Discrimination against Women in Guatemala: The Challenge of Women’s Rights

In Chapter 10, your text discusses women’s rights as a particularly problematic area of human rights. Professor Mingst notes, “Women’s rights, like other human rights issues, touch directly on cultural values and norms, yet like other human rights issues, they have gradually become a globalizing issue” (p. 303). In this exercise, you will think critically about the nature of women’s rights issues and the prospects for and problems of addressing them.

I. Concepts. Review the discussion of human rights in general and women’s rights in particular in chapter 10. Note especially the scope of women’s rights issues in the 1990s.

II. Women’ Rights in Guatemala. The Convention of All Forms of Discrimination against Women—or CEDAW (full text at www.unhchr.ch/html/menu3/b/e1cedaw.htm)—requires its signatories to submit periodic reports on women’s rights, especially measures to improve them and conditions or obstacles making their fulfillment more difficult.

Carefully read the following excerpt from the 1991 report of the Guatemalan government (Click here to view, Acrobat PDF, 527 kb), noting areas and issues you believe reveal women’s rights problems in Guatemala. Use the following table to organize the issues you have highlighted into appropriate categories. Provide the paragraph number where you find the issue, as well as a clear description of it. Some issues may fit into more than one category, so you may enter those multiple times.

CATEGORY

ISSUE IN GUATEMALA REPORT

LEGAL

 

POLITICAL

 

SOCIAL

 

ECONOMIC

 

CULTURAL

 

PERSON/PRIVACY

 

ROLE STEREOTYPE

 

III. Analysis. Drawing on the issues you have identified and the categories into which you have placed them, answer the following questions:

  • What insights into the causes of the abuse of women’s rights does the Guatemala case present?
  • What insights into the nature of the abuse of women’s rights does the Guatemala case present? Does it illustrate the distinction between public and private human rights abuse?
  • What obstacles and opportunities for addressing and improving women’s rights does the Guatemala case suggest?