The end of the civil war ushered in new and complex forms of violence: the rise of gangs, international drug traicking, and corruption.2 During the transition from conlict to "peace" som, e members of the military , intelligence agents, and former police oicers, Police agents are obliged to take immediate action to locate women who have been reported missing or respond to emergency calls where witnesses report that someone has been abducted. (18) As noted by the PDH no arrests were made in 97% of cases,(19) more than 70% of the cases have not been investigated and the motive for the killing is unknown. ** Convention Against Torture protection ("CAT"). Obligations towards victims and their families. In an apparent effort to improve the ability to identify victims of women who are killed as a result of domestic violence, the Office of Attention to the Victim (Oficina de Atención a la Victima OAV) has reportedly begun to take finger prints of women who present complaints of domestic violence. The Hague convention is an international agreement comprised on a law created in regards to intercountry adoptions (Dolor, L, 2008). (37), In addition, certain other key proposals are not included in the opinion, such as the proposal to criminalize sexual harassment. Continued lack of effective protection measures means that in many cases survivors of gender-based violence, their families and witnesses are too afraid to give testimony. A multinational investigation involving the United States . In a survey carried out in 2021, around 13 percent of respondents in Ecuador said that they had been asked or had to pay a bribe in interactions with . According to the UNICEF, about 90 percent of domestic violence abuses are not reported (UN 28 Nov. 2011). It began when George Zimmerman was found not guilty for shooting unarmed 17-year-old black boy, Trayvon Martin, on Feb, 26, 2012. Likewise, in the case of María Isabel Franco, who was raped and brutally murdered in December 2001, it was only after significant international attention on the case and after a TV documentary, that in February 2006 the prosecutor agreed to compile a list of leads that have yet to be investigated and to locate the main suspect in the case. (17) The Prosecutor's Office for Crimes against Life informed AI that during 2005 it secured 11convictions in cases of murdered women. The 25,000 members of the National Civil Police (PNC) are on the front lines of Guatemalas battle against crime. (35) While some individual deputies and the Congressional Commission on Women have demonstrated political will to remove discriminatory legislation, Congress at large has thus far failed to legislate to remove such legislation. Local police may lack the resources to respond effectively to criminal incidents resulting in a low arrest and conviction rate. Registering property is less time-consuming and less costly compared to regional averages ( DB 2016 ). Since the 1996 peace accords that ended 36 years of armed conflict, donors have poured tens of millions of dollars into police and justice sector reform. The alarming number of killings and lack of an effective government response has also caught the attention of the international community and prompted demonstrations across Latin America and hearings in the European Parliament and the US Congress. Accoring to the report, he PNC currently boasts manpower of 14,000 officers, which gives it 162 police per 100,000 residents, one of the region's lowest police to civilian ratios. Once in the gang, children are forced to steal or engage in illegal activities to help support the gang. Comisión de la Mujer del Congreso de la República. Since then, he has deployed troops to help patrol high-crime areas, reinforced the military in border regions to fight drug trafficking and declared a state of siege to quell a local protest. All police investigators, crime scene investigation officials and forensic experts should receive intensive and ongoing training in investigative techniques, particularly in the collection and preservation of forensic evidence in relation to gender-based violence. (32) Interview with head of the Central morgue, 5 April 2006. News March 2, 2023 Colombia: The National Police must be comprehensively reformed. Guatemala has one of the highest homicide rates in the hemisphere, reaching 48 per 100,000 inhabitants in 2008. The remaining four cases are cases from outside the department of Guatemala. According to relatives and an NGO supporting the case no effort has been made to locate them. The next morning her dead body was found. It is concerned about the insufficient efforts to conduct thorough investigations, the absence of protection measures for witnesses, victims' families and the lack of information and data regarding the cases, the causes of violence and the profiles of the victims. Failure to take into account gender-based violence suffered by victims has contributed to the inadequate response of the state. Rates of crime in Guatemala are very high. In its concluding comments in regard to Guatemala's sixth periodic report, on 2 June 2006 the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) expressed its concern regarding the insufficient efforts taken by