Children in Guatemala are subjected to the worst forms of child labor, including in commercial sexual exploitation, sometimes as a result of human trafficking. Children also perform dangerous tasks in agriculture, including in the production of coffee. (1,2,3) Table 1 provides key indicators on children's work and education in Guatemala.

Source for primary completion rate: Data from 2020, published by UNESCO Institute for Statistics, 2022. (4)
Source for all other data: International Labor Organization's analysis of statistics from Encuesta Nacional de Empleo e Ingreso I (ENEI I), 2019. (5)

Based on a review of available information, Table 2 provides an overview of children's work by sector and activity.

† Determined by national law or regulation as hazardous and, as such, relevant to Article 3(d) of ILO C. 182.
‡ Child labor understood as the worst forms of child labor per se under Article 3(a)–(c) of ILO C. 182.

Indigenous children account for more than half of child laborers in Guatemala, and children in rural areas are more likely to work than children in urban areas. Most of these children are engaged in agricultural activity. (21,29) In agriculture, working conditions for children involve using machetes and other dangerous tools, including in the cultivation of sugarcane. (15,30) Children as young as age 5 also work in coffee fields picking and carrying heavy loads of coffee beans and mixing and applying pesticides. (31) In addition, recently corroborated reports indicate that children are often sent into cities by their parents to work as street performers or beggars. Some of these children are sold to criminal organizations, work very long hours, and are at times forced to wear paint, which is often toxic, to attract more attention as they perform in the streets. (21)

Children, both Guatemalan-born and from other countries, are victims of commercial sexual exploitation, including in sex tourism. (19,27) Guatemala is a destination country for child sex tourists from Canada, the United States, and Western Europe. (2,3) Departments with high numbers of commercial sexual exploitation victims include Alta Verapaz, Escuintla, Guatemala, Huehuetenango, Quiche, and Quetzaltenango. (16) Girls, LGBTQI+ persons, and indigenous Guatemalans are particularly vulnerable to human trafficking. (27) Children are exploited for forced labor in Guatemala, particularly in agriculture and domestic work. (19) They are also forced to engage in street begging and vending in Guatemala City and along the border with Mexico. (3,28) Traffickers are increasingly using social media and online game applications to recruit children. (3,26) Multiple sources also indicate that children are recruited into gangs to serve as lookouts, couriers, and drug dealers, or to commit extortion. Moreover, criminal organizations, including gangs, exploit girls in sex trafficking. (1,19,21)

Guatemalan children often emigrate to escape violence, extortion, and forced recruitment by gangs, in addition to seeking economic opportunities and family reunification. Human trafficking is also a driver of child migration. (32,33) Gangs target adolescent girls for forced commercial sex, causing them and sometimes their entire families to flee Guatemala in fear. (33) Once en route, however, girls and other children from Guatemala remain vulnerable to human trafficking and commercial sexual exploitation. (32,33)

Significant barriers to accessing education exist in Guatemala, particularly for girls, indigenous children, and children in rural areas. (1,15) Education is free in Guatemala, however, there is an insufficient number of primary and secondary schools. (21,34) A lack of teachers, schools, transportation, and sanitary facilities at public schools, all create barriers to education. (1,13,16,21) The Ministry of Education does not supply textbooks to most public schools. (16) Other barriers to education include sexual violence, insecurity, crime and violence in the school's surroundings, and the risk of suffering violence on their travel to school. (13) All these factors contribute to poor outcomes, high dropout rates, and high opportunity costs. (13,16) The education system is also unable to address the needs of students with disabilities, and the few existing education programs for children with disabilities rely mainly on non-profit support. (1,16,21,22) During the reporting period and as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, an additional barrier to education was the students' lack of access to personal computers and Internet services. Some reports estimate that 106,000 children left school in 2020. (35) Research demonstrates that children who do not attend school are more vulnerable to child labor, including its worst forms. (36)

