## Facts

- In an earlier merits report in Case 11.625, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) found Guatemala responsible for discrimination against María Eugenia Morales Aceña de Sierra (also cited in some sources as Morales de Sierra) arising from provisions of the Guatemalan Civil Code that assigned unequal rights and duties to spouses and treated women differently in family-law institutions.
- The IACHR concluded that the challenged Civil Code framework violated, among other guarantees, equal protection and related rights connected to private and family life, and that Guatemala failed to take domestic legal measures required by the American Convention on Human Rights and related international obligations, including the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women.
- The IACHR recommended that Guatemala revise its Civil Code rules on marriage and related institutions to ensure equal rights for women and men, with specific attention to changing Civil Code Article 317, identified as discriminatory because it excused women from certain guardianship/tutorship duties “by virtue of [their] sex.”
- The IACHR also recommended that Guatemala provide redress and adequate compensation to Morales Aceña de Sierra for the violations found in the merits report.
- The 2009 Annual Report entry (Chapter III, Section D) is a monitoring document that evaluates Guatemala’s level of compliance with those earlier recommendations; it is not a new merits determination.
- During the compliance stage, Morales Aceña de Sierra waived monetary compensation as part of an arrangement under which Guatemala would provide state support for a women’s-rights foundation and publish 1,000 copies of the textbook *Word Vision of the Mayas and Women: Contributions from the Worldview of Ajq’ij*.
- As of the 2009 compliance review, Guatemala still had not repealed or revised Civil Code Article 317, despite its identification as discriminatory in the merits findings.

## Issues

1. Whether Guatemala had complied with the IACHR’s recommendation to change the discriminatory Civil Code provisions, particularly by repealing or revising Civil Code Article 317.
2. Whether Guatemala had complied with the reparation/compensation recommendation as implemented through the parties’ non-monetary arrangement (state support for a women’s-rights foundation and publication of 1,000 textbooks).

## Decision

- The IACHR assessed Guatemala as not in full compliance with the earlier recommendations.
- Guatemala remained noncompliant on the central legislative requirement highlighted in the monitoring entry because Civil Code Article 317 had still not been repealed or revised.
- With respect to the individualized remedy, the IACHR treated the victim’s waiver of monetary compensation as tied to substitute measures, and evaluated compliance by reference to whether Guatemala carried out the agreed support for the women’s-rights foundation and the agreed publication project.

## Legal Principles

- States party to the American Convention must ensure domestic law provides equal protection without discrimination; laws that differentiate legal capacity or family-law roles on the basis of sex are incompatible with that obligation.
- The duty to take domestic legal measures requires completed legal change when a provision has been found contrary to treaty obligations; ongoing discussions or intentions do not, by themselves, satisfy compliance.
- When a victim agrees to replace monetary compensation with specific alternative measures, the state’s reparation duty continues and is measured by full performance of the substitute measures.
- In IACHR compliance monitoring, a case remains open in the annual-report compliance process until the state completes the recommended legislative and reparation measures.

## Conclusion

In the 2009 Annual Report compliance entry for Case 11.625, the IACHR reviewed Guatemala’s implementation of the recommendations from the earlier merits report and concluded that compliance was incomplete, focusing on Guatemala’s continued failure to repeal or revise discriminatory Civil Code Article 317 and assessing fulfillment of the victim’s non-monetary reparation arrangement (support for a women’s-rights foundation and publication of 1,000 textbooks) as part of the compensation recommendation.


María Eugenia Morales Aceña de Sierra (Case 11.625), Status of Compliance, Annual Report, Chapter 3, Section D (2009)