Article by PBI-Belgium
For the January 20 episode of the #ACERCATE program, PBI Guatemala spoke with Feliciana Macario, representative of CONAVIGUA, National Coordination of Widows of Guatemala, about the closure of peace institutions, and what this means for peace organizations and the victims of the internal armed conflict.
The interview can be reviewed here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Z1rE4cZdaI
What is it about?
In 2020, President Alejandro Giammattei announced the permanent closure of the Secretariat for Peace (SEPAZ) and the Secretariat for Agrarian Affairs (SAA), created within the framework of the Peace Accords (1997), and also the closure of the Presidential Commission for the Coordination of Executive Policy on Human Rights (COPREDEH), which is responsible for monitoring resolutions and judgments of the Inter-American System human rights. On July 31, by a government agreement, the President dissolved the three institutions and created COPADEH which would replace the three previous ones. At the same time, the government also announced that the National Compensation Program (PNR), which depends on SEPAZ and which is responsible for repairing the damage caused to victims of violations committed during the internal armed conflict, will be taken over by the administration. of the Ministry of Social Development (MIDES).
These institutions, in addition to fulfilling fundamental functions for the achievement of the peace agreements, have a very important political value, because they represent the will of the State of Guatemala to recognize the tragedy of the armed conflict, which lasted more than 36 years, and that the state has national and international responsibility for the more than 200,000 dead, the 45,000 missings, one and a half million internally forced displacements and the thousands of women victims of sexual violence. However, the government justified the closure of these three institutions because of their weakening and understaffing, caused by the policies of previous governments.
Victims ‘organizations and human rights defenders’ movements accuse the current government of limiting and weakening peace agreements, instead of proposing a plan to strengthen it and resume the path of peace because it has failed to present an alternative plan for the achievement of a secure and lasting peace. In addition, it must be considered that this decision was taken in an era of escalating attacks against human rights defenders and against indigenous peoples protecting their lands, at the very time of the COVID crisis, which makes it even more difficult the fight for their rights. In 2020, the remilitarization of the state continued, the country was kept under a permanent state of emergency, criminalization against social leaders and journalists intensified, and there is a tendency towards authoritarianism that preoccupies the organization of women’s human rights defenders.
What CONAVIGUA and the organizations of victims of the conflict particularly denounce is the fact that they were not consulted by the government before such measures. On the other hand, these institutions were created within the framework of the law of national reconciliation (decree 145-96 of the Congress of the Republic) and the framework law of the peace agreements (decree 52-2005) and the government no. does not have the power to dissolve them by means of a government agreement, because this requires a legal reform that would correspond to the Congress of the Republic. Finally, with this decision, the State looks back on the small steps forward that had been taken to consolidate peace.
“It is important to remember that the State of Guatemala has international obligations that it cannot be overlooked with administrative justifications. The Inter-American Court of Human Rights handed down 14 convictions for serious human rights violations that were committed during the internal armed conflict and ordered the State of Guatemala to investigate, prosecute and punish those responsible, repair the damage caused to victims and take legal and institutional measures to ensure that these types of violations do not recur. ”
We recommend the Impunity Watch report for more information on peace institutions threatened with closure.
https://www.impunitywatch.nl/docs/PolicyBrief_LaPazEnRiesgo_Cierre_Instituciones_Paz1.pdf