NEWS ARCHIVE

Impunity Watch launches new report in Guatemala City

03/12/2008 - On December 2, Impunity Watch launched its major new research report, 'Recognising the Past: Challenges in the Combat of Impunity in Guatemala,' providing a systematic view of, and recommendations for confronting, the major obstacles being faced by institutions whose work is key to achieving accountability for crimes committed during the 1962-96 internal conflict. Initial reactions to the project, which comes at a moment many are describing as a security and governance crossroads for Guatemala, were very encouraging, in particular that of the state prosecution. The service welcomed the report and expressed its wish to enter dialogue with Impunity Watch on the design of new reforms.

'Recognising the Past' was presented by Dr Claudia Paz, director of the Institute for the Comparative Study of Criminal Law in Guatemala (ICCPG), which, along with the Centre for Legal Action in Human Rights (CALDH) and the Mayan Centre for Documentation and Research (CEDIM), is one of Impunity Watch’s three partner organisations in Guatemala, at a public meeting attended by survivors of civil war crimes from the Ixil area, state and UN officials, diplomatic representatives, national media and leading human rights defenders and civil society groups.

Anders Kompass, head of the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights in Guatemala, then launched a discussion on the report’s findings and recommendations with an analysis of the central importance of the issue of impunity to the country’s stability. The alarming extent of violent crime, corruption, rights abuses and disparities in wealth and opportunity now being witnessed are a direct consequence of the failure of Guatemalan state and society to deal with the individuals and structures responsible for crimes committed during the armed conflict, he explained. With the global movement for human rights and accountability for crimes against civilians now irreversibly strong, he called on the continuing commitment to it of victims and civil society in Guatemala to be matched by the new administration of president Alvaro Colom, installed in January 2008, as well as by donors and the foreign policies of other states. In that respect, Kompass stressed that the international community is partly responsible for the problems facing Guatemala, and called upon it, in addition to supporting the newly created Commission against Impunity (CICIG), to move quickly and in a coordinated way to help rescue the country’s fragile democracy from collapse and control by organised crime cartels.

In the debate that followed, moderated by Ricardo Stein of the Soros Foundation, panellists Alvaro Pop, a political analyst and indigenous leader, Orlando Blanco, a former human rights activist and now Peace Secretary in the Colom administration, Antonio Caba, an official of the national indigenous genocide survivors organisation Association for Justice and Reconciliation (AJR), and Dutch Ambassador Teunis Kamper discussed Impunity Watch’s recommendations in the context of the broader situation in Guatemala.

There was a general consensus that the new government’s positive stance on accountability and cooperation with international efforts led by Spain to investigate Guatemalan atrocities is encouraging, but needs urgently to be backed up with concrete action.

In this respect, Iduvina Hernandez, a Guatemalan security expert attending the event, raised the issue of civilian control over the military as one of the most urgent if there is to be any hope of truly establishing and consolidating a democratic system of governance – and one inextricably linked to the issue of impunity for past crimes. Today’s top military chiefs figure among those who served during the period of the conflict when atrocities were at their peak, she explained, and continue to refuse orders from their new commander-in-chief President Colom to hand over information declared public by the Constitutional Court in order to obscure their part in their perpetration.

In dealing with this and other critical issues, Blanco and Kamper stressed the shared responsibility of state and society for the critical situation facing the country, while other panellists and audience members argued that they cannot be remedied without focussed action from international actors.

Impunity Watch’s key recommendations for combating impunity in Guatemala:

Global: A national integrated transitional justice policy
Truth: Formal state recognition of truth commission findings and state responsibility; creation of a national commission to search for the disappeared; implement the Presidential promise to open state archives and ensure military compliance
Justice: A new investigative police unit under prosecutors’ direction; a new state prosecution unit with its own budget, dealing solely with armed conflict crimes; staff performance evaluation system across the prosecution service; increased investment in exhumations; overhaul of witness protection system with compulsory inter-agency cooperation; judges to adhere to statutory time limits in appeals and weed out vexatious claims
Reparations: Congressional approval of the legal status of the national reparations programme; a National Victims Register
Non recurrence: regulations to improve civil service vetting; law to control small arms; ratification of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court

The summary and recommendations of 'Recognising the Past: Challenges in the Combat of Impunity in Guatemala' are currently available here to download in Spanish. The full report, its complete research source data, as well as the summary and recommendations in English, will be available in early 2009. Check the Impunity Watch website regularly, or send your email to sanne.weber@impunitywatch.org to ensure you receive a copy.