Child Soldiers Global Report 2001 - Guatemala

REPUBLIC OF GUATEMALA

Mainly covers the period June 1998 to April 2001 as well as including some earlier information.

• Population:
  – total: 11,090,000
  – under-18s: 5,650,000
• Government armed forces:
  – active: 31,400
  – reserves: 35,000
  – paramilitary: 19,000
• Compulsory recruitment age: 18
• Voluntary recruitment age: 18
• Voting age (government elections): 18
• Child soldiers: none indicated
• CRC-OP-CAC: signed on 7 September 2000; supports "straight-18"position
• Other treaties ratified: GC/API + II; ILO 138

• There are no indications of under-18s in government armed forces. During the internal armed conflict, child soldiers were used by both the government forces and opposition forces. Opposition fighters were subsequently demobilised and reintegrated.

CONTEXT

The 1996 Peace Agreement, brought an end to an internal armed conflict in which over 100,000 people died, tens of thousands disappeared and one million people were displaced.

GOVERNMENT

National Recruitment Legislation and Practice

Article 135 of the 1985 Constitution provides that citizens have the duty to "serve and defend the homeland" and "to perform military and social service in accordance with the law." A 1998 constitutional reform approved by Congress would have amended Article 135(g) to require citizens "to perform military or social service in accordance with the law", but this reform was rejected when submitted for approval by referendum.⁷⁷⁵

After the 1994 Comprehensive Agreement on Human Rights, the Government was asked to adopt a new Military Service Act to establish a fair and non-discriminatory system of military service. The same year, conscription procedures were changed to a totally voluntary system in which citizens serve for a determined period of time as mutually agreed with the Armed Forces.⁷⁷⁶ In June 1994, the President of the Republic asked the Minister of Defence "to accept for military service only persons aged 18 or over who volunteer for military service and meet the legal requirements."⁷⁷⁷

On 19 September 1996, the Agreement on the Strengthening of Civilian Power and on the Role of the Armed Forces in a Democratic Society was concluded, enshrining provisions for a new military service.⁷⁷⁸ This agreement requested the practice of voluntary military recruitment be continued "until the Government of Guatemala, on the basis of the Comprehensive Agreement on Human Rights, adopts the necessary administrative decisions, and the Guatemalan Congress approves a civil service law, which shall include military service and community service; this law shall entail fulfilment of a duty and a constitutional right, which is neither compulsory nor a violation of human rights, is universal and non-discriminatory, and would reduce the length of service and offer options to citizens."

Nevertheless, de jure, the 1988 legislation on military service (ley Constitutiva del Ejercito) is still in force. According to this law, all men aged 18 to 30 are liable for 30 months military service. Permanent exemptions are possible for medical reasons, election candidates and clergy.

Article 59 of the Children and Young Persons Code (Decree No. 78-96) states that "In the event of armed conflict, children and young persons shall have the right not to be recruited and the state shall ensure compliance with the international humanitarian law standards applicable to them. The state shall adopt all possible measures to ensure that persons who have not reached the age of 18 shall neither participate directly in the hostilities nor be recruited for military service at any time." The government informed the Coalition in March 2001 that this law has not yet entered into force.⁷⁷⁹

Military Training and Military Schools

There are many military schools in Guatemala, including military high schools and technicians schools that accept pupils from 14 years. Their status in relation to the armed forces.⁷⁸⁰

Past Child recruitment

During the internal armed conflict child soldiers were used by both government and opposition forces. Many of the mechanisms of forced and underage recruitment during the civil war have since been dismantled. Voluntary Committees have been demobilised since 1996 (according to Decree 143-96) and the Guardia de Hacienda no longer exists. Similarly, the military commissioners (recruitment agents paid for and armed by the armed forces) were abolished by Decree 79-95 in 1996.⁷⁸¹

DEVELOPMENTS

International Standards

Guatemala signed the CRC-OP-CAC on 7 September 2000 and supports the "straight-18" principle.

Truth Commission

On 25 February 1999, the Guatemalan Historical Clarification Commission published its final report on human rights violations during the civil war and denounced the use of forced recruitment, including of children, by the Armed Forces (partly through the Military Commissioners), by the Civil Defence Patrol and by the guerrillas.⁷⁸²

Demobilisation

Since the end of the war 3,000 ex-guerrillas from the Guatemalan National Revolutionary Unit were the beneficiaries of a reintegration programme. Of 2,959 guerrillas who have reported to the camps for their demobilisation, 214 were minors.⁷⁸³ At the time of demobilisation, of 2,778

URNG troops who responded to a survey, 99 (30 females) were between the ages of 10 and 15 and 737 (153 females) were between the ages of 16 and 20.

775 Navarro, M., "Vote denies equality for Mayans, defense limits also on ballot in Guatemala", New York Times, 17/5/99; Sandoval, J", "No se modifica la Constitucion., Prensa Libre, 18 May 1999.

776 Information available on the website of the Military Attache of the Guatemalan Embassy in Washington: http://www.mdngt.org/agremilusa/eaf/html.

777 Initial report of Guatemala to the Committee on the Rights of the Child, UN Doc. CRC/C/3/Add.33, 20/4/95.

778 http://www.un.org/Depts/minugua/paz9.htm.

779 Letter to CSC, 5/3/01.

780 La Prensa, 24/1/97.

781 Letter to CSC, 5/3/01.

782 http://hrdata.aaas.org/ceh/mds/Spanish/toc/html.

783 Guatemala NewsWatch Vol. 12, No.3, 3/97.