Let us defend human rights defenders – remembering Monsignor Juan Gerardi

"All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.
They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood."

(Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights).


By Gloria Pereira–Papenburg


In this spirit of brotherhood, human rights defenders put their lives on the line. Sadly, many die.


"Since the assassination of Msgr. Juan Gerardi by members of the Presidential Body Guard on April 26, 1998, the situation of human rights defenders [in Guatemala] has not ceased to deteriorate," the international "Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders" stated in a 25 March 2002 communiqué.


The Observatory reported a significant increase in the number of aggressions against human rights defenders, aggressions that are massive, recurrent and protected by impunity from prosecution. Targets are mainly those who denounce corruption, impunity, and grave violations of socio–economic rights. The Observatory had already expressed concern last year about the increase in the number of attacks to people who work for human rights, highlighting the fact that the state does not have act seriously to prevent and resolve this type of aggression.


On April 26, 1998, Msgr. Juan Gerardi, the Coordinator of the Human Rights Office of the Archdiocese of Guatemala, was assassinated two days after presenting the report on Recuperation of the Historic Memory: "Guatemala, never again." The report found the Guatemalan military responsible for almost 90% of the killings in Guatemala during the late 1970s and early 1980s, in a war that left 200,000 deaths and 50,000 "disappearances".


"It hurts to know the truth but it is a highly liberating action," Msgr. Gerardi said at the presentation of the report on April 24, 1998. He believed that truth would make peace possible in Guatemala. At that ceremony, he said that truth "makes possible for us to break this cycle of death and violence and to open ourselves to a future of hope and light for all."


More than three years later, in the early hours of Friday June 8, 2001, a tribunal condemned three militaries and one priest for his execution. The road to justice was paved with stalling, lies, and death threats that sent several investigators and prosecutors into exile.


This is the first time in Guatemalan history that military officers have been condemned as the material authors of an assassination. In this historical decision, the three judges ruled that Bishop Gerardi's killing was a political murder, leaving thirteen members of the military hierarchy open to investigation.


The military officers condemned in the extra–judicial execution of Msgr. Gerardi are retired Colonel Byron Disrael Lima Estrada, Captain Byron Miguel Lima Oliva, and Specialist José Obdulio Villanueva. They were sentenced to thirty years in jail each. The priest Mario Orantes Najera was found guilty of being an accomplice and was sent to jail for twenty years.


These sentences were due to the courage and determination of the members of the Human Rights Office of the Archdiocese of Guatemala and the prosecution team; the people who, in the face of so many threats, brought this case to a successful conclusion.

This is an important step in the struggle against impunity but Msgr. Gerardi's dream has not been realized yet. The attacks and death threats against human rights defenders continue in Guatemala.


The UN Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers visited Guatemala in 1999 and in 2001. In his 1999 report, he stated that there is no political will to end impunity in Guatemala; he repeated this assessment in his 2001 visit.


The reports of the UN Special Rapporteur and from the "Obsevatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders" have been corroborated by the latest threats (March 2002) against another Guatemalan Bishop, Msgr. Alvaro Ramazzini, after he expressed his understanding of the desperate situation of the campesinos. Msgr. Ramazzini said that people usually excluded, such as the campesinos and the indigenous people, do not have access to the goods and resources that they need as human beings. Bishop Ramazzini, for many years, has spoken openly about the social conflict due to massive firings in the coffee plantations, the lack of respect for the minimum standards set by the Labour Code, and the despair of the people who see their survival at risk in view of the coffee crisis and the absence of other sources of work. He has worked, together with other members of civil society to find an alternative proposal within the framework of the Rule of Law and the Peace Accords.


The Guatemalan Bishops Conference issued a statement expressing its concern in view of the threats received by Bishop Ramazzini saying that this is the latest of many acts of intimidation suffered by human rights activists. The Conference asked the international community for support in the verification of the compliance of the Peace Accords and the verification of respect for human rights in Guatemala, including social and economic rights.


The government of Guatemala is under national and international legal obligation to protect human rights defenders. These obligations originate in the Constitution of Guatemala and in the Global Accord on Human Rights, as well as the United Nations Declaration on Human Rights Defenders (December 1998) and the Organization of American States' resolution "Human Rights Defenders in the Americas: Support for the Individuals, Groups and Organizations of Civil Society Working to Promote and Protect Human Rights in the Americas" (June 2000).


The State of Guatemala has the obligations to respect, protect and fulfil the human rights of all Guatemalans.


The deaths of so many people acting "in spirit of brotherhood" must not remain in vain. We, as members of the international community, must respond to the Guatemalan request for support in their struggle for respect of human rights.