GENEVA (8 May 2025) – The UN Human
Rights Committee has found Guatemala internationally
responsible for not implementing resettlement agreements and
other reparation measures reached with members of the Mayan
People for their continuing forced displacement.
A
total of 269 members of the K’iche’, Ixil and Kaqchikel
Mayan Indigenous Peoples, who have been forcibly displaced
from their communities during the “scorched earth”
operations of the internal armed conflict in the 1980s,
turned to the Committee in 2021, claiming their rights under
the International
Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) were
violated. Although the victims had reached a settlement with
Guatemala and agreed on a number of reparation measures
under the 2011 National Compensation Programme, the
programme, which foresaw, in particular, the resettlement
and construction of alternative housing, was never
implemented.
“Forced displacement is permanent in
nature until the victims benefit from a safe and dignified
return to their place of habitual residence or are
voluntarily resettled elsewhere,” Committee member
Hélène Tigroudja said.
In its decision, the
Committee found that the victims were violently uprooted
from their traditional lands and forced to seek refuge in
Guatemala’s capital city, in violation of their right
under Article 12 of the ICCPR. Amid this different cultural
setting, they were also forced to conceal and ultimately
change their identities in violation of Article
27.
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“The uprooting of the victims from their natural
environment and lands had a deep, devastating, and lasting
impact as they were irremediably stripped of their cultural
identity,” Tigroudja said. “They had to abandon their
cultural practices, stop wearing their traditional clothing
and stop speaking their language, which also constitutes an
irreparable loss for their children and grandchildren,”
she added.
In a new approach, the Committee considered
that the State violated not only the rights of the
individuals who were forcibly displaced but also the rights
of third-generation children born in displacement after the
events, to whom the trauma of displacement was
transmitted.
“Indigenous Peoples’ rights are, by
definition, intergenerational. Transmission is a key
condition for the continuity of Indigenous Peoples’
existence and cultures,” Tigroudja said.
In its
decision, the Committee also highlighted that the forced
displacement and accompanying violence resulted in the
victims having to leave behind the buried bodies of their
relatives. Moreover, they were unable to perform funeral
rituals for family members who were executed, died or
forcibly disappeared during the conflict, in violation of
their right under Article 7 not to be subjected to torture
and inhumane treatment.
“In Mayan culture, not
performing funeral rites is considered a moral transgression
which can lead to spiritually caused illnesses that can
manifest as physical diseases and can affect the entire
lineage,” Tigroudja added. “These are not only
performative ceremonies and rituals but an integral part of
the physical, moral and spiritual integrity of members of
the communities as well as of the communities as a whole,”
she said.
The Committee requested Guatemala to search
for and hand over the remains of the disappeared family
members to the complainants so that they could perform
funeral rituals in accordance with their cultures. The
Committee also requested Guatemala to build the houses
according to the agreed specifications; to provide the
victims, their children and grandchildren with the necessary
medical, psychological and/or psychiatric treatment; to also
provide them with scholarships if they wish so; and to carry
out a public act of acknowledgement of international
responsibility in which it should apologise for the
violations.
Guatemala is also requested to translate
the decision into the Mayan K’iche’, Mayan Ixil and
Mayan Kaqchikel languages.
The Committee’s findings
were assisted by Third-Party Interventions submitted by the
Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, a
judge attached to the Special Jurisdiction for Peace of
Colombia, and the NGO Indigenous Peoples Rights
International.
