The Political Constitution of Guatemala states that it is a representative, democratic republic. Representatives are elected by universal suffrage. However, the armed forces and the police are not allowed to vote. The presidential term is 4 years. The last general elections were held in 2007 and 2008.lvaro Colom Caballeros (Social Democrat) has held the Presidency since 2008, after months of uncertainty over the results of the elections. The next general elections will be in September 2011. The Organisation of American States (OAS) has committed to sending an electoral observation mission.

Legislative power is held by a single-chamber body, the Congress of the Republic of Guatemala, whose 158 elected members serve a 4-year term and can be re-elected. Nineteen women (12%) currently occupy a seat in the Congress.

Judicial power is in the hands of the Supreme Court, which has 13 judges elected for 5 years, with the possibility of being re-elected.

According to legislation, all persons are free and equal as to dignity, rights, and life; and the liberty, justice, security, peace and development of all citizens must be protected". However, reports from national and regional human rights organizations complain of the existence of discrimination, and the lack of effective enforcement of all the rights laid down by law.

By law the judiciary is independent, but it is accused of corruption and of being subject to intimidation. Security forces have been repeatedly accused of employing torture and of abusing detained persons. There are also accusations of rape, murder of street children, and kidnappings for the purposes of extracting ransoms. Judicial authorities and the security forces have shown themselves to be incapable of containing the powerful organised crime groups and criminal gangs responsible for giving the country one of the highest violent crime rates in Latin America. Illegal armed groups formed out of the counter-insurgency groups which were in operation during the armed conflict that concluded in 1996 are said to be behind attacks directed at leading members of civil society and law enforcement. Fifteen years after the end of the conflict, impunity regarding violations of human rights continues to be the norm. Continual violence and intimidation threaten to reverse the limited progress made in seeking justice. Some well-organised gangs of youths such as "Mara Salvatrucha" and "Barrio 18" have also contributed to the intensification of violence in Guatemala. The gangs use violence against anyone who disputes their control, including other rival gangs and ex-members, people who cooperate with the police, and those who refuse to give in to extortion.
Guatemala continues to suffer from the effects of an armed conflict that lasted 36 years. According to estimations made by the UN supported Commission for Historical Clarification (CEH), no fewer than 200,000 people lost their lives in the conflict. The CEH attributes 93 per cent of the documented human rights violations to the security forces, and concludes that the Army committed "acts of genocide". Only a small number of those responsible for serious violations of human rights have been prosecuted. Of 626 massacres documented by the Commission, only three cases have been successfully prosecuted in the Guatemalan courts. The first sentence given for the crime of "forced disappearance" was given in August 2009, when a former paramilitary was sentenced to 150 years' imprisonment for his part in the disappearance of persons between 1982 and 1984. The verdict was possible thanks to a ground-breaking decision by the Constitutional Court in July 2009 eliminating expiry periods for the crime of forced disappearance, which is not subject to prescription while the whereabouts of victims remains unknown.
More than 30% of the population depends on payments sent from abroad just to live above the poverty threshold. According to the Bank of Guatemala, between January 2010 and January 2011, 283.3 million dollars' worth of family payments were sent by emigrants, far below the 314.6 million received in 2008. The financial and economic crisis in the USA, where the majority of Guatemalan emigrants are based, caused the reduction in the amount of money arriving from October 2008.

Land and income distribution is very unequal. In rural areas, 57% of the population and 71% of the inhabitants live in poverty, and 22% live in conditions of extreme poverty. Guatemala still lags behind in several aspects vital for achieving progress. The 2010 report from the UNDP suggests that one of the main reasons for the lack of progress is inequality.

Freedom of expression and press is officially guaranteed, but employees in the media are subject to intimidation.

According to estimations by UNAIDS , in 2009, 62,000 people were living with HIV in Guatemala, of whom 20,000 were women. It is feared, however, that these figures are very conservative, as detection procedures are inefficient, particularly in rural areas. One serious problem is the continuing lack of information and the social prejudice surrounding this disease.

