Stakeholder Summary >> Guatemala, Review Documentation, 42nd Session, January 2023

JS16 stressed the lack of recognition of sexual work as work and the lack of regulation of its working conditions. Sex workers were systematically victims of harassment, arbitrary detentions, abuses, police brutality and excessive use of force by the National Civil Police. JS16 reported the obstacles sex workers had to access justice and the fear of reprisals. JS16 recommended to undertake legal proceedings to regulate sexual work; train the National Civil Police on the rights of sexual workers; supervise the treatment they receive in police stations; design and implement a system to file complaints for aggressions and abuses that guaranteed the protection of the victim; and ensure that an independent body investigate the complaints of excessive use of force. [Para 40]