Guatemala has some of the worst social outcomes in Latin America. This 2008 CESR factsheet focuses on the rights to health food and educaution in Guatemala. About 50 percent 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.
The factsheet is part of CESR's Visualizing Rights series. Each factsheet focuses on a country and its economic, social and cultural rights obligations. This focus helps enable intergovernmental human rights mechanisms, such as the UN, and national and international NGOs, monitor governments' compliance with their economic, social and cultural rights obligations.
The latest available socioeconomic data is used, taken either from international sources such as the World Bank or the UNDP, or national sources, such as national statistics bureaus. This data is displayed using graphs and charts, and then analyzed and interpreted. This is meant to shed light on the condition of governments' economic and social rights obligations.
