Guatemala News

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This is about Democracy. This is about freedom and liberty and respect for the law.

They call themselves Pro Life groups, implying therefore that anybody who is not with them is Pro Death.

That is the logic behind the clever name. It’s a very strong statement. It is also very wrong. It’s a fallacy. But it has certainly worked for them.

It is used as a slogan by the Opus Dei and other catholic fundamentalists who are in alliance with the ever-growing fundamentalist evangelical groups.

I ask: Pro life of what population? Only the ones they consider should live? What are their criteria for who should live and who should die?

If all life is sacred, as Guatemala’s Cardinal Rodolfo Quezada Toruño reiterated in mass last Sunday, August 17, then I am at a loss.

For some Pro Life groups all human life is sacred, but the death penalty is ok, just as is killing innocent civilians in unnecessary wars.

I do not see the consistency and coherence of the Pro life logic.

I am for preventing unwanted pregnancies, education and information. An informed population usually makes better choices than a uniformed one. That is why education is the most important tool for development.

This is not about abortion, but Pro Life groups always use this context to get the most press coverage and scare everybody into submission. The scary thing is: it works.

These groups have had an extremely powerful influence in the majority of Central American governments and the press. In Guatemala, they are so powerful that each time a Catholic president is elected they manage to stop most reproductive health services, including HIV/AIDS prevention services, for at least three years. Never mind that the legal framework is crystal clear on the issue. Guatemala has ratified reproductive rights as human rights and we have specific laws addressing these issues. The laws exist; the laws are conveniently ignored by the fundamentalists. (See legal framework below).

This new Pro Life initiative called the “Book of Life” started in the Honduras Congress. The book was signed on March 27, 2008 by 108 legislators in Honduras. They then moved on to El Salvador, where 84 Congress members signed it on June 5, 2008.

Now they have been in Guatemala. Less than one third of Congressional representatives (57 of the total 158 members) signed the book on August 13, 2008. It does not matter that the national Constitution clearly states that Guatemala is a secular state, secular meaning strict separation of the church from any state institution.

The tactics employed by Pro Life groups were as simple as they are effective, and have been used every time by them in the past:

If you do not sign the initiative we will publish your name as a pro-abortionist and denounce you from every pulpit we have.
You do want to be re-elected, don’t you?
If you do not sign the initiative, your children, who attend Catholic schools, will be forced to look for alternative education...

The message to public health officials and other government employees is clear: there are to be no reproductive health services, unless these are in accordance with the Vatican’s directive. The tactics of coercion, blackmail, whatever name you choose to use, are effective.

They are marching on to the rest of Central America: Nicaragua and Costa Rica.

In Guatemala in the past, no newspaper would print the stories about the methods used by the Pro Life groups. All radio programs would be dominated by callers from Opus Dei and other Pro life activists. The Opus Dei and evangelical fundamentalist columnists had free hand to promote their agenda without opposition from their colleagues. There where strict gag orders in place. People needed their jobs.

In 2008, however, things have changed. Prominent and respected journalists and columnists from several important Guatemalan newspapers are addressing the issue. There are some newspapers who actually dared to publish the whole story. A conversation has started, a vigorous debate is taking place. That is progress.
It is not about pro-abortion or against abortion. It is about respecting Guatemala’s existing laws.

The Catholic news services are celebrating victory in the Guatemalan Congress. This time, it is only a very small victory: just a third of Congress members signed. In previous years the result would have been 100% victory for the so called Pro Life groups. We can call this a great progress.

Guatemala’s law states that abortion is illegal, except when the woman’s life is in extreme danger. This new initiative being promoted by the “Book of Life” condemns all abortions as “abominable,” even when women’s lives are at risk.

This is about freedom of information, a human right, freedom of expression, a human right, the right to health services, a human right. This is about preserving the integrity of the Guatemalan Constitution.

