Ratification of Rome Statute by Guatemalan Congress

Impunity Watch welcomes the ratification of the Rome Statute by the Guatemalan Congress and additionally welcomes the recent progress achieved in the Ixil Genocide case.
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Breaking the wave: critical steps in the fight against crime in Guatemala

New report points to critical steps that must be taken for Guatemala to overcome its plague of criminal violence.
Impunity Watch and the Conflict Research Unit of the Clingendael Institute today jointly publish a major new report detailing the immense challenges faced by the Guatemalan criminal justice system as a new right-wing government takes power in the country.

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One vacancy at IW

IW is looking for a Research Coordinator (Principal Researcher) for our Burundi Programme, based in Burundi.
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Santa Lucía book presentation

On 25 September 2011 IW and Solidaridad presented a remembrance book in the "Doopsgezinde kerk" in Haarlem. The book tells the story of 30 men and women from Santa Lucía Cotzumalguapa, Guatemala who disappeared or were killed during the 36-year internal conflict.
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Understanding The Role Of Memory Initiatives In Communities Struggling With Impunity

Debating in the Netherlands
with youth, experts and policy-makers
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The Persistence of Truth

This report looks at progress in truth-seeking and the combat of impunity in Guatemala ten years after its UN-backed truth comission, the Commission for Historical Clarification (CEH), published its findings on the events of the internal armed confrontation of 1960-96.
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NEWS

Adjournment of hearing on Genocide Case in Guatemala

07/10/2011 - Impunity Watch laments the adjournment of the hearing on the Genocide Case, scheduled for Wednesday 21 September, and highlights the importance of ensuring that unjustified delays do not affect judicial processes for human rights abuses committed during the Guatemalan Internal Armed Conflict, nor impede access to truth, justice and reparation for victims and their families.

Former General Hector Mario Lopez Fuentes was detained in Guatemala City in June 2011 on charges of planning and ordering about 300 massacres of indigenous people when he was chief of staff of the Guatemalan military between 1982 and 1983, under the military regime of General Efrain Rios Montt. If he goes to trial, it would mark the first genocide case in Guatemala’s history. Judge Carol Flores pushed back the hearing to October 3 because the general claimed he was too ill to attend court.

In its Baseline Country Report 2008, IW concluded that in the Guatemalan context, justice is one of the sectors “showing least progress and most challenges”, given the persistency of misinterpretation of a number of procedural guarantees, particularly the inappropriate use of Constitutional Appeals in order to indefinitely delay criminal procedures and trials against indicted human rights violators, among other unlawful practices.

IW urges the Guatemalan Attorney General and the judiciary to guarantee their institutional independence, transparency and impartiality by removing obstacles preventing ongoing human rights cases from being brought to justice.

IW encourages the International Community to support and observe the development of these paradigmatic human rights cases by observing hearings and trials, since international observation has been proven to be an effective means for preventing unnecessary delays as well as possible pressure being put on tribunals, lawyers and victims.

Impunity Watch is an international non-profit organisation, seeking to promote accountability for past atrocities in countries emerging from a violent past. Our aim is to assist national civil society groups to have a stronger voice in policy-making on accountability. Impunity Watch is based in the Netherlands and is currently running country programmes in Guatemala, Serbia and Burundi.

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