Human rights committee blames Guatemala for forcing girl who was raped to carry out her pregnancy
A former director of a government-run daycare facility she had attended as a child raped her on multiple occasions beginning in 2009 when she was 13 and no longer attended the center, but she was denied access to abortion, forced to carry out the birth and care for the child, treatment the committee compared to torture.
'No girl should be forced to carry the child of her rapist. Doing so robs her of her dignity, her future, and her most basic rights,' Committee member Hélène Tigroudja said in a statement, adding that 'This is not just a violation of reproductive autonomy — it is a profound act of cruelty.'
The committee monitors countries' adherence to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
When the girl's mother found out about the abuse she reported it to authorities. The man and his wife tried to bribe and threaten the girl's family into withdrawing the report. The case wound on in Guatemala's justice system for nine years, but the man was never punished.
'Guatemala did not properly investigate the rape, nor did it take effective action to prosecute the perpetrator,' the committee said.
'Guatemala is one of the Latin American countries with the highest rates of both forced motherhood and systematic impunity for sexual violence,' the committee's statement said. 'Although the Guatemalan Criminal Code allows abortion in specific situations to avoid a threat to the life of the mother, access to legal abortion is almost impossible in practice.'
The committee called on Guatemala to establish a system to record and monitor such cases. In the case of the girl, it said the state should support her to complete higher education and attain her goals.
Catalina Martínez, vice president for Latin America and the Caribbean for the Center of Reproductive Rights, one of the groups that brought the girl's case forward, said there is agreement in society that the protection of girls is a priority.
'But that promise is broken when we don't provide access to all health services, including abortion, and we obligate them to assume motherhood that they don't want and for which they are not prepared,' she said.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
New York Post
6 hours ago
- New York Post
Michigan autoworker's lost wallet found under car hood in Minnesota over a decade later
A retired Michigan autoworker's lost wallet was discovered under the hood of a car in Minnesota on it over a decade after it vanished while he was working at a Ford assembly plant. Richard Guilford's tri-fold leather wallet — filled with a driver's license, work ID, gift cards worth $275, cash, and lottery tickets — turned up under the hood of a car being repaired at a shop in Lake Crystal, Minnesota. The wallet was discovered in June by mechanic Chad Volk, sandwiched between the transmission and the air filter box of a 2015 Ford Edge with 151,000 miles on it. Advertisement 3 A retired Michigan autoworker's lost wallet was discovered under the hood of a Minnesota car with over 150,000 miles on it over a decade after it vanished while he was working a vehicle assembly job. AP 'Did you lose your wallet years ago? If so, it was in the engine bay of a car,' Volk wrote to Guilford on Facebook. Volk messaged a photo of the wallet and included the driver's license, where Guilford saw a younger headshot of himself. Advertisement 'Crazy,' Volk said of his wallet turning up. Guilford was working on the same car in 2014 at a Ford factory in Wayne on an assembly line of new vehicles waiting to be shipped out to dealerships, when he realized his wallet had vanished. Unsure where it had disappeared — the autoworker searched dozens of cars before giving up on finding that wallet, which was a gift from his sons. 3 The wallet was discovered in June by mechanic Chad Volk, sandwiched between the transmission and the air filter box of a 2015 Ford Edge. AP Advertisement 'I can't take too much time to look for this because I gotta work. I'm on the clock,' he recalled feeling. 'No luck. Life went on.' Guilford, now 56 and living in Petersburg, Michigan, retired from Ford in 2024 after nearly 35 years. 'The amazing part to me was it was so protected,' Guilford said. 'Think about this: 11 years, rain, snow. It was in Minnesota, for crying out loud. It was in Arizona when it was bought. Think about how hot a transmission gets in Arizona driving down the road. That's incredible.' Advertisement 3 Some of the gift cards in the wallet were remarkably still valid. AP Some of the gift cards in the wallet were remarkably still valid. Cabela's, an outdoor retailer, said the $250 gift card Guilford had in his wallet is still valid. The company has since offered him more to bless his luck. 'I'm going to put everything back in it and leave it just like it is, and it's gonna sit at the house in the china cabinet, and that's for my kids,' said Guilford. 'They can tell my great-grandkids about it. We're big into stories. I like tellin' stories. That's just who I am.' With Post wires
San Francisco Chronicle
8 hours ago
- San Francisco Chronicle
Mali's military rulers arrest 2 generals, a suspected French agent and others in alleged coup plot
BAMAKO, Mali (AP) — Mali's military rulers said Thursday they have arrested a group of military personnel and civilians, including two Malian generals and a suspected French agent, accused of attempting to destabilize the country. The announcement followed rumors in recent days of arrests of Malian army officers and was made by Mali's security minister, Gen. Daoud Aly Mohammedine on the evening news on the local media. He assured the audience that a full investigation was underway and that 'the situation is completely under control.' The development comes amid an ongoing crackdown on dissent by Mali's military following a pro-democracy rally in May, the first since soldiers seized power nearly four years ago. The military provided few details about the alleged coup plotters, what it entailed and the French national implicated in it, beyond identifying the man as Yann Vezilier. The security minister said the Frenchman acted 'on behalf of the French intelligence service, which mobilized political leaders, civil society actors, and military personnel' in Mali. There was no immediate word from France, Mali's former colonial ruler, on the man's arrest. 'The transitional government informs the national public of the arrest of a small group of marginal elements of the Malian armed and security forces for criminal offenses aimed at destabilizing the institutions of the Republic,' Mohammedine said. 'The conspiracy has been foiled with the arrests of those involved," he said, adding that the plot began on Aug. 1. The national television broadcast photos of 11 people it said were members of the group that planned the coup. The minister also identified the two Malian generals he said were part of the plot. One, Gen. Abass Dembélé, is a former governor of the central Mopti region who was abruptly dismissed in May, when he demanded an investigation into allegations that the Malian army killed civilians in the village of Diafarabé. The other, Gen. Néma Sagara, was lauded for her role in fighting militants in 2012. Mali, along with neighboring Burkina Faso and Niger, has long battled an insurgency by armed militants, including some allied with al-Qaida and the Islamic State group. Following two military coups, the ruling junta expelled French troops and instead turned to Russia for security assistance. But the security situation remains precarious, and attacks from extremist groups linked with al-Qaida intensified in recent months. In June, military leader Gen. Assimi Goita, was granted an additional five years in power, despite the junta's earlier promises of a return to civilian rule by March 2024. The move followed the military's dissolution of political parties in May.