The coercion and other unethical tactics by these groups are being exposed for what they are. They no longer benefit from silence from the press. This is Democracy, this is freedom. It is liberty and respect for the law.

Guatemala has come a long way, and it certainly has a much longer way to go, but this is one of the very small hopeful signs that things are changing here.

Guatemala’s Legal Framework
Source: http://www.policyproject.com/matrix/matrix2.cfm?country=Guatemala

Guatemala has ratified the following treaties:

The following documents further define Guatemala’s obligations:

The documents listed above require Guatemala to protect and promote the following rights:

Constitutional Protection of Rights

The Constitution of Guatemala can be viewed at
http://www.georgetown.edu/pdba/Constitutions/Guate/guate93.html

The Constitution of Guatemala is an essential tool for the protection and promotion of human rights. It enables Guatemala to translate international agreements into domestic law, and obliges all branches of government to respect and ensure the rights it enshrines. It expressly establishes the preeminence of international human rights legislation over Guatemala’s internal law (art. 46).

The Constitution provides for the protection of the following rights, among others, which empowers individuals to make reproductive health decisions and helps create the economic and social conditions conducive to good sexual and reproductive health.

Right to dignity (art. 4)
Right to decide freely the number and spacing of one's children (art. 47)
Right to education (art. 71)
Right to equality before the laws (art. 4)
Right to equality between spouses (art. 47)
Right to equal pay for equal work (art. 102.c)
Right to freedom of association (art. 34)
Right to freedom of movement (art. 26)
Right to health (art. 93)
Right to just and favorable work conditions (art. 102)
Right to liberty and security (art. 3)
Right to life (art. 3)
Right to own private property (art. 39)
Right to petition the government to address grievances (art. 28)
Right to receive and impart information (art. 35)
Right to social security (art. 100)
Right to work (art. 43, art. 101)

The Constitution includes other provisions that promote and protect rights relevant for good sexual and reproductive health.

The Constitution specifically states men and women are equal in rights and responsibilities (Art. 4).

Several legal principles require Guatemala to take explicit steps to ensure public health. The Constitution obliges Guatemala to:

provide social, economical and legal protection for the family (Art. 47);
protect the health of minors and seniors (Art. 51);
establish institutions and initiatives for promotion, prevention, recovery, rehabilitation and coordination in order to achieve physical, mental and social well-being (Art. 94);
control the quality of all products that may affect health (Art. 95);
establish primary health care programs (Art. 95);
improve the living conditions of vulnerable communities (Art. 95); and
improve the standard of living of its population and the well-being of the family (Art. 119.d).

The Constitution also grants communities a right and a duty to participate in the planning, implementation, and evaluation of health programs (Art. 98), and imposes a duty on all persons to protect public health (Art. 95).

Several provisions of the Constitution are particularly relevant for the empowerment of women and the improvement of their social status:

at home, by providing for the rights to equality between spouses and to freely decide the number and spacing of their children (Art. 47);
at work, by protecting of pregnant women against work that would endanger their health, and by granting them the right to paid maternity leave and to additional days during lactation (Art. 102.k)

In addition, the Constitution expressly requires Guatemala to protect motherhood in accordance with human rights obligations (Art. 52).

Finally, the Constitution states that the list of rights enumerated is not exhaustive, and that rights which are not included but are inherent to human beings can also be protected (Art. 44).

What does this entail? Even if other rights protected under international law are not listed in the Constitution, it is possible to use this provision as an argument that those rights uphold policy initiatives improving sexual and reproductive health. This provision also grants an argument against policymakers if they assert that they are not constitutionally required to take measures to protect rights, even if such rights are relevant to sexual and reproductive health. However, it is possible that this provision is mainly intended to enable broader interpretation of laws in a court context. For more information or additional research, please click here to learn more about a specific reproductive health and human rights topic or contact the Human Rights Working Group.

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Fundamentalist Religious Leaders Strong Arming Guatemalas Congress, Again

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