HUMAN RIGHTS COMMITTEE CONTINUES TO EXAMINE HUMAN RIGHTS SITUATION IN GUATEMALA

Human Rights Committee
72nd session
18 July 2001
Morning





Government Has No Intention of Abandoning Investigations
into Past Atrocities, Delegation Says



The Human Rights Committee this afternoon continued its examination of a second periodic report of Guatemala with a delegation affirming that the Government had no intention of abandoning its investigations into past atrocities committed during the 36-year armed conflict.

Responding to a number of questions raised by the Committee’s 18 independent Experts, the delegation said that a plan had been instituted to establish the location of the bodies of disappeared persons and to exhume the bodies to examine the causes of death.

Over the course of the discussion, the Guatemalan delegation told the Committee that progress had been achieved in all aspects with tremendous international cooperation; and there was also a parallel effort to incorporate indigenous justice within the country's legal system. The Government had no intention of abandoning its investigations into past atrocities; it acknowledged the great level of impunity in the past; and there was a will to build a correct and effective administration of justice.

The delegation also said that the level of crime in Guatemala had favoured the maintenance of the death penalty; the idea of a legislative decree to modify the death penalty did not succeed because of the attitude of the legislators. A proposition to abolish capital punishment had been included in the constitutional amendment presented in a form of referendum, but it was rejected by popular vote, added the delegation.

In follow-up questions, an Expert said that the socio-economic disparity was enormous among the population, with 80 per cent of the population living below the poverty line, out of which 50 per cent lived in extreme poverty.

Guatemala is among the 148 States parties to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and as such it must submit periodic summaries of the State's efforts to comply with the provisions of the treaty.

When the Committee reconvenes at 3 p.m., it will conclude its consideration of the second periodic report of Guatemala.

Discussion of Report

At the beginning of the meeting, a Committee member asked the delegation if the Government had been successful in investigating atrocities such as disappearances and massacres. He said that yesterday, the delegation had said that Guatemala had encountered difficulties in its investigations; however, it was not too difficult to find out about the major massacres that had taken place in the past, who had committed them, and who had ordered them. With regard to the death penalty, the delegation had also affirmed that international treaties were directly operational with the same status as the domestic laws. The only Latin America country that maintained the death penalty was Guatemala. The Expert wanted to know the educational, social and economic background of convicts who had already been executed.

In response to oral questions raised yesterday and this morning by Committee members, the delegation said that it was the institutional set up of the State that had led to the 36-year war, and that the same institutional situation still remained despite the signing of the peace agreement. The Government was trying to settle problems on a case-by-case basis. The situation was complex: out of the 200 years of independence, the country had lived 36 years in a state of war. Since the signing of the peace agreement in 1996, the Government had been endeavouring to establish a sound administration and justice system. At present, even in the capital city, there was a lack of correct and effective police prosecution.

The Government was not lacking political will as it was alluded to by some Experts, the delegation said; progress had been achieved in all aspects with tremendous international cooperation; and there was also a parallel effort to incorporate indigenous justice within the country's legal system. The number of judges had been increased by 100; however, it would take years to build up the effectiveness of the judicial system. The Government had no intention of abandoning its investigations into past atrocities; it had acknowledged the great level of impunity in the past; and there was a will to build a correct and effective administration of justice.

The support of the police to the army did not violate the country's Constitution nor did it contravene international treaties, the delegation said. International treaties had superiority over domestic laws in matters of human rights; and no law could stand against the superiority of international law. The police support sought by the armed forces was justified by the prevailing situation in the country. At the present time, the military was not involved in investigating criminal cases as in the past, it was the police that was carrying out that duty.

In order to restructure the armed forces, the Government had reduced their number by 30,000, the delegation said. The Government was also converting the army used to counter insurgency groups into a modern peace-time army. The para-military groups which fought at the side of the army had been dismantled. The local para-military insurgent groups numbering 400,000 had also been broken up. Once such tasks of normalising the situation was over, the Government would only deal with common crimes in order to ensure citizens' security.


