The Inter-American Court of Human Rights released its ruling in the case of Pérez Lucas et al v. Guatemala on Nov. 14, finding the state responsible for the forced disappearance of four indigenous human rights defenders in 1989.

The court determined that Guatemala violated multiple rights under the American Convention on Human Rights when state agents forcibly disappeared Agapito Pérez Lucas, Nicolás Mateo, Macario Pú Chivalán, and Luis Ruiz Luis, who were indigenous Maya K'iche members of the Ethnic Communities Council "Runujel Junam" (CERJ). The victims worked to oppose forced recruitment into Civil Self-Defense Patrols in Guatemala's Quiché region.

Despite actions for habeas corpus filed immediately after their disappearances in April 1989 and another filed in 2005, the court found that Guatemala failed to conduct any meaningful investigation in the 35 years since the disappearances. The court noted that military authorities consistently refused to provide information about the victims' whereabouts, claiming they lacked relevant records, without demonstrating any serious effort to locate such information.

The court found Guatemala violated the victims' rights to juridical personality, life, personal integrity, personal liberty, and freedom of association, as well as their families' rights to judicial guarantees, judicial protection, truth, and family protection. The court particularly emphasized the impact on the victims' children, who were minors at the time of the disappearances.

In its ruling, the court ordered Guatemala to conduct a thorough investigation, implement a national strategy for searching for disappeared persons, and establish policies for declassifying military archives related to the internal armed conflict. The state must also strengthen the investigative capacities of its Human Rights Ombudsman, and provide psychological treatment and compensation to the victims' families.

The judgment comes as human rights defenders in Guatemala continue to face serious risks. According to Human Rights Watch, attacks against defenders increased significantly in 2022, with the Unit for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders of Guatemala (UDEFEGUA) documenting 3,574 instances of aggression—the highest recorded in 22 years. Amnesty International reported that between January and November 2023, UDEFEGUA registered 5,965 attacks against human rights defenders, including threats, killings, harassment and arbitrary detentions.

Human rights group FOCUS Observatory on Public Policies noted that Guatemala has failed to comply with the Inter-American Court's 2014 order in the case Human Rights Defender et al v. Guatemala, which required the state to implement a public policy for the protection of human rights defenders. All government action toward compliance stopped in 2020 under then-president Alejandro Giammattei's administration. While the new government of Bernardo Arévalo has promised to launch such a public policy process in 2024, civil society organizations continue to face severe restrictions according to CIVICUS Monitor, a global research collaboration that rates civic space worldwide, which currently classifies Guatemala as a country where civic freedoms are "repressed."

From Jurist, Nov. 15. Used with permission.