Themes & Campaigns
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Trade and Globalization

Through our Trade and Globalization Program, NISGUA advocates for indigenous rights, environmental justice, and alternative development policies. We have strongly stepped up our efforts to oppose transnational mega-projects, specifically open-pit mines and massive hydroelectric dams. Working in close coordination with affected communities and social movements in Guatemala that are unifying against mega-projects, NISGUA is playing a vital solidarity role in advocating for human rights and alternative development policies in the international arena.
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Justice and Accountability

Over 150,000 people dead and another 50,000 disappeared: The death toll in the Guatemalan war exceeded that of El Salvador, Nicaragua, Argentina, and Chile combined. The intensity of ethnic cleansing that took place in Guatemala over the 36-year-long conflict was equal to, or arguably worse than, that of Bosnia. Guatemalan government forces - buoyed by financing and training from the United States - committed over 90% of the human rights violations during the war (1960-1996).

Through our Justice and Accountability Program, NISGUA employs strategic, creative, and coordinated grassroots activism and advocacy to pursue justice for human rights abuses, including those committed during Guatemala's war. We provide information and strategic analysis to our grassroots network and organizational partners to monitor precedent-setting human rights cases and advocate on behalf of Guatemalans working to prosecute those responsible for genocide and other war crimes. We develop in-depth analysis and disseminate electronic, print, and verbal information about the political context in Guatemala and the ongoing struggle to end impunity.
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Land Rights and Agrarian Reform

Land distribution is one of the most overt signs of social and economic inequality that exists in Guatemala. Guatemala's rural poor strive for socially equitable agrarian reforms which will raise the standard of living for those who have been marginalized without a source of income. There has been no attempt at land redistribution since the early 1950's keeping Guatemala one of the most inequitable countries in the Americas.
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Militarization

It is estimated that the Guatemala military was responsible for approximately 90 percent of the 200,000 deaths during the civil war. The army performed thousands of operations of murder, rape and intimidation over the course of the last 60 years. Throughout this history of violence, the United States military has witnessed or aided many of these campaigns of coercion. Recently however, the U.S. has scaled back its military involvement with Guatemala.
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Femicide and Women's Rights

Violence against women is on the rise in Guatemala. In fact, the mortality rate of women in Guatemala today is reaching the very high levels of female mortality in the early 1980s at the height of the genocidal war.
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