Reports indicate that there is a high degree of illiteracy among girls. (37,38) Due to the heightened security risks for girls traveling alone and cultural norms that prioritize boys' education over that of girls, girls in rural areas have lower enrollment rates in secondary school than boys. (16,21,22) Indigenous children in general have lower enrollment rates compared to other children. There are not enough qualified teachers to provide instruction in the predominant native languages, and classroom materials available in these languages are insufficient. (15,38) According to information from the Ministry of Education, there are over one million bilingual students who speak one of the 24 national languages enrolled in public schools. The Ministry of Education reported that it developed self-learning educational materials in different Mayan languages, which were distributed as part of the virtual teaching program during 2020 and 2021. (13) In 2021, the government hired 21,321 new permanent teachers in the country, including filling vacant positions. (13)

Guatemala has ratified all key international conventions concerning child labor (Table 3).

The government has established laws and regulations related to child labor (Table 4). However, gaps exist in Guatemala's legal framework to adequately protect children from the worst forms of child labor, including in the provisions for light work for children.

‡ Age calculated based on available information (50,54) 

Although Articles 32 and 150 of the Labor Code allow the Ministry of Labor and Social Welfare (MTPS) to authorize children under age 14 to work under exceptional circumstances—including if MTPS determines that children must work to support their family due to poverty—the law does not define the total number of hours, kinds of tasks, or age range applicable for this exception. This is inconsistent with international standards on light work. (39) MTPS indicated that no such exceptions have been granted since 2016. (1,55)

MTPS previously approved Ministerial Agreement Number 260-2019, "Procedure for the effective application of Convention 138 of the International Labor Organization, regarding the Convention on the Minimum Age for Admission of Employment," which sets forth procedures for protecting adolescents between ages 15 and 18 and ensuring that they do not participate in the worst forms of child labor. (21,41) However, the agreement does not explicitly cover children age 14, who are allowed to work under Guatemala's Labor Code (or children under age 14 who are allowed to work in exceptional circumstances). Therefore, it is unclear if this mechanism effectively raises the minimum age for work to age 15.

In September 2021, Congress passed amendments to a piece of 2017 legislation, increasing the budget allocation for the school feeding program by 57 percent starting in 2022. This amendment also allows the expansion of the school feeding program to initial school students (ages 3 to 5) and to secondary school students (ages 12 to 17) starting in 2023. (13)

The government has established institutional mechanisms for the enforcement of laws and regulations on child labor (Table 5). However, gaps exist within the operations of enforcement agencies that may hinder adequate enforcement of their child labor laws.

Labor Law Enforcement

In 2021, labor law enforcement agencies in Guatemala took actions to address child labor (Table 6). However, gaps exist within the operations of MTPS that may hinder adequate labor law enforcement, including insufficient inspection planning.

The number of labor inspections conducted during the reporting period is unknown, as the MTPS did not disaggregate their data by worksite inspections, desk audits, and conciliations. Additionally, reports indicate that there are significant issues in the way conciliations are carried out in the country. (62) In carrying out conciliations, inspectors take all allegations as true and issue remediation orders for employers without ever verifying facts. Moreover, reports indicate that in this process workers are effectively encouraged to agree to only part of the benefits owed to them, essentially relinquishing their labor rights. (11,62) In some cases, inspectors receive bribes from employers to steer workers towards settling. (62) Furthermore, inspectors don't conduct inspections in many cases, even when required to do so by law, and instead substitute conciliations for site inspections. (11,62)

In 2021, the General Labor Inspectorate conducted 2,778 child labor-specific inspections. The inspections were designed to target sectors in which children are the most vulnerable for work or the worst forms of child labor, such as small convenience stores, corn tortilla making, agriculture, manufacturing and handling of explosive and pyrotechnic substances, marble shops, broccoli plantations, garbage extraction activities, manufacturing gravel (crushed stones), informal work, and other worst forms of child labor. (13) During the reporting period, 16 violations of child labor laws were found. As of November 2021, 18 children and adolescents had been removed from child labor as a result of inspections. (13)

