UN Human Rights Committee demands Guatemala protect girls to ensure none are forced to become mothers

• This decision is the result of a simultaneous international litigation strategy initiated in 2019 by the Niñas, No Madres (They are Girls, Not Mothers) Movement, and marks a milestone in the protection of sexual and reproductive rights, not only locally, but globally.
• The “They Are Girls, Not Mothers” Movement urgently calls on the Guatemalan state to comply with the United Nations’ decisions and on the international community to demand transparency, reforms, and immediate action.
• The Movement celebrates this decision, which adds to the rulings against Ecuador and Nicaragua, published on January 20 by the United Nations Human Rights Committee, aimed at preventing any other girl from being forced into motherhood.

June 5, 2025. GUATEMALA – Today, the UN Human Rights Committee issued a ruling holding the State of Guatemala responsible for violating the human rights of Fátima, a girl who survived repeated sexual violence by a teacher and was forced to continue with the pregnancy and motherhood resulting from rape. This decision, made possible thanks to litigation initiated in 2019 by the “They Are Girls, Not Mothers” Movement, reaffirms a fundamental principle: no girl should be forced to face an unwanted pregnancy and motherhood.

In its decision, the Committee highlighted that by forcing Fátima to maintain a pregnancy she explicitly stated she did not want to continue, the State violated her rights to a dignified life, to make autonomous decisions about her body, to receive information, and to equality and non-discrimination. In this regard, the Committee emphasized that forced motherhood interrupts and hinders girls’ personal, educational, and professional goals, severely restricting their right to a dignified life.

The Committee also recognized that the sexual violence, pregnancy, and forced motherhood that Fátima had to face caused her extreme suffering, including suicide attempts. Likewise, the State’s refusal to provide her with reproductive health services to which she was entitled constituted cruel and inhuman treatment, and a form of discrimination based on stereotypes about women’s reproductive function.

The Committee also establishes non-repetition measures to prevent other cases like Fátima’s from occurring, a particularly relevant decision given Guatemala’s concerning panorama regarding child pregnancy. The figures are compelling: between 2018 and 2024, the National Registry of Persons (RENAP) documented more than 14,000 births in girls aged 10 to 14 (an average of 2,000 births per year). The trend continues, as evidenced by Guatemala’s Observatory on Sexual and Reproductive Health (OSAR), which between January and March 2025 documented 556 births in girls of the same age range.

Measures Demanded by the Committee

Among the measures the Committee demanded from the State of Guatemala are:

• Guarantee access to reproductive health services, eliminating medical, judicial, and administrative barriers, as well as strengthening existing therapeutic abortion protocols.
• Undertake actions to prevent sexual violence, including access to comprehensive sexual education.
• Create a public policy for reparations for survivors of sexual violence, pregnancy, and forced motherhood, encompassing education, health, and psychosocial support.
• Create a unified national registry system that documents cases of sexual violence and forced pregnancies to design effective public policies.
• Provide mandatory training to health, justice, and education personnel on gender, childhood, and human rights issues.

The decision in Fátima’s case joins previous rulings against Ecuador and Nicaragua (cases of Norma, Lucía, and Susana, January 2025) and against Peru (Camila’s case, 2023 before the Committee on the Rights of the Child).

Statements from the Movement

“With the UN Human Rights Committee’s decision in Fátima’s case, all survivors represented by the Niñas No Madres’ movement have obtained justice before international bodies. This ruling constitutes a fundamental precedent in protecting the human rights of girls who are victims of sexual violence and reaffirms Guatemala’s State responsibility to guarantee access to justice, comprehensive reparation, and non-repetition. This is a moment not only to celebrate and recognize this advancement, but for the Guatemalan State to begin, without delay, compliance with the recommendations, adopting structural measures that prevent any girl from being forced to become a mother,” expressed the Niñas No Madres movement.

