Human Rights in Guatemala
Human Rights Concerns
Guatemala's 36-year armed conflict ended nearly ten years ago. The goal of the December 1996 Peace Accords was a state based on the rule of law, but today Guatemala continues to be crushed by the rule of impunity, as well as extreme social inequality, and one of the highest levels of violent crime anywhere in Latin America.
- Unbridled impunity threatening the rule of law, including failure to prosecute former president Efraín Rios Montt and other high officials for hundreds of massacres and other human rights crimes committed during the 1960-1996 civil conflict
- Over 2500 brutal killings since 2001, and the failure to investigate and prosecute these and other violent crimes against women
- Assaults, death threats, and killings of human rights activists
- Assaults, death threats, and killings of witnesses, members of the judiciary, forensic anthropologists, and others involved in investigations of human rights crimes
- Assaults, death threats, and killings of journalists, trade unionists, and anti-CAFTA demonstrators
- Assaults, death threats, and killings of elected officials and others investigating government corruption
- Violent forced evictions, labor rights violations, and other human rights violations in the context of agrarian disputes, targeting thousands of rural families
- Social cleansing; killings by state and private security forces, targeting street children, LGBT people, sex workers, alleged youth gang members, and others
- Tacit state support of clandestine, illegally armed organizations linked to state agents and organized crime, and failure to support the UN-backed Commission for the Investigation of Illegal Bodies and Clandestine Security Apparatus
- Harassment of human rights defenders and justice workers through politically motivated criminal charges, office ransackings, and electronic surveillance
- New trade policies (D.R.-CAFTA) lacking any meaningful labor rights protections for Guatemalan workers
- Retention of the death penalty, with 29 people on death row
| Good News: Senate Passes Resolution Condemning Murders of Women in Guatemala. More information» Senate Resolution (English) | Resolución del Senado (español) |
Guatemala: Land of Injustice?
Since President Óscar Berger came to office in January 2004, thousands of rural families in Guatemala have been evicted from their homes. During many evictions, security forces used excessive force, resulting in beatings and other ill-treatment, the destruction of homes and property, and, in some cases, killings. » Learn more
On May 19, 2008, an email was sent to Fredy Peccerelli, head of the Guatemalan Forensic Anthropology Foundation (FAFG), threatening to kill him, his sister and four leading members of the organization. The FAFG exhumes bodies of people that were buried in secret graves during Guatemala's internal conflict. » More actions
Latest News
Guatemala: Amnesty International Responds to Guatemala's Announcement to Open Military ArchivesFebruary 26, 2008
Guatemala: Amnesty Internatinal Responds to Guatemala's Announcement to Open Military Archives
February 25, 2008
Guatemala: Presidential candidates must resolve legacy of conflict
August 29, 2007
Guatemala/Honduras: Economic, social and cultural rights activists at high risk of abuses
August 08, 2007
Guatemala: Congress must ratify UN-backed commission against impunity
July 02, 2007
USA: Amnesty International Activists Set for U.S. Rallies on April 20 to Press Case Against Ríos Montt in Guatemala
April 16, 2007
Latest Reports
Guatemala: Open Letter from Amnesty International to Guatemalan Presidential Candidates for the September 2007 ElectionsAugust 29, 2007
Central America: Persecution and resistance: The experience of human rights defenders in Guatemala and Honduras
August 08, 2007
Vital UN human rights work under threat
May 09, 2007
Guatemala: Human Rights Defenders at Risk
April 04, 2007
