UNITED NATIONS - / MaximsNews Network / 26 March 2008 -- Human rights activists in Guatemala and the United Nations remain concerned that the Guatemalan legislature will override a bill to illegally reintroduce the death penalty in Guatemala .

The UN Special Rapporteur on state executions, Philip Alston, recently reminded the international community that “ Guatemala is not prohibited by international law from imposing the death penalty.”

However, Mr. Alston reminded the Guatemalan government that “it may not, however, reinstate the death penalty by stealth.”

Mr. Alston and the International Community have expressed this concern over Decree 06-2008 passed by the Guatemalan legislature that would technically reinstate the death penalty without officially mentioning it in the law.

Public anger over the level of violence within Guatemala has led to the attempts to get this law passed.

Guatemala remains one of the world’s most violent country, with a homicide rate of 47 murders per every 100,000 inhabitants in 2006.

That is a rate that is almost double that of the figure from 1999, when the homicide rate was at its lowest in recent years.

Thus, Mr. Alston stated that “If the Congress is so keen to uphold the rule of law by reinstating the death penalty it should do so in accordance with the international rule of law and not ignore the rulings of both the UN Human Rights Committee and the Inter-American Court of Human rights directed at Guatemala .”

The international community has expressed these concerns since the human rights situation in Guatemala has declined in recent years, despite the official adaptation of various programs to counter the trend. 

What is especially concerning to the international community is the situation for human rights activists in the country.

According to the Secretary-General’s Special Representative on the situation of human rights defenders, Hila Jilani, there are at least 150 attacks on human rights activists a year in Guatemala .

Even worse, according to Ms. Jilani, 50 human rights activists have been murdered in the past five years.

Ms. Jilani stated recently that “Equally alarming is the level of the impunity for the attacks and violations against human rights defenders. 

Ms. Jilani then stated that “the reported figure of 98 percent of impunity for attacks against human rights defenders makes justice an empty word in Guatemala .”

The problem lays in the fact that although Guatemala is a multi-party democracy with civilian control over the military and police forces, various members of the security forces remain commit repeated human rights violations with impunity.

According to the most recent annual US State Department human rights report on Guatemala , just released this month, it is common that human rights violators within the security forces are simply transferred to other posts instead of “investigating and punishing them.”

The root of this problem lays in the fact that the roughly 20,000 member National Civil Police force remains under-trained and under-funded by the Guatemalan state that has limited resources.

To make matters even worse, Guatemala is a poor country with a per capita GDP of little over 1,700 US dollars and an economy that “ranks among the most unequal in terms of income distribution,” according to Ms. Jilani.

Therefore, “ Guatemala is a country confronted by daunting challenges,” Ms. Jilian summarized.

Not only does Guatemala face serious social, economic, and humanitarian problems, but the situation for human rights within the country needs to be addressed before the country can move forward.

Labels: United Nations, U.N., Guatemala, Human Rights, Death Penalty

 

Advertisement

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

MaximsNews® LLC   NEWS NETWORK FOR THE INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY

MaximsNews Network® LLC is a Global News Network that is read worldwide, in 195 countries and territories. It is associated with MediaChannel.org and Globalvision News Network, global news and media information services with more than 350 news affiliates in 135 countries. 

Established in 1999, MaximsNews now publishes in the six UN working languages: English, French, Arabic, Chinese, Russian and Spanish.  

SEE:  About MaximsNews

The views expressed are the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of MaximsNews® LLC.

REACH THE WORLD'S MOST INFLUENTIAL PEOPLE  

SEE: Advertise with MaximsNews | MaximsNews MEDIA PARTNERSHIPS      

MaximsNews.com U.N. ® LLC  www.MaximsNews.com | MaximsNews@MaximsNews.com | Please contact us about Republishing: Syndication@MaximsNews.com ©Copyrights 1999 - 2008, MaximsNews® LLC. All rights reserved.