Trafficking in persons for purposes of prostitution is illegal, but the country continues to be a source, transit, and destination for trafficking in women and children for sexual exploitation. Traffickers have links with organised crime. Some police and immigration officers are accused of being involved in human trafficking.

Education is compulsory between the ages of 7 and 15, but is out of reach for low-income families due to the high costs involved. Parents are forced to pay for books, uniforms, school transport and the building and repair of schools. Most secondary education is private and too expensive for the majority. Educational performance varies depending on the geographical region, with school completion rates low in rural areas where the indigenous population lives. The government encourages the forming of "school cooperatives a scheme widely considered to be a way of replacing insufficiently-funded state schools with semi-private schools that are more dependent on their communities. Scholarships are granted to orphans and to working children with the aim of getting them to return to school. The armed conflict created about 200,000 orphans. Street children are often recruited by criminals for prostitution, or by gangs dealing in drugs.

ECE lasts 4 years and begins at age 3. At this level, 19% of education is private. Net Enrolment Ratio (NER) is 28%. There are 16,708 schoolteachers working at this level. The number of pupils per teacher (PTR) is 25: 1.

Education is compulsory between the ages of 7 and 15. Primary education begins at age 7 and lasts for 6 years. The NER is 95% (48% girls). 77% of pupils enrolled in the first-year course stay on to the last primary school year. 13% of pupils have to repeat a course year. 73,835 schoolteachers work at this level. The PTR is 29: 1.

Secondary education begins at age 13 and lasts for 5 years. 90% of secondary pupils study technical training programs. The NER is 39%. 3% of pupils have to repeat a course-year. There are 45,400 secondary teachers: 28,406 at lower secondary and 16,994 at upper. The PTR is 17: 1 at lower-level secondary and 13: 1 at upper-level.

233,885 students (50% female) study at tertiary institutions, giving a Gross Enrolment Ratio of 18%. Some Guatemalans study abroad, particularly in the USA (1,030), Cuba (680), Honduras (102), Germany (98) and France (85).

The law provides for equal opportunities for persons with disabilities in education and other public services, but in practice it is not complied with. Discrimination is reported in education and in employment. Resources for education are few, and even more so for persons with special needs. There are 4,187 children with special needs receiving educational services through the education ministry; 160 are at mainstream schools, the rest at 16 special education centres. The children of women prisoners live together with their mothers, and have limited access to education and other services. Persons with disabilities receive social security benefits and have the right to work. School and universities do not usually have accessible infrastructure for persons with disabilities.

The law provides for the granting of asylum or refugee status in accordance with the 1951 UN Convention relating to the Status of Refugees and its 1967 Protocol, and the government has set up a system of protection for refugees. The armed conflict that ended in 1996 caused thousands of Guatemalan refugees to flee to Mexico, the United States and Canada. Many have remained outside the country for economic reasons, and their remittances play an important role in the survival of their families.

The State is obliged to recognise, respect, and promote life-styles, customs, traditions, social organisation, and style of dress of indigenous peoples, but effective measures have not been taken to follow the recommendations made by the Commission on Educational Reform for applying the policies. Indigenous peoples account for over 43% of the population, but they remain outside the economic, political, social, and cultural mainstream. They have limited opportunities for education and discrimination persists, above all socially and economically. Efforts made to increase the number of bilingual teachers are providing results, but bilingual lessons are only available to 10% of indigenous pupils. Non-indigenous children attend school for an average of 4.2 years, while indigenous children attend school an average of 1.3 years. The Congress passed a law making it compulsory to use the Maya language in education, the public health system, and in the judicial system, as well as establishing a Maya university. More than half of indigenous women are illiterate, and a disproportionate number of indigenous girls do not attend school. The government earmarks less than 10% of the education budget to bilingual education.