During the past 36 years of armed strife, the number of people killed was estimated to be 200,000 and the number of disappeared was also estimated to be more than 200,000, the delegation said. The Public Ministry was carrying out investigations to establish the exact figures for both categories.

Asked about immunity enjoyed by some congressmen who had allegedly been involved in the commission of past atrocities, the delegation said that the justice system would continue to work to clarify the situation of immunity. It could be lifted in criminal investigations as was the case in two instances concerning highly placed Government officials.

The delegation said that at the beginning of this month, a decree had been published to create a peace commission in search for disappeared persons. The commission was designed to institute a national plan of exhumation of bodies for forensic examination.

The security of judges was reinforced by the employment of private agents because of the insufficiency of the security system, the delegation said. Since the threats, including through telephone calls, had been increased, the judiciary itself had to strengthen its own security apparatus.

The allegation that article 5 of the Covenant was suspended in times of states of emergency was untrue, the delegation said. In areas where such laws were implemented, there might be abuses by local authorities, which had prompted the monitoring of the justice department. A state of emergency could only be applied for 30 days and could be extended for another 30 days. When the danger which had prompted the promulgation of the state of emergency no more existed, the law could be revoked. The Government had applied a law on the state of emergency following Hurricane Mitch. It had also used that provision when 78 high security prisoners escaped from prisons; 38 were recaptured, while 40 were still at large.

The level of crime in Guatemala had favoured the maintenance of the death penalty, the delegation said. The idea of a legislative decree to modify the death penalty did not succeed because of the attitude of the legislators. A proposition to abolish capital punishment had been included in the constitutional amendment presented in a form of referendum, but it was rejected by popular vote, added the delegation.

The Government of Guatemala had not invoked the act of the violation of sovereignty with regard to the recommendations of the Inter-American Court of Justice, the delegation said. It had been fully implementing the decisions and had submitted reports to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.

With regard to abortion, the delegation said that the prevalence of the Catholic religion had prevented the liberalization of such acts, although the Government was willing to modernize legislation. However, measures had been taken to ease the strict observance of the religion through introduction of family planning and the use of contraceptives.

Responding to the remaining written questions prepared by Committee members in advance, the delegation said that since 1996 a further initiative had been taken to guarantee the independence and impartiality of the judiciary through the approval of an act establishing a service for the protection of trial witnesses and persons involved in the administration of justice. Judges had been trained and the judiciary had been strengthened.


Concerning the participation of the indigenous population, the delegation said that the constitutional amendment put to popular approval had proposed to include indigenous rights on the level of the country's Constitution, however, it was not accepted. The officialization of the indigenous language had also been proposed and rejected. The Government, nevertheless, had taken measures to strengthen the position of the indigenous population through the advisory body concerning those segments of the population. The return of land to the indigenous communities was being carried out and many of them had benefited from the land fund aimed for that end. In addition, parliament was discussing a draft law to criminalize discrimination.

With regard to the rights of women, the delegation said that they were encouraged to take leading roles in the society and in public affairs. Although there was problem of equality between men and women in the Guatemalan society, the Government was making efforts to address this by stressing gender equality in public affairs. Educational curricula were being rectified to avoid bias against women. Recently, a legislative measure had been taken against domestic violence, which was a social phenomenon affecting women at home and in workplace.

Assistance was being provided to indigenous and non-indigenous children who were living in unfavourable conditions, the delegation said. Bilingual pre-primary classes were provided for about 93,000 children. Not much protection was given to street children who were at times subjected to police repression. The magnitude of the problem had prompted the Government to train police and to launch a public awareness campaign. The problem of child prostitution was also of concern to the Government and studies were being carried out to look deeply into the causes.

In a follow-up question, an Expert said that the socio-economic disparity was enormous among the population, with 80 per cent of the population living below the poverty line, out of which 50 per cent lived in extreme poverty.




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