United Nations Verification Mission in Guatemala

“ The Public Prosecutor's Office is pursing an institutional policy designed to promote growth and rational development of the institution, with a view to increasing its technical and administrative capacity. The aim is to increase its efficiency in the investigation of crime and to increase its presence in and proximity to the rural population and marginal areas. ”

“ Commitment III. Commitment against impunity 55. Even before the armed conflict came to an end, it was clear, as a consequence of the peace process, that there had been a qualitative change in the human rights situation. Increasingly, the violations resulted less from the actions of the active participants in the conflict than from the persisting structural defects in the criminal investigation system and the administration of justice. This trend became more marked after the peace was signed. ”

“ Nevertheless, in circumstances such as those experienced by Guatemala and in view of the resulting institutional weakness, the extent to which it is possible to require fulfilment of the obligation to provide safeguards depends on such factors as political will, which must be forthcoming immediately, and institutional capability, achievement of which is necessarily gradual. ”

“ The Mission believes that this is not enough to enable the Counsel for Human Rights to carry out his mandate efficiently, particularly when one takes into account the need to establish new departmental offices and to maintain some in precarious situations, to strengthen the independent capacity to investigate complaints of human rights violations and to carry out the role of monitoring observance of the right to justice and due process. ”

“ With regard to indigenous peoples, the Mission has noted that discriminatory situations persist, particularly in connection with effective access for such peoples to the justice system and the safeguarding of due process. ”

“ In addition, the Mission found that indigenous persons in authority or in public office were finding it difficult to perform their functions when the latter were related to the work of other authorities or their supervision. A case in point are the obstacles to allocating resources and the unjustified opposition to executing some projects. ”

“ There are also numerous cases where the right to have a suitable interpreter has been affected because of the shortage of translators, which seriously limits the access of vast sectors of the indigenous population to the administration of justice; the same is true of the right to defence, since there continue to be not enough lawyers compared to the number of persons being tried. ”