The reports make no mention of restrictions on academic freedom, but mention is made of university lecturers who took part in the excavation work on mass tombs for victims of the armed conflict being subjected to intimidation. This work is still continuing, as do the threats.

The law provides for gender equality, but women suffer discrimination in education and at work. Indigenous males earned 72% more than indigenous females, while non-indigenous males earned 42% more than non-indigenous females. Women tend to work in the informal sector of the economy in low-wage jobs with few benefits. 50% of girls in urban areas and 81% of girls in rural areas give up school before completing secondary studies. 70% of adult women have had no formal education whatsoever. Gender-based domestic violence is commonplace, and the majority is not reported. Sexual harassment is not classed as a crime and is widespread.

According to a study on violence against women carried out by the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), Guatemala has the highest ratio of women murdered in Central America, with 5,027 recorded murders between 2000 and 2010. A law on Femicide, or a ge was passed by the Guatemalan Congress in April 2008, and came into force on 7 May 2008. Femicide is a very serious problem in Guatemala, for one reason because the country was racked by more than thirty years of violence during the armed conflict. The Court of Conscience, concerning sexual violence aimed at women during the internal armed conflict in Guatemala, stated that sexual violence was one of the constant practices of the counterinsurgency policy and the "normalisation" of violence against women together with its impunity show a continuity within a society which has not yet repaired and resolved the problems that gave rise to the internal armed conflict.

The law prohibits children under 14 from working without written permission from the Ministry of Labour, but boys and girls much younger than that work in the informal economy and in agriculture. Working children are reported to work an average of 47 hours per week. The National Plan for the Elimination of the Worst Forms of Child Labour includes support provided by the ILO in the form of scholarships and free meals aimed at encouraging families to send their children to school rather than to work. Laws governing the employment of children are not effectively enforced. 75% of girls and boys work in the capital city between 13 and 16 hours a day for a monthly wage of 51 USD (395 Guatemalan Quetzals). Girls start work very young as domestic employees, suffer from abuse and mistreatment, and usually lack access to schooling; published figures tend not to show the full extent of the problem.

With the exception of the security forces, workers have the right to join and form unions. Only between 3% and 5% of the formal active workforce is unionised. Union leaders are subjected to intimidation and death threats. Unions have the right to collective bargaining, but "solidarism associations" promoted by employers hinder the creation of unions and limit collective bargaining. Solidarism is a widely-used employers' strategy Central America; these associations do not allow strikes and do not comply with collective bargaining and conciliatory procedures. A high percentage of workers who belong to these associations have individual contracts. Only 3.3% of the active population have legalised contracts. Strikes can be suspended if they are considered to be "seriously harmful to the country's essential activities and public services. Nevertheless, teachers and agricultural workers carried out unofficial stoppages during the year. The labour law is applied in the export processing zones (free zones), but organising unions has encountered numerous difficulties. Forced or compulsory labour is banned, but trafficking in women and children for sexual exploitation goes on. Rural employees do not receive the wages, benefits, and wage supplements stipulated by law. The normal working day is 8 hours, and the working week 48, but in practice these figures can be exceeded.

Trade union freedom, the right to form unions and the right to collective bargaining are under threat from increasing violence targeting trade unionists, including attacks on union delegations, threats, harassment, and murder. According to data from the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), 16 trade union activists were murdered in 2009, the second highest figure in the whole of America. Several union activists were murdered in 2010.
On 26 January, Lesbia Guadalupe Amzquita Garnica, Coordinator of the trade union project for Central America of the Friedrich Ebert Foundation (FES), a counterpart of the Trade Union, Indigenous, and Peasant Movement of Guatemala (MSICG), was chased and her vehicle hit by another while she was driving to her home in the Chiquimula department. Lesbia Amzquita had already had to stay in exile for more than a month in 2008 on account of the harassment and intimidation that she was subjected to because of her work with the MSICG.

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