United Nations Verification Mission in Guatemala

“ Judicial impunity remains today the rule rather than the exception, which has contributed to a lack of public confidence in the justice system and the persistence of lynching in rural areas where justice is particularly weak. To varying degrees, all of the institutions of the Guatemalan justice system suffer from the same kinds of deficiencies that plagued their performance at the time of the signing of the peace accords — a lack of resources, insufficient presence in rural areas, inadequate training and career development for officials, corruption and a lack of coordination among them. ”

“ As the present report also attests, Guatemala still has before it very sizeable problems — some unique and others common to the region, where corruption, inequality, crime and weak rule of law are widespread. Regrettably, the deeper structural reforms envisaged in the peace accords have lagged far behind the advances in the political realm. A deep-seated legacy of racism has only begun to be debated and addressed in State policies. Vast social inequalities persist, constituting both a moral affront and an obstacle to development. ”

“ Former insurgents have integrated into civilian life. The reins of Government alternate through peaceful elections and political debate is taking place within an open and democratic framework. The military has been reduced, brought under greater civilian control and is being steadily transformed within a peaceful democratic framework. Processes of institutional and policy reform have been initiated in all of the key areas touched on in the peace accords. Civil society organizations are amply consulted on matters of public policy. ”

“ The results of the last national elections have provided Guatemalans with a fresh opportunity to put confrontation behind them and to move forward with greater unity along the path laid out in the peace accords. The primary responsibility lies in the hands of the new Government, which needs to translate good intentions into results. Success will also require constructive cooperation from all of Guatemala’s political parties, from organizations of civil society, from the news media and from the different branches of State that share direct responsibility for implementing the accords. ”

“ Promoting gender equality and fighting discrimination against women are themes interwoven throughout the peace accords, with several of the most important provisions appearing in the Agreement on Socio-economic Issues and the Agrarian Situation. Domestic violence, unequal access to education and jobs and low levels of political participation among women are among the historical problems that persist despite significant efforts carried out in recent years to reform laws, create institutions and formulate public policies favouring women. ”

“ To the outside world, Guatemala’s diversity is its wealth, discrimination its shame. Among the many ongoing challenges indicated in the present report, none is more important in the long term than fighting racism. A far more substantial effort should be launched to eradicate the barriers that persist, to provide equal opportunity for the indigenous population and to rebuild the State along multicultural lines. Educational campaigns are needed to sensitize the population as a whole. ”

“ Eight years after they were signed, the peace accords continue to shape the national debate and to provide sound and creative ideas for tackling the country’s most pressing problems. Their ambitious nature has translated at times into a sense of frustration that progress seems always to fall short of the goal. But by setting a high bar, the Guatemalan peace accords should serve as a work programme that will remain valid for years to come. ”

“ Victims’ organizations, the Government and the Congress should work quickly and in a spirit of unity and transparency to overcome the problems that have delayed implementation. Truth and reparations are part of the necessary response, but justice remains the missing element. Advances in investigating and punishing those responsible for acts of genocide and other crimes against humanity will remain a measure of Guatemala’s progress in human rights. ”

“ These are not reasons to fear a return to armed conflict: Guatemalans do not want to relive the past and now have democratic channels through which to express discontent. But if left to fester, these problems could be ingredients for social conflict, stunted economic development and the corrosion of democratic governance in years ahead. ”

“ Government programmes have succeeded in lowering illiteracy rates to 30 per cent, as called for in the peace accords. Bilingual education has gotten off the ground but is currently available to less than 10 per cent of indigenous children. An extended process of transforming the primary school curriculum to incorporate multicultural aspects and elements of the history of the armed conflict has concluded, but the changes have yet to be implemented in the schools owing to funding problems and opposition from teachers’ groups. ”

“ The peace accords promised an end to decades of State-sponsored political repression in Guatemala and the establishment of legal and institutional guarantees that human rights would be respected in the future — essentially through the dismantling of repressive structures and a comprehensive reform of the security and justice sectors which, during the armed conflict, had been corrupted and subordinated to the military. ”

“ Constitutional reforms should be revisited at the appropriate moment to limit potential army involvement in internal security and to introduce civilian defence ministers, as exist in most democracies. Changes to the army’s doctrine need to be complemented with human rights-based changes in the military educational system. The peace accords also called for creating a civilian intelligence structure within the Ministry of the Interior and the passage of an Intelligence Framework Law that would establish supervision over intelligence bodies and regulate their functions. ”

“ Public security remains the single most important concern to Guatemalans, who are suffering under a surge in violent crime common to post-conflict societies. Guatemala’s location in the drug trafficking corridor between South America and the United States of America makes it especially vulnerable to organized crime groups that have used corruption to infiltrate law enforcement institutions. ”

