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National law and policies on minimum ages – Guatemala

 

According to the CRC, laws and policies must be directed to the best interest of the child. This is especially so in provisions that aim to safeguard the child against exploitation or an early end to childhood, i.e. in the instances where children are most vulnerable and at risk. Yet such safeguards are often ignored and different areas of legislation found to clash with each other. What happens if the age for the end of compulsory education is 14 but the minimum age of employment is 12? Or vice versa? What if a girl can be married before school leaving age - will she then return to school? And who ensures schooling in prisons, when in reality education should protect children from incarceration?

 

 

 

 

With 192 parties to it, the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) is the most widely ratified UN treaty. Each State Party must submit periodic reports to the Committee on the Rights of the Child, which uses this process to monitor State compliance with the treaty. The vast majority of the information on minimum ages presented on these pages is taken directly from such reports (occasionally, if these failed to include relevant information concerning minimum ages, other components of the reporting process - such as the Committee’s Concluding Observations - were consulted). States Parties’ reports constitute self-assessment by governments and are therefore authoritative sources, emanating directly from those empowered to make decisions. Using this type of sources also permits a range of actors to hold governments accountable for the standards which they report under the CRC. The sections of these reports have been reproduced faithfully, and readers are encouraged to make use of the full original text, available here.

 

Individual country reports are often written by diverse parts of the government, and frequently run to more than 100 pages. Moreover, within some states’ legal systems there are various recognised sources of law, which frequently generate conflicting minimum ages. Distilling precise numbers out of such documents is therefore a precarious task. While we would encourage cross-country comparison, we would also stress the danger that those countries with a more honest engagement with the reporting process might come off worse when compared with those which would mis-represent the degree of compliance, whether wilfully or not. For a full explanation of the principles that guided us in our analysis, please visit the introductory pages here.

Sources:
Concluding Observations (to 2nd report): CRC/C/15/Add.154, 9 July 2001
2nd periodic report: CRC/C/65/Add.10, 29 March 2000
Concluding Observations (to initial report): CRC/C/15/Add.58, 7 June 1996
Initial report: CRC/C/3/Add.33, 20 April 1995
 
Minimum age for the end of compulsory education
From concluding observations (to 2nd report)
22. The Committee reiterates its concern about the disparity between the legal minimum age for admission to employment (14 years) and the age for the end of compulsory education (15 years).
From concluding observations (to initial report)
15. […] the failure to provide for an age for the completion of compulsory education as required by the Constitution of Guatemala as well as by article 2 of ILO Convention No. 138 is a matter of considerable concern to the Committee.
From initial report
99. With regard to education, article 74 of the Political Constitution states that all inhabitants have the right and obligation to receive initial, pre-primary, primary and basic education within the age limits established by law.
 
Minimum age for admission to employment
From 2nd report
259. The impoverishment of large segments of the Guatemalan population has meant that many families’ subsistence depends to a large extent on income from child or youth labour, and a high percentage of children have been obliged to seek work in both the formal and the informal sectors.
268. One improvement in the Children and Adolescents Code over the earlier Minors Code is that it deals openly with child labour and even stipulates the establishment of administrative and organizational bodies. However, it does not provide specific standards to regulate, protect, reduce or eradicate child and juvenile labour, which is still regulated by the Labour Code and the Constitution.
From initial report
100. Article 102, paragraph l, of the Political Constitution states, with regard to the minimum social rights established in the labour legislation that “minors under 14 years of age may not be employed in any kind of work, with certain exceptions provided by law” (art. 150 of the Labour Code).
101. The labour legislation specifies the exceptional cases in which minors may work: for example, on production of a permit issued by the General Labour Inspectorate when, by way of exception, a minor aged under 14 years may be authorized to work a six-hour day, and a minor over the age of 14 years may be authorized to work up to seven hours. For the purposes of such authorization it must be verified that the minor will work as an apprentice or because he or she needs to contribute to the family economy, and that the work in question is light in its duration and intensity and will not prejudice the physical, mental or moral health of the young worker, and that the requirements of his or her compulsory education are met in some way.
 
Minimum age for marriage
From 2nd report
69. With regard to the concern expressed by the Committee on the Rights of the Child in relation to the minimum age for marriage in the case of girls, an initiative has been launched under the Women and Legal Reform Project of the National Women’s Office, involving a proposed amendment to article 81 of the Civil Code, Decree Law 106, setting 16 as the minimum age at which young people may marry. That would be an improvement insofar as it would establish equal conditions for girls and boys.
From initial report
98. Articles 81, 82 and 83 of the Civil Code stipulate that males from the age of 16 and females from the age of 14 may contract marriage, provided that they have the permission of both their parents or of the person who exercises paternal authority or guardianship over them. If the parents disagree or the person entitled to give permission refuses to do so, authorization may be granted by a judge.
 
Minimum age for criminal responsibility
From 2nd report
70. Concerning the legally established minimum age of criminal responsibility and deprivation of liberty, article 160 of the Children and Adolescents Code states: “All persons aged at least 12 but under 18 at the time they commit an act in conflict with criminal law or special laws shall be subject to this law.”
 
Sources:
Concluding Observations (to 2nd report): CRC/C/15/Add.154, 9 July 2001
2nd periodic report: CRC/C/65/Add.10, 29 March 2000
Concluding Observations (to initial report): CRC/C/15/Add.58, 7 June 1996
Initial report: CRC/C/3/Add.33, 20 April 1995