Although laws governing the minimum age for work and hazardous work apply in both the formal and informal sectors, labor inspectors rarely inspect informal workplaces, in which child labor violations are most likely to occur. (1,16,21,22) Some reports question the quality of inspections for child labor violations, particularly the scope and coverage across industries. (15) Civil society organizations state that, during worksite inspections, labor inspectors often meet only with business owners or supervisors and bypass conducting worker interviews. (6) Research indicates that labor inspectors are not appropriately trained to perform inspections for child labor. (1,7,9) Furthermore, MTPS reported that inspectors conducted site visits in Spanish only, the language in use at worksites, but this may hinder inspections when encountering indigenous language speakers. (16)

In 2021, MTPS reported it purchased 28 vehicles for the labor inspectorate, as well as desks and filling cabinets for the different departmental delegations. (13) However, MTPS has indicated that the funding level is still insufficient to cover the inspectorate's needs, particularly for transportation, fuel, and per diem costs. (16) Furthermore, the number of labor inspectors is likely insufficient for the size of Guatemala's workforce, which includes more than 7.2 million workers. According to the ILO's technical advice of a ratio approaching 1 inspector for every 15,000 workers in developing countries, Guatemala would employ about 484 labor inspectors. (63,64) Even though Guatemala employs 178 labor inspectors, only about 80 labor inspectors were active during most of the reporting period. MTPS also indicated that while there are six inspectors designated to work on child labor cases in the Department of Guatemala, all labor inspectors throughout the country carry out specific child labor inspections. (13)

The government has a mechanism for filing complaints regarding child labor, but reports state that the mechanism is not efficient in responding to those complaints. (1,21,22) Furthermore, while Guatemala has established a referral mechanism between responsible agencies in cases of child labor, coordination between these agencies remains a challenge and requires the intervention of NGOs or international missions. (21) After the creation of the Inter-Institutional Coordinating Entity Against Labor Exploitation and Child Labor (CICELTI), complainants can now file concerns related to trafficking in persons (forced labor and labor exploitation modalities) and the worst forms of child labor through a WhatsApp number and an e-mail address. (16) However, it is still a challenge for the government to provide services to children that are removed from child labor situations because of a lack of coordination between government agencies. (11) In 2017, the General Labor Inspectorate regained the authority to impose penalties for labor law violations, and it began implementing this authority in 2018, including for child labor law violations. Even though inspectors can now impose fines for labor violations, many of these fines are successfully challenged in court due to inspectors not carrying out site inspections even when required to do so by law, ultimately making the government unable to collect those fines. (62)

A comprehensive training plan for inspectors on human and labor rights started in November 2020, with support from the ILO, and concluded in November 2021. (13) Additionally, the United Nations Higher Commissioner Office of Human Rights in Guatemala provided training on "International Standards in Matters of Contemporary Slavery with Emphasis on the Agricultural Sector" in September and October of the reporting year. Some of the participants in this training included the general labor inspector, a deputy labor inspector, the departmental labor inspector delegate from Escuintla, the supervisor of Guatemala's departmental delegation, and the legal advisor from the labor inspectorate. (13)

Criminal Law Enforcement

In 2021, criminal law enforcement agencies in Guatemala took actions to address child labor (Table 7). However, gaps exist within the operations of the National Civil Police that may hinder adequate criminal law enforcement, including insufficient training for criminal investigators.

In 2021, the Public Ministry's prosecution office responsible for human trafficking crimes reported that it investigated 201 new cases related to the modalities of commercial sexual exploitation, pornographic performances and pornography, and labor exploitation. These cases could include one or more victims. (13) The government reported prosecuting 19 cases involving the worst forms of child labor. The Public Ministry noted that there could be one or more defendants involved in those cases. (13) There were 38 convictions related to child labor crimes, such as human trafficking, employment of minors in activities harmful for their wellbeing, and child pornography. (13)

Guatemala made efforts to increase anti-trafficking in persons resources and capacity outside of Guatemala City, and the Public Ministry continued making social workers and psychologists available to human trafficking survivors to serve as liaisons as they navigated proceedings and sought medical care. (2) However, communities in the interior of the country, particularly rural areas, continue to suffer from a lack of government services when compared to urban areas, including government assistance for survivors of the worst forms of child labor. (93)

