United Nations Verification Mission in Guatemala

“ To consolidate a democratic state and to ensure conditions of governability and development, it is urgent for the Government to pay priority attention to those regions where the social debt is greater and more pressing. This attention should start from the implementation of affirmative actions which will reduce, until eliminated, the gap existing between the quality of life and access to services between the indigenous and non-indigenous population. A substantial and sustained advance in the pending peace agenda is essential to overcome the deep social inequalities which still remain. ”

“ In their definition and implementation, the set of public policies whose purpose it is to foster and facilitate access to land and credit, to health and reproductive health, to access to housing, education, training and justice, must give priority to overcoming the inequalities which affect the indigenous peoples, particularly women. ”

“ The Agreement on the Identity and Rights of the Indigenous Peoples says that: “the indigenous peoples have been particularly subject to de facto levels of discrimination, exploitation and injustice, on account of their origin, culture and language and that, like many other sectors of the national community, they have to endure unequal and unjust treatment and conditions on account of their economic and social status (...) ”

“ Another of the core problems of ethnic discrimination is the difficulty in access to land ownership and to natural resources by the indigenous peoples, especially taking into account that this is the material basis for their sustenance and reproduction as a people. The fragmentation and loss of their community lands affects the organization and social relations in the communities, brings about overexploitation of natural resources, the deterioration of their traditional systems of production and labour migrations under infrahuman conditions, internally as well as illegally to other countries. ”

“ Justice is one of the public institutional systems where indigenous populations feel the greatest impact of racial discrimination, because of the limitations on their access to state justice and the non-recognition of their normative systems. Even though in recent years the Judicial Branch has made important efforts to create offices of Justices of the Peace in all municipal districts, great challenges still exist to build a system of justice to reflect the multiculturalism of the country. ”

“ The fact that the languages of the majority of the populations are not used in the provision of services, access to justice, the educational system and other points of public contact in the different indigenous linguistic areas has a bearing on racial discrimination. The AIDPI states that “language is one of the mainstays of culture since, in particular, it is the vehicle for learning and passing on the indigenous view of the world, and indigenous knowledge and cultural values. Thus, all the languages spoken in Guatemala deserve equal respect. ”

“ After more than seven years since the Global Agreement on Human Rights took effect and almost five since the signing of the Agreement on a Firm and Lasting Peace, the Mission feels that little progress has been made in one of the most important areas for the consolidation of a democratic State that is inclusive, participatory and nondiscriminatory. ”

“ The depth of rural poverty, the regional asymmetries and the exclusion of the immense majority of the population, particularly the indigenous population, were to a large degree the result of the persistence of a centralizing economic model and the existence of a weak State that discriminated against the indigenous peoples. Verification has shown that, generally, the guidelines and public policies have not taken the ethnic diversity of Guatemala into account. ”

“ In regard to health, even though particular efforts stand out in some regions, it is necessary to overcome the scarce coverage in areas with a majority of indigenous peoples, as well as the lack of linkage of the national health system to the midwives, who see to the largest part of birth assistance. ”

“ It is also important to note that there are no moves toward attending to the indigenous peoples with smaller populations, which makes access to education rather inequitable. In short, the bilingual education schools have in practice tended to lean toward integration, which makes this education a mechanism so that the indigenous population can learn the Spanish language. The Mission has noted the existence of pilot projects of intercultural education in some departments of the country, generally promoted by non-governmental organizations with the support of international cooperation. ”

“ The State must foster a change in individual and collective attitudes to overcome the de facto discrimination by means of dissemination and education campaigns and programmes. It is especially necessary to disseminate the contents and objectives of Convention 169 of the International Labor Organization on the rights of indigenous peoples in independent countries. It is also important to make this known to State officials and to promote compliance. The Office for the Defense of Indigenous Women must be strengthened through adequate budgetary allocations. ”

“ ILO Convention 169 states in this respect that, ”when applying national legislation to interested peoples, due account should be taken of their customs and their customary law. These peoples should have the right to maintain their own customs and institutions, provided these are not incompatible with fundamental rights”, adding that, “whenever necessary, procedures should be established to settle the conflicts which might arise from the application of these principles”. ”

“ Secondly, judicial officials are not generally trained to understand the cultural lines of thought and behaviour of persons not belonging to their ethnic group or culture. Although proposed by the Peace Agreements, the use of cultural expertise is not yet generally established, which would allow the judicial officials to have valuable advice on different cultural realities and their influence on the form of coexistence and, therefore, on the application of the law. In some cases, the cultural barrier can result in criminalization of the cultural difference. ”

“ The resolutions adopted by traditional indigenous authorities, in general, have a greater chance of being followed by the persons involved, in view of the nearness and the adaptation of the resolution to the social, cultural and economic realities of those affected who are, therefore, able to comply adequately with the objectives of justice. ”

“ The condition of poverty as a consequence of discriminatory management by the State is not just a low level of income, but a set of social and infrastructure aspects which mark these inequalities. For this reason, the Peace Agreements propose a series of objectives for social development. ”

“ The indigenous peoples were progressively dispossessed of their ancestral lands throughout history, with communities losing the collective ownership of their lands. In 1952 an agrarian reform was decreed which contemplated expropriation, against indemnification, of the idle lands of the great plantations in order to redistribute them to small and medium producers. Since most of the Guatemalan peasants were indigenous, this measure benefited them. However, after the overthrow of the Government in 1954, the beneficiaries had to return their plots. ”

“ Public administration has not incorporated a sufficient number of indigenous persons into management positions. This political exclusion has the consequence of maintaining de facto discrimination through public policies and institutional mechanisms. ”

“ It also establishes that the agrarian programme shall guarantee the indigenous peoples, under equal conditions with other sectors of the population, the allocation of additional lands when the lands they have available are insufficient to guarantee them the elements of a normal existence, and the provision of the necessary means for the development of the same. ”