Fifty-eighth session
Agenda item 26
The situation in Central America: progress in fashioning
a region of peace, freedom, democracy and development
United Nations Verification Mission in Guatemala*
Note by the Secretary-General
1. The attached document contains the human rights report for 2003 of the United
Nations Verification Mission in Guatemala (MINUGUA) on the verification of the
Comprehensive Agreement on Human Rights (A/48/928-S/1994/448, annex I). The
report, transmitted by the Chief of Mission, is the fourteenth on the subject. In accordance with the practice established since the Mission’s inception, I shall transmit a copy of the report to the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, with the request that it be brought to the attention of the members of the Commission on Human Rights.
2. In my report to the General Assembly, dated 1 November 2002, on the renewal
of the mandate of MINUGUA (A/57/584), I conveyed the request of the
Government of Guatemala that the Mission’s mandate be extended. It was renewed
until 31 December 2003 by the General Assembly in resolution 57/161 of
16 December 2002. The results of the Mission’s verification of compliance with the full range of the peace agreements for the period from May 2002 to July 2003 are set forth in my eighth verification report (A/58/267), dated 11 August 2003.
3. I wish to express my gratitude to the Government of Guatemala for its
continued cooperation with the Mission. I should also like to thank the Member
States and the United Nations system in Guatemala for the consistent cooperation
and support provided to the Mission and the Guatemalan peace process.
Annex
Fourteenth report on human rights of the United Nations Verification Mission in Guatemala
I. Introduction
1. In 1994, the Government of Guatemala and the Unidad Revolucionaria
Nacional Guatemalteca (URNG) requested the United Nations to establish a mission
to monitor the Comprehensive Agreement on Human Rights (A/48/928-S/1994/448, annex I) that had been signed by the parties, and subsequently to verify compliance with the full range of peace agreements signed in 1996. The United Nations Verification Mission in Guatemala (MINUGUA) has since issued 13 reports on the Government’s protection of a set of priority rights contained in the Comprehensive Human Rights Agreement, the Agreement on Identity and Rights of Indigenous Peoples (A/49/882-S/1995/256, annex), and the Agreement on the Strengthening of the Civilian Power and the Role of the Armed Forces in a Democratic Society (A/51/410-S/1996/853, annex). The Mission has also issued thematic reports in Guatemala on the functioning of the judiciary (2000), the prison system (2000), the national police (1999, 2001), lynchings (2000, 2002), discrimination against indigenous peoples (2001) and public security (2003).
2. The human rights work of MINUGUA has focused on the Government’s
commitments to protect (a) the right to life (ending extrajudicial killings by the army, police, security services and other state actors); (b) the right to personal integrity (ending illegal searches, detentions, torture and ill-treatment by Government security forces); (c) the right to freedom of expression without Government interference; and (d) the free exercise of all political rights (guaranteeing full participation in politics and free and fair elections). In addition, the Government made a commitment to (a) end discrimination against indigenous peoples; (b) adopt legislation and mechanisms for the protection of human rights; (c) combat impunity; (d) strengthen the key State institutions responsible for protecting human rights (the National Civil Police, the Public Ministry, the courts and the Human Rights Ombudsman); (e) protect human rights activists and defenders; and (f) ensure that illegal security organizations, clandestine groups and parallel structures, many of which were created as anti-insurgency mechanisms during the war, would no longer operate.