DanChurchAid
Guatemala
Access to justice
The main target group of the programme are indigenous women. Being poor and marginalized, they are the most affected population group in terms of access to justice.
In order to improve their access to justice, DanChurchAid is focusing on treating two principal problems: Impunity and racism.
Combating impunity
Impunity is a serious attack on the right to equality before the law and public security. DanChurhAid embarks upon the fight against impunity by attempting to strengthen the democratic security, facilitating indigenous groups’ access to the formal system of justice as well as supporting alternative ways of prevention and resolution of conflicts.
With the focus on impunity, the programme is mainly seeking to transform the institutional framework and empower the target group, enabling it to denounce human rights violations.
The programme will focus on reforming policies and legislation in the judicial and security systems where the army still benefits from important quantities of power. There is a lack of knowledge of the specific role of the justice system and of the security forces in the population, a factor which favours the impunity from the Guatemalan state. Therefore, the programme will work on educating and informing on the subject to facilitate the processes of auditing and social monitoring of the justice and security organs.
The programme also addresses the problem of an absent system of justice at the communitarian level. This is done by supporting the coordination of the formal system with other systems of justice, such as the Mayan law and alternative means of conflict resolution, eg. communitarian mechanisms of violence prevention and crime.
Furthermore, the programme promotes awareness raising and the strengthening of capacties among justice operators and lawyers, both with regard to cases with political and economic motives (e.g. genocide and crimes of war) as well as violations of human rights. For instance, there is a weak responsiveness towards cases of violation of women’s rights among justice operators.
Racism
Racism exists in the structure of the system, which is made clear in the way that the indigenous people are rendered invisible in laws and policies. They suffer a general exclusion and experience barriers for accessing material resources and a lack of opportunities for improving their overall conditions of life.
The programme is oriented towards promoting and protecting the rights of the indigenous population, especially the rights of collective nature such as the acknowledgement of their own juridical and political system, sovereignty over their natural resources and consultation about themes of their interest.
The legislation contains provisions which protect indigenous peole and their rights, but these are not applied nor respected.
The programme is working with the documentation of cases of violations of the rights of the indigenous population, attempting to change the institutional framework and create consciousness raising of the indigenous population about their rights.
Indigenous people face a lack of cultural pertinence in terms of access to formal justice, and indigenous women are discriminated twofold. This concerns both the language of justice, types of penalties and the conception of justice. The work on awareness raising of justice operators therefore includes indigenous issues, beginning with the daily treatment of the indigenous people in the courts and cases with racist motives.
Guatemala
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