Guatemala

Status: civil society or public discussion

Guatemala has no policy on the protection of human rights defenders (HRDs). Despite several calls from civil society and an order from the Inter-American Court in 2014 to establish such a policy, all government action to comply with this Court order stopped completely in 2020, and there were no signs of movement by the administration of former President Alejandro Giammattei (2020-2024). Meanwhile, the situation of human rights defenders in Guatemala is extremely worrying and attacks against them have increased (UDEFUEGA, 2021, UDEFUEGA, 2023).

A 2014 ruling by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights in the case of Human Rights Defender and Others vs. Guatemala ordered Guatemala to develop protection measures for human rights defenders. Although government officials had expressed a willingness to develop a policy to protect defenders, these promises did not translate into viable proposals until January 2024, when the government of Bernardo Arévalo took office. Civil society organisations have continued to call on the Guatemalan government to comply with the order of the Inter-American Court, which has led to a new process to develop a public policy to be launched in 2024.

The Guatemalan government launched the drafting process in 2018, which included roundtable discussions between different state institutions and representatives of civil society organisations on the aspects to be included in the public policy. The first draft, which summarised the inputs of the process and was to be taken to areas outside the capital for consultation, disappeared with the arrival of President Alejandro Giammattei’s government in January 2020. The institution that led the process, the Comisión Presidencial de Derechos Humanos (COPREDEH), was dissolved in the middle of the same year, and the body designated to take over COPREDEH’s responsibilities, the Comisión Presidencial por la Paz y los Derechos Humanos (COPADEH), had neither the capacity nor the political support to ensure continuity in the formulation of public policy. There was no sign of significant movement on the draft between 2020 and 2024.

Guatemala is monitored by the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Defenders. The last official country visit to Guatemala was made in 2009 and the reports noted extreme violence against human rights defenders. Annual reports (such as those from 2022 or from 2021) highlight the worrying number of HRDs attacked and killed and the urgency of improving the existing national protection mechanisms for HRDs. An informal visit took place in February 2018 and the public police was one of the issues raised.

Guatemala is also monitored by the Universal Periodic Review (UPR). In its last national report of 2022, the State of Guatemala painted an exclusively positive picture of the overall protection provided by the State to human rights defenders, but the shadow reports submitted by civil society showed a deterioration in the situation of human rights defenders and civic space. Following the submission of the national report by the Guatemalan authorities, the Working Group on the Universal Periodic Review submitted its report in 2023, which recommended ensuring impartial investigations into attacks against human rights defenders and adopting effective public policies to protect human rights defenders.

The 2017 UPR national report highlighted the need for more trained personnel for the protection of human rights defenders. It also noted the development of bodies such as the Office for the Analysis of Attacks against Human Rights Defenders (Instancia de Análisis de Ataques Contra Defensores de Derechos Humanos, created by Ministerial Agreement No. 103-2008) and the Department for the Protection of Persons and Security (División de Protección de Personas y de Seguridad). However, these government bodies have been heavily criticised by civil society and are not considered to provide effective protection to defenders.  In 2017, Guatemala supported recommendations to develop a protection policy for human rights defenders, but as mentioned above, the process was abandoned.

CIVICUS rated Guatemala as “repressed” which means that civic space is significantly constrained. Freedom House Index rates Guatemala as ‘partly free’. Concerns include increased self-censorship, judicial persecution and attacks on human rights defenders, and attacks on women human rights defenders.

 [Updated on 19/08/2024]