A member of the 'National Womens Office' (ONAM) and the 'Network against Violence against Women', Hilda Morales Trujillo has spent her life tirelessly defending the rights of women by challenging discriminatory laws and campaigning for change. Born in Ciudad Flores, Petén, Guatemala (1943) Hilda Marina Morales Trujillo graduated in law from University of San Carlos in 1970. Her first cases involved defending women in divorce and maintenance proceedings, and in domestic violence cases at a time when there was no specific legislation on such matters. Appointed Professor of Family Law at the University of San Carlos she lectured for eight years emphasising the importance of family law to provide legal protection for women and their children. Morales Trujillo renounced her professorship during Guatemala’s armed conflict. In 1991 Morales Tujillo was appointed delegate before the National Women’s Office (ONAM) and began advocating for policy change and legal reform. Among her first successes: petitioning the Superior Coucil of the University of San Carlos for women’s degrees to be issued using the feminine gender. This decision then served as a basis for other Universities to follow suit. In 1993 after the coup d’etat, members of the ONAM Assembly nominated Morales Trujillo for public office. She was appointed Vice Minister for Work and Social Security, helping to establish the Unit for the Promotion of Women Workers. In 1994 Trujillo helped to petition the State of Guatemala to ratify the Inter-American Convention for the Prevention, Punishment and Erradication of Violence Against Women. In 1996 she helped pass the Bill for the Prevention, Punishment and Erradication of Domestic Violence, a law aimed to provide security and protective measures for women threatened and attacked by their husbands or partners. In 1997 Morales Trujillo became director of the Project for the Legal Reform in Favor of Women, a ONAM Project run with the help of the United Nations Development Program. At the same time she contributed to the modification of several articles in the Civil Code discriminating against women by giving husbands broad control over spouses lives. In 1997 as part of the Network against Violence against Women (Red de la No Violencia contra Mujeres) Morales Tujillo wrote a report on the family courts refusal to apply the Law for the Prevention, Punishment and Eradication of Domestic Violence. Her findings and recommendations were approved in 2000, establishing the National Commission for the Prevention of Domestic Violence (CONAPREVI). Recently, Morales Trujillo has helped abolish the Penal Procedural Code rule that denied women justice in maintenance proceedings and is currently working to revise further articles that discriminate against women who have been sexually abused, allowing them the right to prosecute their attackers. This process of revision is ongoing and Trujillo now takes part in it from her position in the Network against Violence against Women. Morales Trujillo campaigns tirelessly to expose the existence of violence against women in Guatemala. She has initiated dialogue expressing the need to undertake plans and actions to prevent violence against women; to deal with reports of abuses in a professional manner, and to compile accurate statistics; to investigate women’s killings and to promote the punishment of those responsible. Due in part to Trujillo’s work 2004 saw the visit of the UN Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women to investigate the situation of Guatemalan women. Morales Trujillo is currently a lecturer at the University of San Carlos, Postgraduate School where she lectures on Human Rights in the Human Rights Masters programme and Family Law in the Civil Law Masters programme. She also teaches Women’s Rights in the Human Rights Masters programme at the University of Rafael Landivar. October 2004 ... Back to top |
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