by Valentina Torricelli

11 November 2010

For someone who had worked mainly on civil and political rights, coming to Guatemala to work on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ESCR) represented a dramatic change, and an incredibly fascinating challenge, which I took on with utter enthusiasm. It also gave me the unique and longed for opportunity to work as a UNV volunteer.

The World Health Organization/Pan American Health Organization (WHO/PAHO) office in Guatemala had requested the support of a UNV volunteer to work on Human Rights and HIV issues, but during my fist week at work I discovered, with much pleasure, a deep interest in the area of human rights and the commitment of the entire agency to expand its work on human rights and health-related issues.

I arrived in the right place at the right time. In fact, the visit of the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Health to Guatemala was scheduled to take place only a few weeks after my arrival. The UN Interagency Working Group on Health decided to prepare a document for the Rapporteur in order to highlight the most burning issues that are affecting the right to health of the Guatemalan population and the obstacles to its full and universal enjoyment.

As WHO/PAHO took the lead I was part of the team responsible for coordinating the drafting of the document, including the different inputs we received from the other agencies, and ensuring coherence, accurateness and consistency.

We worked intensively for a couple of weeks, and the result was a solid report analyzing the status of the right to health in Guatemala, showing the inequalities that characterize the country, the weakness of health determinants in rural areas and the gap in the enjoyment of this right between indigenous and non-indigenous people.

I also had the opportunity to join the Rapporteur in his field trip to the department of Huehuetenango and to get firsthand experience of the conditions in which remote communities live. Lack of medication, poor infrastructure and the lack of basic services – such as clean water and education – are the main problems that Guatemalan rural and indigenous populations face.

Working on such an important report, and having the chance to meet and discuss human rights issues with the Rapporteur was a remarkable opportunity. The pressure I had to work under for the first weeks helped me to fully integrate with the team and gave me the opportunity to let them appreciate my work and my enthusiasm.

I am now working on publishing the report, which we are hoping will contribute to raising awareness of the challenges faced in Guatemala for a full and universal enjoyment of the right to health.