Rights or privileges?

Fiscal commitments and the rights to food, health and education in Guatemala

November 2009: Executive Summary in English, Rights or Privileges? Fiscal Commitment to the Rights to Health, Education and Food in Guatemala

Noviembre 2009: Informe completo en español, ¿Derechos o Privilegios? El compromiso fiscal con la salud, la educación y la alimentación en Guatemala.

November 5, 2009: Press release, "Guatemalan state systematically violates economic and social rights of citizens, international human rights report says"

Descarga del comunicado de prensa en español >>

In collaboration with the Guatemala-based Instituto Centroamericano de Estudios Fiscales, CESR undertook a research and advocacy project on the rights to food, health and education in Guatemala, focusing on accountability for the policy failures and deficiencies in governance which have led to shocking and persistent levels of inequality and deprivation in the country since the end of the armed conflict in 1996.

The report, "¿Derechos o privilegios? El compromiso fiscal con la salud, la educación y la alimentación en Guatemala," applies the methodology CESR has developed to monitor violations of economic and social rights more effectively. By integrating socioeconomic and legal analysis, this approach can better advocate for government accountability in policies and practices that lead to flagrant and preventable deprivations.

The report argues that one of the main reasons for the persistent and historical non-realization of economic and social rights in Guatemala is the lack of political will by democratic governments to invest more in upholding those rights, and ensuring that resources reach the most vulnerable population. Guatemala's social budget as a percentage of GDP is one of the lowest in the region. Moreover, the historical pressure by social elites has blocked every effort of fiscal reform in order to maximize the public resources needed to meet Guatemalans' needs.

The right to food, health and education in Guatemala

Guatemala has some of the worst social outcomes in Latin America. About 50 per cent of children under five suffer from chronic malnutrition; almost one in three children does not complete primary school; and 290 women die from complications in pregnancy or childbirth (for every 100,000 live births), the worst rate in Latin America along with Bolivia. Despite being the largest economy in Central America, Guatemala has the lowest human development index (a composite measure of life expectancy, health and education outcomes) of any country in the sub-region.

Moreover, a closer look at disaggregated indicators on health, education and nutrition reveals wide disparities along lines of gender, ethnicity, socio-economic status and geography (i.e. differences across regions, among municipalities within the same region, and between the rural and urban populations). For example, the infant mortality rate among the indigenous population is 30 percent higher than that of non-indigenous children. Maternal mortality is almost 10 times higher in the predominantly indigenous departments of the highland region than in departments with the lowest proportion of indigenous population. Primary education completion rates for girls are 10 percent lower than for boys, and the gap in school enrollment rates between the richest and poorest children is the widest in Latin America.

A question of injustice

The historical legacy of armed conflict, political repression and institutionalized discrimination against indigenous people over centuries may account in part for this state of affairs. As a developing country struggling to meet both the demands of post-conflict transition and the challenges of a globalized economy, tackling poverty and exclusion must be understood as a long-haul task.

The 1996 Peace Accords which ended the 36-year internal armed conflict set out a road map for addressing these ills as underlying causes of the conflict. Agreed and adopted by representatives of the state, political parties and civil society, the accords set out a detailed framework of commitments explicitly aimed at the realization of economic, social and cultural rights as a solid foundation for peace.

Thirteen years on, progress has not kept pace with these commitments. Many of these pledges have remained a dead letter, with some of the most important structural reforms mandated by the agreements - particularly those related to land and taxation - having been repeatedly blocked by those who see their vested interests threatened by them.

This study is motivated by the conviction that Guatemala's woeful progress in addressing these alarming levels of deprivation and disparity cannot simply be attributed to the challenges of post-conflict reconstruction, setbacks in the economy or unforeseen consequences of well-intentioned development policies. It is fundamentally a question of injustice.

In evaluating the efforts of the Guatemalan state in meeting its human rights obligations, the study takes as its starting point a series of human development indicators and other statistical data that paint a picture of the current state of health and education in Guatemala. Particular reference is made to three emblematic areas of concern: child chronic malnutrition, maternal mortality, low primary school completion. These issues are analyzed in light of three main principles of economic and social rights among the population: universality of minimum core obligations and non-retrogression, the principle of equality and non-discrimination, and the duty of progressive realization of economic and social rights according to the maximum available resources.

Recognized internationally as key fronts in the struggle against poverty, these issues are also identified as critical priorities for government action under international human rights standards. It is also in these areas that the most alarming deficits and disparities in health and education can be found in Guatemala. They represent some of the gravest threats to the security, physical integrity and life opportunities of Guatemala's children and young people, who form the majority of the country's population.