New York Post
11 hours ago
- New York Post
‘Gold Bar' Bob Menendez' most brazen abuse of power — helping Egypt cover up the murder of Jamal Khashoggi
Bob Menendez advised Egyptian officials how to cover up their part in the grisly murder of Saudi Arabian dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi. This was an egregious human rights abuse and the biggest betrayal to the values he was elected to uphold as a US senator. The disgraced former New Jersey Democrat — now serving an 11-year sentence for corruption and conspiracy to act as a foreign agent for Egypt and Qatar — had coached his high-level Egyptian contacts how to respond to a grilling about Khashoggi's assassination in a Saudi embassy before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in June 2021, court records show. Advertisement As if that wasn't bad enough, Menendez was the powerful chairman of the committee at the time. 7 Disgraced US Senator Bob Menendez helped Egyptian intelligence officials cover up their role in the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. AP 7 Jamal Khashoggi, a Saudi dissident journalist who had long criticized the government of Mohamed bin Salam, was drugged and dismembered at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in 2018. AP As revealed in my upcoming book, 'Gold Bar Bob: The Downfall of the Most Corrupt US Senator' (co-authored with Thomas Jason Anderson), Menendez met with Abbas Kamel, then director of the General Intelligence Directorate of Egypt. Advertisement He was visiting the US in an effort to persuade the Biden administration to release more than $300 million in weapons sales held up because of concerns over the Middle Eastern country's shoddy record on human rights. The Saudis convicted of killing Khashoggi had obtained the drugs used in his murder from Egyptian intelligence operatives, according to reports and court filings. Khashoggi, a columnist for the Washington Post, was killed and dismembered when he attended an appointment at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on October 2, 2018. 7 Bob Menendez's role in the cover-up of the murder of Jamal Khashoggi is told in the upcoming 'Gold Bar Bob,' which will be published in October. Advertisement 7 Jamal Khashoggi married Hanan Elatr in June, 2018. Months later, he was dead. Courtesy of Hanan Khashoggi Saudi leader Mohammed bin Salman took responsibility for the murder 'because it happened on my watch' but denied ordering the hit. 'What Menendez did was sinful,' said Hanan Elatr Khashoggi, the slain journalist's wife. 'It's sinful when I hear that a US senator accepted a bribe from a dictator to cover up a murder.' Menendez's role was mentioned briefly in court papers when he was indicted on criminal charges in 2023. Advertisement 'He also briefed the head of Egyptian intelligence on questions other US senators were preparing to ask regarding reports that Egypt had aided in a notorious human rights abuse, the murder and dismemberment of a US lawful permanent resident journalist,' court papers say. 'He did so in the explicit words of his co-defendant wife, so that the head of Egyptian intelligence could prepare his 'rebuttals' and 'answers' to Menendez's fellow US senators' questions.' Menendez' wife, Nadine, who was also convicted on bribery and corruption charges, had pressed her husband to help the Egyptians in exchange for bribes, including gold bars and a Mercedes convertible. She is scheduled to be sentenced next month. 7 Bob Menendez accepted gold bars for helping Egyptian officials and an Egyptian businessman in New Jersey. AP 7 Jamal Khashoggi and his wife, Hanan Elatr Khashoggi, who he married shortly before his murder. Courtesy of Hanan Khashoggi 7 The final photograph of Jamal Khashoggi as he walked into the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on October 2, 2018. AP Elatr Khashoggi, who was born in Egypt and grew up in Dubai, now lives in Virginia, where she obtained political asylum in 2023 after she was harassed and tortured by Emirati intelligence operatives following her husband's death, she said. She told The Post she met her husband at a journalism conference in 2009, and married him five months before his murder. She last saw him in September 2018, before he went on his trip to Europe and Turkey, where he wanted to buy an apartment. Advertisement 'This is an open wound and a tragedy,' said Rahmy, who launched an unsuccessful lawsuit against an Israeli spyware company that allowed intelligence operatives to track the Khashoggis — information that ultimately led to his murder, she said. 'Everyone and their mother is trying to bury this story,' Rahmy continued, adding that Elatr Khashoggi is mulling a lawsuit against the 18 Saudis who were tried for the murder in Saudi Arabia. 'We're not giving up until we achieve justice.' Advertisement Perhaps a very small measure of that justice has already been achieved now Menendez is languishing in federal prison. Menendez has appealed to both ex-President Joe Biden and current President Donald Trump for pardons.