“With the decision in Fátima’s case, the United Nations has recognized something we cannot continue to ignore: no girl in this world should ever be forced to become a mother. Our girls were born to learn, to play, to dream of bright futures—not to mother or bear the consequences of violence. Forced motherhood is a form of torture. The UN has established this. It is the duty of States to act accordingly to eradicate sexual violence, ensure essential health services, and guarantee the protection of girls’ rights, including the right to decide about their own bodies and life projects. Today, in honor of Fátima’s courage, we remind the entire world of a fundamental truth: They are girls, not mothers,” stated Catalina Martínez Coral, Vice President for Latin America and the Caribbean of the Center for Reproductive Rights.

“Each decision is not only a vindication for girls who survived these violences, and who for years awaited justice from their countries’ judicial systems, but also a beacon of hope for thousands who still face a panorama of unprotection after surviving such a painful event as rape. With this ruling, we ratify the power of survivors’ voices, the importance of collective struggle, and the urgency of comprehensive approaches to prevent any other girl from having to abandon her childhood for forced motherhood,” states Marianny Sánchez, Communications Director for Latin America at Planned Parenthood Global, one of the movement’s founding organizations.

Global Impact

This decision is a milestone in guaranteeing human rights, not only locally but also globally, as it obligates Guatemala and the more than 170 signatory States of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights to modify their legislation to guarantee voluntary pregnancy termination and ensure that no girl faces forced pregnancies or motherhood.

The “They Are Girls, Not Mothers” Movement urgently calls on the Guatemalan State to comply with its international obligations and implement all necessary measures so that no girl has to be forced to renounce her dreams and life projects to assume forced motherhood.

Fátima’s Story

Fátima was a girl from low socioeconomic resources in Guatemala. Between 2009 and 2010, when she was 13 years old, she was raped by a teacher who, paradoxically, had been an official of the organization in charge of protecting children, and was subsequently forced to continue with the pregnancy resulting from the abuse. The system completely failed: health personnel blamed her for her pregnancy and justice has not managed to capture her aggressor.

During the pregnancy, after harassment from educational personnel, Fátima was forced to abandon school. When she wanted to return, they conditioned her re-entry to school on her getting married. Then, despite occupying first place in academic performance at the institute, they did not allow her to carry the flag in the holiday parade because “what would society say about having a pregnant girl at the institute.” The girl and her family had to seek legal support to be able to return to study.

As a result of the sexual violence and unwanted pregnancy, Fátima had suicidal thoughts. In the health system, she was mistreated by medical personnel who blamed her for the sexual violence she suffered.

Currently, Fátima still faces the serious consequences of sexual violence, forced motherhood, and not having obtained justice and reparation in her case. She wishes that no girl has her childhood taken away.

About the “They Are Girls, Not Mothers” Movement

“They Are Girls, Not Mothers” is a Latin American movement in favor of Latin American girls’ rights that has led the innovative strategic litigation of the cases of Norma, Fátima, Susana, and Lucía before the UN Human Rights Committee. The co-litigating organizations are the Center for Reproductive Rights, Planned Parenthood Global, Mujeres Transformando El Mundo (Guatemala), el Observatorio en Salud Sexual y Reproductiva (Guatemala), Surkuna (Ecuador), and Promsex (Peru), which carried out a joint litigation strategy of international scope to prevent these cases from recurring and generate corresponding reparations. It seeks to inform about the serious consequences of sexual violence and forced motherhood in girls.

The movement was founded by Planned Parenthood Global, Amnesty International, el Grupo de Información para la Reproducción Elegida (GIRE), and the Consorcio Latinoamericano contra el Aborto Inseguro (CLACAI) with the objective of informing about the serious consequences of sexual violence and forced motherhood in girls. The They Are Girls, Not Mothers movement today is comprised of more than a dozen organizations from throughout the Americas region to ensure that all girls can grow up healthy, strong, and safe, and can make free and informed decisions about their health and their future.

CONTACT:  

Daniel Ruge 

[email protected]