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printer-friendlyRecent News
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Minugua Head Seeks Establishment of Office in Guatemala of U.N. Human Rights High Commissioner
Central America News #295
8/14/04
Tom Koenigs, the German head of the U.N. Mission to Guatemala (Minugua), asked the Guatemalan congress on August 12 to approve the establishment of an office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights in that country, because, he said, the country still has “serious problems” in the area of human rights. Among the purposes of the office, said Koenigs, would be to continue verification of respect for human rights in Guatemala, and to advise Guatemalan authorities on the formulation and application of policies, programs and measures that promote and protect fundamental human rights in Guatemala.
Former Guatemalan president Alfonso Portillo, who served from 2000 to 2004, signed an agreement at the end of 2003 approving the establishment of an office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights in Guatemala. However, this proposal must be ratified by the Guatemalan congress before it can go forward, and there are some groups in the Guatemalan legislature who oppose the existence of such an office in Guatemala.
While there has been some progress in this area since Minugua was established in the country in 1994, Koenigs said, there still exist serious problems of discrimination, impunity and general safety and security. “Guatemala today is a different country … globally positive,” he said, but added that there is still a long way to go to achieve full respect for individual and social freedoms. He pointed out that people in certain sectors of Guatemalan society still suffer threats and harassment.
Minugua was originally created to verify compliance with the stipulations of the universal human rights agreement signed by the Guatemalan government and the leftist guerrilla, the Guatemalan National Revolutionary Unity (URNG), now a legal political party, as part of the peace process that culminated in December 1996 with the signing of the final accords that put an official end to the country’s 36-year-long internal armed conflict. Its responsibilities were then extended to verifying compliance with the terms of the all the agreements that make up the totality of the over-all peace agreement. Minugua’s mandate ends at the end of this year. (La Nación from ACAN-EFE,Guatemala City, 8/13/04)
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