The Impact of the Conflict on Guatemalan Women
Political and Security Impact
* Women political activists and female members of indigenous communities were systematically killed and disappeared during the waves of terror campaigns In some instances, women were attacked for being "mothers of the guerillas." Widows were subject to extra surveillance and scrutiny by the army and paramilitaries as they are "relatives or guerillas." more... As of 2000, there were 50,000 war widows in Guatemala. more...
* As state violence escalated in the 1970s and 1980s during the assault of mostly Maya communities, women became a greater percentage of the dead and disappeared. more... "In 1981 and 1982, a period of counterinsurgency characterized by rural mass killings, the proportion of women amongst all named victims reached 21 percent, its highest point since the expansion of the conflict in the 1960s. For the entire armed conflict, women represent 15 percent of the named dead in the International Center for Human Rights Investigation (CIIDH) database." more...
* The Commission for Historical Clarification (CEH) registered 42,275 victims, of whom 23, 671 were victims of arbitrary execution and 6,159 were victims of forced displacement. 83% of identified victims were indigenous Mayas and 17% were non-indigenous. Of the 42, 275 identified victims registered by the CEH, 9411 were female (CEH, 1999a, Cap 2/Vol. 3, Item 38) or 25% of the victims. Therefore, while both men and women were exposed to forms of violations, the violations differed by gender. Men experienced four times as much arbitrary executions, torture, forced disappearance, detention. The same number of women and men died due to forced displacement. Women, however, were subjected to 99% of the sexual violations. The age of females who have experienced violations of all types is known is only 51% of cases. Of these cases, 35% are girls under the age of 18, 62% are women between the ages of 18 and 59, and 3% were identified as women 60 and over. Because sexual violations are usually targeted at women and girls, it is crucial that this be investigated further to understand who the women were (and are) and who experienced these violations .
* The military and other state forces (civil patrols, state police, and military commissioners) are implicated in 93% of human rights violations and acts of violence. The CEH reported that state forces were responsible for 626 massacres and acts of genocide against the Mayan people during the years of 1981 and 1983. The guerrilla forces were responsible for 32 massacres.
* During compulsory military service, young men informally underwent violent and humiliating initiation rites reinforcing a violent and machista ethic. This included visiting sex workers as demonstrations of virility and forcing women to wash and cook for them. more...
* In 1998, the Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women received reports that women's organizations that assist displaced women and other victims of the war were receivin death threats. According to the Special Rapporteur, "at approximately 3 a.m. on 17 June 1998, men armed with grenades, machetes and firearms assaulted a group of 30 members of Mama Maquin, a women's organization which works with returnedrefugees and displaced people in Guatemala, as they were returning from a meeting in the returned refugee community of Victoria 20 de Enero, Ixcan municipality, El Quiche department. It is reported that the assailants beat several women with the broadsides of their machetes and stole their personal goods. They allegedly tore up the papers from the meeting and cursed the women and their organization. According to information received, the same day members of Mama Maquin in Guatemala city received death threats and messages of intimidation from unidentified men urging them to give up their struggle on behalf of returned refugee women. The information suggests that these actions are connected to their activities as defenders of women's rights in Guatemala. The Special Rapporteur expressed the hope that the Government would investigate the allegations and take immediate action to bring the alleged perpetrators to trial, in order to comply with its international obligations". more...
* Although the peace accords encourage the electoral participation of women there is no current mechanism such as quotas to ensure women's equitable political participation.
* In 2002, only two of Guatemala's 331 municipalities had woman mayors and in Guatemala's congress, men outnumbered women at a ratio of nine to one. more...
* Until 1998, the Guatemalan Civil Code gave the male spouse the authority to deny his wife the right to engage in activities outside the home; until 1999, the code stated that women could only work outside the home if it did not prejudice the interests and care of the children or the home. more...
* The Guatemalan peace negotiations were a long and arduous process, beginning in 1987 and resulting in a signed peace agreement in 1996. Although women’s interests are expressed in the peace accords, the implementation of gender provisions remains outstanding.
* In signing the 1996 Peace Accord the Guatemalan Government agreed to implement over 300 broad-sweeping reforms including the formation of a Guatemalan National Women's Forum (Foro). The Foro was officially inaugurated in December 1997 and, in the spring of 1998, began the one-and-a-half year long process of conducting two nation-wide consultations, the first on women's socioeconomic development and the second on women's civic and political participation.
* The National Women's Forum initiated operations November 12, 1997, and was signed into force by President Alvaro Arzú March 3, 1998. It represents an important vehicle for women to organize in all spheres of the society, and to propose policy recommendations at the national level. The Forum's greatest success thus far has been giving voice to women from all 23 linguistic groups representing the multiethnic plurality of Guatemala. The Forum also acts as a training ground for women to organize and enter political leadership positions. It is currently consulting women on their needs at the community level. The foremost concerns expressed thus far include illiteracy, scarcity of land, and lack of access to education and health care. The Forum conducted a survey of 35,000 women in 1998 and 1999, asking them about their priorities for governance and development. This survey was hailed as the first time indigenous women, who face double discrimination, were allowed to vocalize their needs and demands. more...
* Since 2001, more than 700 women and girls have been raped, tortured and killed in Guatemala. In 2003 alone, 250 women and girls have been murdered and four Guatemalan women are killed each week. The crimes are shockingly brutal; victims have been found with their fingernails ripped out and with multiple stab wounds. According to the BBC, authorities believe criminal street gangs or “maras,” which have flourished in Guatemala’s impoverished and lawless slums, are responsible for the crimes. But, the scourge of violence against women is rooted in poverty, extreme socio-economic inequalities and rampant gender discrimination. more...
* In the first five months of 2004, forty-six Guatemalan women were killed after being tortured and raped. The BBC reported that a total of 170 women were murdered in Guatemala by May 2004. Despite government and UN efforts to curb violence and disarm the civilian population, assaults, murders and kidnappings were reported to have increased by 150 per cent in 2003 alone. more...
* Women are being raped, mutilated and murdered by the thousands in Guatemala . In 2004, 527 women were violently murdered, with only one of these murders resulting in prosecution. more... The 527 murdered in 2004 accounted for 12 percent of the total number of people killed in Guatemala that year. Human right workers blame the deaths a number of factors including a general atmosphere of violence toward women, gang violence, narcotrafficking and abuse by police and military officials. more... Guatemalan authorities confirmed to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) that between 2001 and August 2004 they had registered the deaths of 1,188 women but the figures are expected to be much higher due to the level of murders that go unreported. more…
* During the 36-year internal armed conflict that ended in 1996, rape was an integral part of the counter-insurgency strategy. It was through this period that the prevalence of gender-based violence and the complicity of Guatemalan authority developed. Many of the brutal murders taking place today in Guatemala are reminiscent of those employed by the U.S.-trained army against the guerrillas and the residents of rural indigenous villages during the 1960-1996 civil war. the conflict years set the stage for the current system of law and justice. more…
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Killings of women and girls have been on the rise in the context of an increase in general violent deaths. According to police records, in 2002 women accounted for 4.5 per cent of all killings, in 2003 11.5 per cent and in 2004 12.1 per cent. According to the Human Rights Ombudsman's Office only 9% of these cases have been investigated. Many of the murders are categorized by the police as “crimes of passion” or “due to personal problems” and so are not investigated or are de-prioritized.