Global Progress Towards Ending the Sexual Exploitation of Children
A global problem requires truly global solutions to address the sexual exploitation of children.
Indicators
Age of Consent
Partial
Age of sexual consent is 16. The national legislation does not provide for a close-in-age exemption.
Analysis of country legislation on age of sexual consent, 2024
Extraterritoriality & Extradition
No
Active extraterritoriality is provided in the case of a Guatemalan national whose extradition to another country has been denied. No information is provided on specific provisions with relation to SEC crimes or the applicability of the double criminality requirement.
No detailed information is provided with regards to extradition for SEC-related crimes or on the double criminality principle in extradition cases.
SECTT Legal Checklist Guatemala, 2020
CSAM Definition
Partial
The national legislation provide a definition of CSAM which is partially in line with international standards, as it does not cover material depicting a person appearing to be a minor engaged in sexually explicit conduct.
Law against Sexual Violence, Exploitation and Trafficking in Persons Decree Number 9-2009, 2018
Background Check Required
Yes
There is a mandatory provision for criminal background check for people to work with minors, in permanent or personal activities.
Decree Number 22-2017 Law on Genetic Data Bank for forensic use, 2017
National Commitments
Partial
Guatemala has ratified the CRC, the OPSC, the Trafficking Protocol and the ILO Convention No. 182.
Guatemala has not ratified the OPIC, the UNWTO Framework Convention on Tourism Ethics nor the Council of Europe's Lanzarote and Budapest Conventions.
SECTT Legal Checklist Guatemala, 2020
Child Advocacy Centers
No
There is no Child Advocacy Center in Guatemala. While two organisations, Asociación La Alianza and Asociación Refugio de la Niñez, support children and adolescents in their processes of protection and criminal prosecution of offenders, they do not enable for cooperation between law enforcement, criminal justice and child protection services.
ECPAT Guatemala, 2021
SEC Police Unit
Partial
There is a Specialised Unit against Trafficking in Persons of the Criminal Investigations Directorate of the National Civil Police, which investigates, among other things, the commercial sexual exploitation of children and adolescents. They are also part of the Immediate Response Team. There is no unit dedicated to all types of SEC.
UNODC, 2020
Protection Standards Travel and Tourism
Partial
Guatemala has implemented a national code for child protection in travel and tourism as a non-binding requirement for industry operators.
SECTT Legal Checklist Guatemala, 2020
Public SEC Case Data
NoData on SEC cases is not publicly available. Data on SEC cases is available through a request to the Public Prosecutor’s Office however a specific reason for accessing the information is needed.
Age of Consent Law is Appropriate
The age of sexual consent for both males and females is 18 and a close in age exemption (up to 3 years) is provided for consensual sexual relationships between adolescents.
The age of sexual consent is the legally defined age at which a person is considered mature enough to agree to sexual activity. The age of sexual consent varies across jurisdictions around the world and there is no international legal instrument establishing it, however various forms of advocacy have encouraged States to establish a minimum age under which engaging in sexual contact is considered a criminal offence. This is intended to prevent sexual contact with children and to prevent argument that the child consented as a defence.
Often national provisions related to the age of sexual consent include an exception, known as a close-in-age exemption, making consensual sexual activities between young people lawful if the partners are of similar ages and the age difference is not higher than a certain number of years.
To ensure that cases of child sexual exploitation do not go unpunished, ECPAT advocates for the age of sexual consent to be set at 18 for both males and females with a close-in-age exemption of 2-3 years provided in order to ensure young people are not penalised for consensual sexual acts with peers. The age from which the exemption applies should be established by States but may begin for young people somewhere between 12 and 16 years of age.
Yes The national legislation explicitly indicates that the age of sexual consent unequivocally is 18 for both males and females, with a close-in-age exemption for sexual acts between peers (of up to 3 years) is provided by law.