“ The convictions of former military officers in the 1990 killing of anthropologist Myrna Mack and the 1998 murder of Bishop Juan Gerardi were historic firsts made possible through extraordinarily persistent efforts by human rights defenders and Guatemalan justice officials, supported by the international community. But attempts to investigate and prosecute security force members for atrocities committed during the conflict have been generally unsuccessful; those who try have been subject to threats, violence and years of judicial obstruction. ”

“ Governments have seemed at times to respond more to the international community than to domestic constituencies. This was evident in the Consultative Group meetings of 2002 and 2003, in which advances on the peace agenda emerged largely from political dialogue between the Government and donors. Many of the new institutions and programmes developed under the peace agreements came to depend heavily on international financing instead of being fully assumed as part of the national budget. ”

“ One very positive step was the creation of the Integrated Health Care System (SIAS) , an innovative system employing services provided by non-governmental organizations in remote rural areas where there are no public health facilities. Vaccination programmes have also improved. But overall health expenditures never reached the peace accords-mandated target of 1.3 per cent of GDP. An estimated 20 per cent of the population is without public assistance or attention by SIAS. Infant mortality rates have dropped by about 20 per cent but remain above the goals established in the peace accords. ”

“ The former insurgent group demobilized and disarmed under United Nations supervision, converted into a political party and has participated freely and without political reprisals in two national elections. Where the process has fallen short is in providing viable economic opportunities for the ex-combatants; a large number live in precarious conditions today in part owing to insufficient government assistance in providing land, housing, credit and other basic services. ”

“ Eight years later and despite only limited success in consolidating the rule of law and overcoming impunity, the overall assessment of progress in human rights is positive. The human rights issues facing Guatemala today, worrisome as they are, are of a wholly different order than those of the past. ”

“ The treatment of human rights victims has stood in sharp contrast to that accorded former civil patrollers, who began in 2003 to receive cash payments for their services, irrespective of their involvement in human rights abuses during the conflict and the lack of any provision for compensation in the peace accords. ”

“ Under the terms of the Comprehensive Agreement on Human Rights, the Government pledged to respect civil and political rights, to strengthen the justice system and human rights institutions, to combat impunity and to develop compensation programmes for the victims of State-sponsored human rights violations during the conflict. ”

“ Small gains have been registered against impunity, with several military officers convicted for human rights crimes in landmark cases in recent years.
28. The main challenge today is to consolidate the rule of law amid a surge in crime and manifold evidence that key institutional reform processes launched under the peace accords have lost momentum and in some cases gone backwards. Without a more solid legal and institutional framework for protection in place, the substantial gains in human rights described above will be undermined. ”

“ Despite its historic contributions, the Unidad Revolucionaria Nacional Guatemalteca (URNG) has not become a strong political force on the national level capable of exerting effective pressure for implementation. The general public remained uninformed about the accords, as successive Governments ignored commitments to publicize their content. These were among the ingredients that led to the biggest single political setback to the process, the defeat of a 1999 referendum on constitutional reforms mandated by the peace agreements. ”

“ Turning the situation around will require a serious effort, but there is no alternative if Guatemala wants to confront its security problems in the democratic framework of the peace accords. Key elements of a reform strategy have been identified, including the strengthening of the police academy to permit at least a doubling of the force, the purging of corrupt and abusive elements and a large increase in the PNC budget. ”

“ Guatemala acknowledged in the peace accords that it could not advance and prosper as a nation without reversing a deep legacy of discrimination against the Mayan, Xinca and Garifuna peoples who compose roughly half of the population, but who have been systematically excluded from opportunities. ”

“ School curriculums are being rewritten and the number of bilingual schools and teachers gradually expanded, as are the number of bilingual justice officials and court interpreters. The right to practise indigenous spirituality and wear customary dress has been upheld in a number of court cases in recent years. New institutions of protection exist, including the Defender’s Office for Indigenous Women of the presidency, although severe budget limitations restrict the reach and impact of most of these special entities created under the peace accords. ”

“ More still needs to be done to institutionalize civilian control over the armed forces and intelligence structures. Laws on access to information and the declassification of documents are needed to prevent the military from using national security arguments to conceal basic information. ”

“ Future solutions should be provided mainly within the framework of national development policies aimed at helping the rural population in general, however some special attention is still required for this particular population. A similar situation confronts former refugees and internally displaced persons who returned without facing any systematic reprisals but did not receive the substantial government assistance promised in the peace accords. ”

“ The key challenges for the future are to expand basic coverage and to continue to emphasize preventive health, which officially constitutes half of current public expenditures. The health system should also more effectively integrate traditional indigenous medicine and hire more bilingual staff. ”