Señor Presidente de la República de Guatemala
Licenciado Oscar Berger Perdomo
Casa Presidencial,
6 a. Avenida, 4-41 zona 1,
Ciudad de Guatemala,
Guatemala,

31 July 2007

Read the letter in Spanish

Dear President,

On behalf of the Human Rights Institute of the International Bar Association (IBAHRI), we are writing to express concern at the current climate of impunity surrounding human rights violations in Guatemala. We are particularly concerned at the number of incidents affecting lawyers who are reportedly suffering threats and intimidation, often preventing them from carrying out their professional duties. In this regard, we would also like to enquire into the failure of the government to ratify the agreement between the Government of Guatemala and the United Nations for the establishment of an International Commission against Impunity.

In its role as a dual membership organisation, comprising 30,000 individual lawyers and over 195 Bar Associations and Law Societies, the IBA influences the development of international law reform and shapes the future of the legal profession. Its Member Organizations cover all continents. The Human Rights Institute works across the association, helping to promote, protect and enforce human rights under a just rule of law, and to preserve the independence of the judiciary and the legal profession worldwide.

Reports received by the IBAHRI indicate that attacks are frequently made against lawyers and others engaged in the promotion and protection of human rights in an attempt to prevent them from freely carrying out their duties. It has been alleged that violent criminal activities have been used on a number of occasions to intimidate the public. In recent months such instances appear to have increased, with new outbreaks of attacks including murder, physical harassment and robbery passing uninvestigated. These attacks have been linked in reports to the Guatemalan national police, organised criminal units and illegal armed groups.

Particularly noteworthy are attacks on the offices and personnel of the Movimento Nacional por los Derechos Humanos (MNDH) and the Centro para la Accion Legal en Derechos Humanos (CALDH) earlier this year. MDNH is an umbrella organization for Guatemalan human rights groups, and Unidad de Proteccion de Defensoras y Defensores de Derechos Humanos (UPDDH) specifically investigates and documents attacks against human rights defenders. The MDNH and UPDDH offices were reportedly broken into with the aim of intimidating the human rights community in Guatemala. The capacity of both organizations to carry out their work has been greatly diminished by the attacks.

In a separate incident, lawyer Angelica Gonzalez, working to provide legal support to the Associacion Justicia y Reconciliacion (AJR) in proceedings seeking justice for those killed in massacres during Guatemala’s internal armed conflict, allegedly received a death threat stating that she and other members of CALDH’s Justice and Reconciliation team would be killed unless activities ceased. In February 2007 another CALDH employee, Jose Roberto Morales, was assaulted and kidnapped at gunpoint. He was returned in less than an hour, and none of his valuables were stolen. These examples, as well as other similar attacks, all involve organisations seeking and promoting accountability for past crimes. This suggests that a campaign of intimidation is underway, aimed at preserving impunity surrounding certain cases and preventing any further investigations from taking place.

On 21 March 2007, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) expressed ‘deep concern’ over developments in Guatemala, citing impunity, denial of justice, extrajudicial executions, renewed attacks on human rights workers, and the apparent involvement of State officials in organised criminal activity as examples.

The prevailing climate of impunity affects basic rights such as the right to life, physical and personal integrity, freedom of expression and the freedom to practice one’s profession unimpeded. In this regard the recent decision by the Legislative Committee on Foreign Affairs to reject the bill for a Commission against Impunity in Guatemala, as agreed with the United Nations, is of utmost concern to the IBAHRI. The decision demonstrates a lack of will on the part of the government to adopt concrete measures to put an end to the current climate of impunity in Guatemala, as well as ensure respect for the Constitution and Guatemala’s obligations under international law.

In light of the above, we would like to draw your attention to the following legal obligations to which the state of Guatemala has committed itself of its own volition.

Article 1 of the Guatemalan Constitution upholds that the state of Guatemala is organised to ‘protect the individual and the family’ and its ultimate goal is the ‘protection of the general public’. Article 2 of the Constitution upholds that ‘it is the state’s duty to guarantee to the inhabitants of the Republic the right to life, freedom, justice, safety, peace and the integral development of the individual’. In addition, under Article 5 citizens are entitled to engage in any activity not forbidden by law and are under no obligation to obey orders which are not founded in law and issued legally.

We would also like to remind you that Guatemala remains bound by the rights protected under the American Convention on Human Rights (ACHR) such as are the right to life (Art. 4), the right to privacy (Art. 11); the right of freedom of expression (Art. 13); the right to equal protection before the law (Art. 13); and access to justice (Art. 25). These rights are similarly protected under the International Covenant of Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) to which Guatemala is a state party.

Furthermore, under the ACHR and the ICCPR, the state has a duty to fully investigate and ensure effective redress for all alleged human rights violations under its jurisdiction. The Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACourtHR) has dictated that conditions must not only be in place but that ‘it is possible to make concrete use of all avenues provided’. The Human Rights Committee has also recommended that, in order to address the issue of impunity in Guatemala, the government should: conduct public enquiries into alleged human rights violations; set up independent commissions with investigative powers; establish centralised registers for complaints; facilitate the involvement of NGOs; and ensure adequate capacity for criminal prosecutions if appropriate. The IBAHRI has not yet received any evidence suggesting that this has taken place. In addition, the IACourtHR has asserted that a state fails to comply with its duty to ensure the free and full exercise of the rights of persons within its jurisdiction if ‘it allows private persons or groups to act freely and with impunity to the detriment of the rights recognised by the ACHR; or if it fails to investigate every situation brought to its attention involving a violation of those rights’.

Thus, we urge the relevant authorities to take concrete and effective measures to end the prevailing state of impunity in Guatemala, within a framework of respect for the rule of law and in accordance with its international obligations. Furthermore, we call for a prompt review of events of the past months and the immediate ratification of the International Commission against Impunity in Guatemala in order to demonstrate a commitment to the effective protection of human rights for all those under its jurisdiction. Finally, we urge that immediate investigations are carried out into all alleged human rights violations and appropriate remedies and redress are provided for victims.

We look forward to your response.

Yours sincerely,

Ambassador Emilio Cárdenas  
Justice Richard Goldstone
Co Chairs of the IBA's Human Rights Institute

CC:    Sra. Zury Ríos, President, Comisión Legislativa de Relaciones Exteriores
          Lic. Mario Pérez Guerra, President, Constitutional Court of Guatemala
          Sr. Oscar José Rafael Berger Perdomo, President, Republic of Guatemala
          Francisco Rolando Morales Chávez, President of Congress
          Leandro Despouy, UN Special Rapporteur on the Independence of Judges
          and Lawyers