Women

Since 2001, thousands of young women and girls have been killed in Guatemala in an epidemic of unsolved murders. The numbers paint a horrific picture – 481 deaths in 2004, 338 in 2005, 471 in 2006 and 431 in 2007, according to Grupo de Apoyo Mútuo (GAM), a well-respected Guatemalan human rights organisation. In the first six months of 2008, the figure stood at 214.

The majority of the victims were young, poor women between the ages of 13 and 30. Many were students, housewives, factory workers, domestic employees or workers in the informal sector; some of the victims were professionals. Faced with this growing wave of brutal killings, the Guatemalan government has failed to bring those responsible to justice. The low priority of the issue is reflected in the scant resources allocated to investigations and the almost complete absence of prosecutions – there have been rulings in only 20 femicide cases since 2000.

GSN 'Women and Violence' Speaker Tour

Women throughout the Americas are calling for an end to violence against women in the region, even as levels of violence continue to rise. In Guatemala alone, more than 3,000 women have been murdered since 2000. Family members, witnesses and leaders of women’s rights organizations continue to work under threat to halt the violence and seek justice for the victims.

In spite of the staggering numbers, the Guatemalan government has done next to nothing to stem the violence. The low priority the government gives the issue of femicide is reflected in the scant resources it allocates to investigations and the almost complete absence of prosecution. There have been rulings in only 20 femicide cases since 2000. The state has also failed in its efforts to prevent these murders, and few cases of domestic violence or sexual assault are taken seriously.

HORRIFYING AS they are, the statistics about the destruction after Hurricane Felix fail to tell the true tale of the impact on the region’s peoples. This disaster in the Nicaraguan Caribbean should remind us of the way in which ethnicity, geography, poverty and gender intersect to increase vulnerability when the state fails to take preventive action.

The affected region is home to indigenous peoples – the majority Miskito and Sumo Mayagnas. In contrast to the western Pacific Coast, where the country’s traditional export industries, including coffee and beef, a re concentrated, the lush Atlantic Coast has suffered from economic isolation. Its residents have re m a i n e d poor, with government neglect separating them from the national communication, transport and economic infrastructure.

A bill signed into law by Nicaraguan President Enrique Bolaños on November 17 bans abortion in all cases – even when a pregnant woman's life is in danger or she has been the victim of a sexual assault. It was supported by 52 of the National Assembly's 90 members in a vote in late October, including many representatives of the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN).

Therapeutic abortion (carried out when a woman's life is at risk) has been practised in Nicaragua for over 130 years, although abortion was forbidden in normal pregnancies. But the right-wing Catholic Church, in collaboration with other conservative groups, introduced a bill to the National Assembly to eliminate Article 165 from the Penal Code, which allowed therapeutic abortion – making sure the vote happened before November's election.