A PANEL of independent experts who make up the United Nations Human Rights Committee said on Thursday they found that Guatemala violated the rights of a 14-year-old girl who was raped and forced to continue her pregnancy.

A former director of a day care facility she had attended as a child raped her on multiple occasions beginning in 2009 when she was 13 and no longer attended the centre. She was denied access to abortion, forced to carry out the birth and care for the child, treatment the committee compared to torture.

Committee member Helene Tigroudja said: “No girl should be forced to carry the child of her rapist. Doing so robs her of her dignity, her future, and her most basic rights,” saying that this “was a profound act of cruelty.”

When the girl's mother found out about the abuse she reported it to authorities. The man and his wife tried to bribe and threaten the girl’s family into withdrawing the report. The case wound up in Guatemala’s justice system for nine years, but the man was never punished.

The committee said: “Guatemala did not properly investigate the rape, nor did it take effective action to prosecute the perpetrator,” saying that the state should support the girl to complete higher education and attain her goals.