In January, Cultural Survival submitted our report on the violations of Indigenous children’s rights in Guatemala to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. The Convention went in to force in 1990. It serves as an agreement among states to monitor children’s rights worldwide and to improve access to those rights.
Cultural Survival’s report shows the continuing disregard for international standards of children’s and Indigenous Peoples’ rights. It notes direct rights violations in the areas of education, land rights, access to healthcare, access to sufficient food, free speech and expression, and freedom from violence.
Indigenous students consistently face discrimination and language barriers in the educational system. Most schools …show more content…
Indigenous women also face discrimination and abuses such as forced sterilization at medical facilities. These facts, among others, contribute to a lack of thorough pre- and post-natal care afforded to Indigenous mothers, which in turn is one of the causes of a high infant mortality rate among Indigenous children in Guatemala.
Infant mortality is also linked to high levels of malnutrition, largely caused by unequal distribution of arable land. Indigenous people continue to be forced off of their ancestral lands, often by violence, and left without anywhere to go or any way of earning income. Large farms own most of the arable land in the country, leaving many Indigenous people to work as seasonal laborers on plantations of cash crops meaning that men must travel in search of work. Women and children are left vulnerable to hunger without land or income of their own.
Indigenous children are also left vulnerable to human trafficking due to their family’s likelihood of poverty. Indigenous children are targeted for sex trafficking and Indigenous infants are targeted for trafficking via illegal adoptions. Poverty makes Indigenous children vulnerable to forced labor and other forms of violence as well. Approximately 415,000 children in Guatemala work, the majority of whom are
Cultural Survival’s report shows the continuing disregard for international standards of children’s and Indigenous Peoples’ rights. It notes direct rights violations in the areas of education, land rights, access to healthcare, access to sufficient food, free speech and expression, and freedom from violence.
Indigenous students consistently face discrimination and language barriers in the educational system. Most schools …show more content…
Indigenous women also face discrimination and abuses such as forced sterilization at medical facilities. These facts, among others, contribute to a lack of thorough pre- and post-natal care afforded to Indigenous mothers, which in turn is one of the causes of a high infant mortality rate among Indigenous children in Guatemala.
Infant mortality is also linked to high levels of malnutrition, largely caused by unequal distribution of arable land. Indigenous people continue to be forced off of their ancestral lands, often by violence, and left without anywhere to go or any way of earning income. Large farms own most of the arable land in the country, leaving many Indigenous people to work as seasonal laborers on plantations of cash crops meaning that men must travel in search of work. Women and children are left vulnerable to hunger without land or income of their own.
Indigenous children are also left vulnerable to human trafficking due to their family’s likelihood of poverty. Indigenous children are targeted for sex trafficking and Indigenous infants are targeted for trafficking via illegal adoptions. Poverty makes Indigenous children vulnerable to forced labor and other forms of violence as well. Approximately 415,000 children in Guatemala work, the majority of whom are