In 2021, criminal law enforcement investigators received training on different criminal laws, including those related to labor exploitation and child labor. The Public Ministry reported that due to the pandemic it provided virtual training to new employees. (13) The government also reported providing workshops for Guatemala City municipal government and courts personnel about crimes related to trafficking in persons with the objective of improving the identification of cases and achieving effective criminal prosecution. The Special Prosecutor's Office Against Trafficking in Persons, especially the units against crimes related to Online Child Sexual Exploitation, received training on the use of the International Center for Missing and Exploited Children technological tool, to better address crimes related to children and adolescents online. (58) Through programs that cover the prevention and detection of trafficking in persons, as well as support for survivors, the government carried out trainings for 966 government employees, including professional and political staff from the Public Ministry, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Sexual Violence, Exploitation, and Trafficking in Persons (SVET), the Human Rights Ombudsman’s office, and the Solicitor General’s office. SVET was the largest implementer of training, carrying out most of the training for the 966 officials through standard instructional formats. (58)

In order to increase the coordination of the Referral Network for victims of crime, the Public Ministry established a messaging system to support regular and direct communication between the different institutions that offer attention to survivors. (58) Additionally, the government has established specialized courts to hear cases of human trafficking of adults and children and gender-based violence. Despite this, judges are often unable to schedule hearings and trials in a timely manner and often lack sufficient training to properly identify trafficking in persons cases. (28)

In 2021, the Supreme Court of Justice instituted in the Department of Totonicapan a court for children and adolescents in conflict with the criminal law. This court is tasked with ensuring the superior well-being of children and adolescents subjected to criminal proceedings (13,94) The Supreme Court of Justice also instituted a 24-hour first-instance criminal court with specific jurisdiction to hear offenses committed against children and adolescents that incorporates in its mission the Model for Comprehensive Care of Children and Adolescents (MAINA). (13)

Although SVET is the primary institution charged with raising awareness on human trafficking, it has no authority to bring cases to the justice system and its small budget limits its reach beyond urban areas. (28) Local NGO reports indicate that training is insufficient outside the capital. (1,22) Law enforcement agencies also lack sufficient vehicles, fuel, and criminal investigators, particularly outside Guatemala City. (15) MTPS has noted that resources are inadequate to carry out complex criminal investigations and to sufficiently address the different modalities of trafficking in persons crimes. (1,13) This concern is supported by the Public Ministry, which noted that due to the complexity of these investigations and crimes, more resources are necessary to conduct investigations. The Public Ministry also noted that the Special Prosecutor's Office Against Human Trafficking does not have an assigned budget and that it depends on the overall budget allocated to the Public Ministry. (16)

The government has established mechanisms to coordinate its efforts to address child labor (Table 8). However, gaps exist that may hinder the effective coordination of efforts to address child labor, including lack of coordination between agencies and civil society.

* Mechanism to coordinate efforts to address child labor was created during the reporting period.
‡ The government had other mechanisms that may have addressed child labor issues or had an impact on child labor. (43,69)

Despite improvements in inter-agency coordination to address human trafficking, there continues to be a lack of effective coordination among other government institutions and civil society actors who provide services and protection to victims of child labor. Some civil society organizations have indicated that despite being members of the Inter-Institutional Commission Against Trafficking in Persons, the commission is not fully inclusive of civil society perspectives and that they participate primarily as observers on the commission. (28) Furthermore, reporting indicates that SVET lacks political support from other parts of the government, even though it plays a significant role in combating human trafficking in Guatemala. (28)

The government has established policies related to child labor (Table 9). However, policy gaps exist that may hinder efforts to address child labor, including a lack of implementation of key national policies.

In 2021, the government of Guatemala signed a cooperation agreement with the governments of El Salvador and Honduras to increase efforts against trafficking in persons. This cooperation agreement strengthens the existing coordination with prosecutors in the region on investigations, search and rescue of victims, repatriation or return of nationals or foreign victims, legal protection of victims, and collection of evidence. (74,75)

Guatemala is a member of the global platform  Alliance 8.7. As such, Guatemala is committed to achieve goal 8.7 for a world free of forced labor, modern slavery, and human trafficking. (13) In 2021, as part of inter-institutional coordination and with a tripartite approach, employers, workers, and government representatives held virtual meetings to monitor Guatemala's commitments as a pioneer country and to coordinate the strategic planning workshop as a basis for the fulfillment of those commitments. Participants in these meetings also reviewed and validated the report “The Strategic Lines for the Construction of a Roadmap to make Guatemala a Country Free of Child Labor and its Worst Forms 2021–2025.” (13,76)

In 2021, the government funded and participated in programs that include the goal of eliminating or preventing child labor (Table 10). However, gaps exist in these social programs, including the inadequacy of efforts to address the problem in all sectors.

