Guatemala Human Rights Commission/USA

GHRC/USA News

Join us on a "Human Rights Defenders Under Fire" Delegation to Guatemala
June 21 - 29, 2008

GHRC is awarded Democracy in Action's Empowers Grant

Watch "Getting Away With Murder" - a video about violence against women in Guatemala made by GHRC Delegate Andrew Petonak

Read GHRC's 2007 Human Rights Review: January - September (pdf)

Read GHRC's "Three Thousand and Counting: A Report on Violence Against Women in Guatemala" (pdf)

Read a paid advertisement from GHRC and other non-governmental organizations that appeared in Guatemalan newspaper Prensa Libre

Job Opening

Latest Urgent Actions

• Bishop Ramazzini Threatened in Guatemala (April 3) Monseñor Álvaro Leonel Ramazzini Imeri, bishop of the Diocese of San Marcos and president of the Guatemalan Bishop’s Conference, received a death threat on March 31, 2008. Read more and take action.

Latest News

• Guatemalan Congress Approves Law Against Femicide (Latina America Press, May 2): On April 5, 16-year-old Carmen del Rosario Aguirre and her friend Yesenia Adaly Pérez Arévalo, 17, went to the local market of La Parroquia. Both girls came from the village of Rincón de la Peña, in the municipality of Palencia, about 30 kilometers (19 miles) from Guatemala City... (read more)

• Guatemalan Stresses Immigrant Sacrifices (Washington Post, April 30): Guatemalan President Alvaro Colom, on his first visit to Washington since taking office in January, said yesterday that his country's discredited police and justice systems need to be "reordered and disciplined" and that Guatemalan immigrants who are in the United States illegally deserve the same temporary legal protections that have been granted other Central Americans... (read more)

• Commemoration of Bishop's Assassination Calls Attention to Impuntiy in Guatemala (April 26): Hundreds of members from the D.C. metropolitan area Latino community, human rights organizations, and religious institutions gathered for a memorial service to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the assassination of Guatemalan Bishop Juan Gerardi... (read more)

• Una Conmemoración del Asesinato de Mons. Gerardi Llama Atención a la Impunidad en Guatemala (26 de abril): Cientos de miembros de la comunidad Latina en el área metropolitana de Washington DC, organizaciones de derechos humanos, e instituciones religiosas se juntaron para un servicio memorial para conmemorar el décimo aniversario del asesinato de Monseñor Juan Gerardi...(leer más)

• Colom Vetoes the Death Penalty (March 14): After several days of meetings with diplomats, religious leaders, presidents from other countries, and a twenty-two member legal team, President Álvaro Colom announced his decision to veto the Presidential Pardon Law (Decree 06-2008) for those awaiting the death penalty... (read more)

• US Senate Calls on Guatemala to Address Murders of Women (March 11): In commemoration of International Women’s Day, the U.S. Senate unanimously passed Senate Resolution 178 (S. Res. 178) last night, highlighting the more than 2,000 unsolved murders of women and girls in Guatemala since 2001. The number of women killed in Guatemala has nearly doubled in seven years. Many of the victims are subjected to brutal torture, mutilation, and sexual violence before their death... (read more)

• El Senado Estadounidense Exige al Gobierno Guatemalteco Responder a los Asesinatos de Mujeres (11 marzo): En el marco del Día Internacional de la Mujer, el Senado de los Estados Unidos aprobó por unanimidad la Resolución 178 (S. Res. 178) anoche, exigiendo que las autoridades guatemaltecas investiguen las muertes de más de 2,000 mujeres y niñas en Guatemala desde el 2001. El número de mujeres asesinadas en Guatemala casi ha duplicado en los últimos siete años. Muchas de las víctimas han sido mutiladas, torturadas y violadas antes de su muerte... (leer más)

• Read Femicide in Guatemala, an article by Victoria Sanford in Revista: the Harvard Review of Latin America

• Read Dangers and Insecurity in Postwar Guatemala, an article by Kedron Thomas and Peter Bensen in Revista: the Harvard Review of Latin America

• Read testimonies given to the Spanish Federal Court by Guatemalan victims of genocide (Feb. 4 - 8, 2008). Analysis provided by Kate Doyle, National Security Archive.

• Read a letter to the Attorney General of Guatemala from GHRC and other non-governmental organizations regarding threats to human rights defenders from the Guatemalan Forensic Anthropology Team (FAFG) Feb. 28.

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