A key indicator of policy effort is the degree to which sufficient resources are allocated to the health and education system and equitably distributed according to needs and priorities. Despite having among the worst health and education indicators in the region, health and education spending is among the lowest in Latin America. Social spending is well below the regional average and lower than its poorer Central American neighbors.

A matter of rights

By tracing the link between Guatemala's dismal human development outcomes and the deficiencies in public policy over the last decade, the study makes the case that the widespread deprivation and flagrant disparities in access to food, health and education are to a large extent avoidable, and evidence a clear lack of political will to realize these rights of all sectors of the population.

Diagnoses of the state of health and education in the country are not lacking. In approaching these issues from a human rights perspective, CESR's report seeks to complement the work carried out by international development organizations, Guatemalan civil society organizations and relevant government ministries, by putting the emphasis on accountability.

The normative framework of human rights can provide a set of evaluative principles against which to hold governments to account for their efforts in the fields of health and education. These are not externally-imposed standards, but a set of norms developed by international community which the State of Guatemala has itself helped to craft and pledged adherence to, and which are reaffirmed in binding legal and political commitments made at the national level. If this framework of international and national human rights standards appears to have had little impact in determining public policy over the last decade, it is in part because human rights - and economic, social and cultural rights in particular - continue to be seen merely as hortatory and rhetorical statements of aspiration.

The approach adopted in this project seeks to operationalize the human rights framework to increase its usefulness as an instrument for monitoring and shaping public policy. It does so by using a range of quantitative and qualitative tools of socioeconomic analysis to assess compliance with human rights obligations. Questions addressed include: Is the state doing all it can to use maximum available resources to move as expeditiously as possible towards the full realization of the rights to health and education in Guatemala? Is it attending to its core obligations as a matter of priority? Has it identified and put in place measures to diminish inequalities and disparities reflecting systemic discrimination and disadvantage?

Such questions are all the more pertinent at this historical juncture. The government of President Alvaro Colom's Unidad Nacional de la Esperanza (UNE), which took office in January 2008, has announced that its overriding strategic objective is to reduce poverty and improve the quality of life of all Guatemalans. Health and education are identified as key priorities of the government's social development policy, and specific commitments have been made, among others, to tackle malnutrition and enhance access to education for those living in poverty.

While welcoming these rhetorical commitments, the report is part of advocacy efforts urging the new administration to be guided at all times by fundamental principles of human rights when framing public policies in areas related to health and education, including poverty-reduction strategies and fiscal policies. It presents a series of recommendations regarding measures that should be used by the government to comply with its human rights obligations in the sphere of health and education. These are anchored in the demands and proposals made by Guatemalan civil society organizations and enshrined in the Peace Accords, as well as in national and international human rights standards.

A collaborative and interdisciplinary project

The project has been carried out in collaboration with the Instituto Centroamericano de Estudios Fiscales (ICEFI), an organization which undertakes research, analysis, training and advocacy on fiscal policy in Central America. ICEFI has undertaken rigorous monitoring of social development expenditure and its impact in areas such as nutrition and education.

An interdisciplinary project team was established, including researchers from CESR and ICEFI, as well as Guatemalan experts in the field of health and political economy, and representatives from Guatemalan social movements.
The project includes a case study of the municipality of Senahu in Alta Verapaz, where the human impact of the issues described in the report are analysed in context. A series of group and individual interviews has enabled CESR to document the stories and experiences of individuals from affected communities, whose voice can give a more compelling account than any set of statistics or indicators.

The launch of the report comes at a time when the 2010 national budget is being debated in the Guatemalan Congress; the issues that the report highlights continue to be main priorities for the government and concerns for the population. It is part of a broader advocacy strategy coordinated with other Guatemalan civil society organizations, including health and education specialists, as well as representatives of social movements, international organizations and selected governmental institutions in Guatemala. These advocacy efforts will draw attention to the consequences of pursuing the "minimalist" vision of the state which has characterized successive administrations, and will stress the need to adopt the "rights-fulfilling" vision which informed the Peace Accords. CESR and ICEFI believe the government of President Alváro Colom has a historic opportunity to realize this vision, but it will require a decisive change of course if Guatemala is to avoid a continued slide towards a stunted future.

Read the full report in Spanish (November 2009)

Read the Executive Summary in English (November 2009)

Read news coverage of our report in the Guatemalan and international media

Guatemala Fact Sheet (2008)

Submission to the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Education (2008)

Submission to the Universal Periodic Review 2008

Submission to the Committee on the Right of the Child (2010)