

In 2017, Guatemala became the fourth country in Latin America to ban marriages under the age of 18 as a result of an advocacy process that included strong participation of the Guatemalan civil society.

Although the National Plan to Prevent Adolescent Pregnancies (2018 - 2022) highlights the links between adolescent pregnancies and child marriage and early unions, but it does not foresee any objectives or activities to tackle CEFMU in Guatemala.

Guatemalabanned marriages under the age of 18 in August 2017, making 18 years the minimum legal age of marriage with no exceptions.

Previously, in 2015, the minimum age of marriage was established at 18 but marriage at the age of 16 was still exceptionally allowed.