* Program was launched during the reporting period.
† Program is funded by the Government of Guatemala.
‡ The government had other social programs that may have included the goal of eliminating or preventing child labor. (13,26,28,58,71) 

Despite cessation of in-person educational programs due to the pandemic, the Ministry of Education spent about $245.2 million to continue the school feeding program through the distribution of fresh and non-perishable food to 2.6 million public school students in 2021. It also continued funding for school textbooks and supplies, as well as the school health insurance program. (13) The Ministry of Education reported that the number of students enrolled in public schools increased from 2.5 million in 2020 to 2.6 million in 2021, due to the assistance of its support programs. However, given the scope and magnitude of the problem, the programs described are not sufficient to significantly reduce the incidence of child labor. (13) The Secretariat of Social Wellbeing continued strengthening existing social programs such as the specialized program for childhood and adolescence victims of sexual violence, exploitation, and human trafficking. (13)

Through SVET and the Office of the Human Rights Ombudsman, the government continuously carries out human trafficking awareness campaigns that aim to educate the public about trafficking in persons issues. (28) In 2021, as part of the Blue Heart (Corazon Azul) campaign new alliances were established with departmental governors, municipal mayors, and indigenous organizations and leaders, such as the President and Board of Directors of the Forty-Eight Cantons of Totonicapan. The campaign raises awareness about human trafficking and coordinates government and social responses to crimes related to trafficking in persons. (58)

Civil society organizations indicate that social programs are inadequately funded, are susceptible to local political influences, and fail to reach the rural interior of the country outside urban areas. (1,16,21) Although the government has implemented programs to assist children and families, research found no evidence of government programs specifically designed to assist children engaged in hazardous work, including those in agriculture and domestic work. Reporting also indicates that SVET and the Office of the Human Rights Ombudsman fail to regularly monitor the effectiveness of awareness campaigns beyond tracking the number of individuals reached. (28)

On June 21, 2021, a new law came into effect in Guatemala that requires NGOs to be registered, report their donations, and allow their financial accounts to be inspected. (88,89) Under certain circumstances, it would allow the government to control and monitor the NGOs, as well as dissolve them if their activities might "alter the public order." It also allows for the prosecution of the NGOs' directors. (88,89) Civil society organizations in Guatemala and international organizations have raised concerns about the significant negative impact this new law could have in the ability of civil society organizations, including those working on children's issues, to carry out their work. As such, this risk could also increase the vulnerability of children to exploitation. (88-90) Critics say the new law could serve as an opening to impose arbitrary limits on NGOs activities, and as a means to criminalize the activities of human rights defenders and civil society in general. (89)

Conditions in government-run children's shelters are not adequate, and the government has not ensured the protection and safety of children under its care. (28,37) In addition, the environment for the implementation of social programs that address child labor remains unsafe, and the government has done little to investigate or prevent further instances of threats, intimidation, and violence—such as the murders of individuals working on social programs, including NGO officials, human rights workers, judges, and labor activists. (91)  

Based on the reporting above, suggested actions are identified that would advance the elimination of child labor in Guatemala (Table 11).

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55. Ministry of Labor official. Interview with USDOL official. April 3, 2018.
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62. U.S. Embassy- Guatemala City official. E-mail communication to USDOL official. February 25, 2022.
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66. Government of Guatemala. Reunión de Alto Nivel Comisión Interinstitucional Contra la Trata de Personas. February 27, 2020. Source on file.
67. Villagrán, Gustavo. SVET Presenta Informe Semestral de Trabajo. Diario de Centro América. August 2, 2021.
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