the Guatemalan authorities to end the killings: The Committee is deeply concerned about the continuing and increasing cases of disappearances, rape, torture and murders of women, the engrained culture of impunity for such crimes, and the gender-based nature of the crimes committed, which constitute grave and systematic violations of women's human rights. It has been found that 35% of girls in Guatemala are married off before they turn 18. To stem the violence that kills thousands of Guatemalans each year, the government must find the resources and will to carry out long-stalled reforms of the national police. Still, the country experienced one of the smallest GDP contractions in 2020 in LAC (-1.8 percent compared to a regional average of -6.7 percent). The level of coordination and cooperation, in particular, between the PNC and the Public Ministry continues to be extremely poor. The Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Women of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights visited Guatemala in September 2004 and issued recommendations following her visit (see www.cidh.org/women/20.04.htm). 2012, 7). Given Guatemala's incapacity to provide effective protection and the risk that some transferees would face the threat of serious harm either in Guatemala or after returning to their home. It expressed its deep concern regarding the "increase in the number of cases of women brutally murdered, often with sexual violence, mutilations and torture. She fears will find her, take her daughter from her, and harm or kill her. On May 24, 2020, a 34-year-old Guatemalan man was the second detainee to die from COVID-19 in ICE custody. Ministerio Público, www.mp.lex.gob.gt/memorias, (22) La Justicia en Guatemala: Un Largo Camino por Recorrer. Using the army to fight crime, however, further demoralises and weakens the police, especially when the militarys role is poorly defined. Efforts underway to improve the quality of criminal investigations and to improve the coordination and cooperation between state agencies should be fully coordinated and given sufficient political support and resources. UN High Commissioner for Human Rights following her visit to Guatemala, 27 May 2006.(45). State authorities have come under criticism for what many perceive as a failure to control spiralling violence and to provide public security. It called on the Guatemalan government to: take without delay all the measures necessary to put an end to the murders and disappearances of women and the impunity of perpetrators. (9) www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/cedaw/cedaw35/cc/Guatemala_rev.pdf, (10) Based on a population of 12 million, cited in United Nations Development Programme, Human Development Report, 2005. (5) The women's organization Sobrevivientes (Survivors) puts the figure at 243 based on press reports and visits to the city's central morgue. Immediate, coordinated, full and effective investigations into all cases of abduction and murder of women and girls, ensuring that international standards, in particular in relation to crime scene investigation and autopsies, are followed; Urgent search mechanisms in cases of women and girls reported missing as well as a comprehensive data collection system of women reported missing; The incorporation of a gender perspective into the analysis and treatment of violence against women in policing and judicial practice, including the introduction of standard guidelines and procedures to cover all stages of criminal investigations; Promotion of a campaign for zero tolerance of acts of violence against women and that those responsible, including members of the security forces and non-state actors, will be brought to justice; The removal of discriminatory legislation in line with international standards on violence against women. The organisations signing this letter are respectfully writing to remind you of the obligation of the State of Guatemala to comply without delay with the ruling of 2014 of the Inter-American Court of Human Right "Human Rights Defender and Others vs. Guatemala", in which the adoption of a Public Policy for the Protection of Human Rights . Amnesty International believes that collection of and reference to such data is a necessary requirement for the development of sound policies to combat gender-based violence. Only a few months later, under the leadership of a retired Lieutenant Colonel that served during the genocidal dictatorship of Efran Ros Montt, the police drew . . As COVID-19 sweeps across the globe, doctors and other healthcare workers are witnessing limited availability of personal protective equipment (PPE), particularly appropriate masks, and being confronted by difficult situations that pit their desire to remain safe against their duty to help patients. The police had noted that D.C. law prohibits anyone from carrying a firearm within 1,000 feet of any First Amendment activity. I. Small monthly salaries of approximately 4,000 quetzals ($535) created an incentive to extort bribes. After repeated requests, including by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, in February 2006 one police officer was finally stationed outside her home during the day from Monday to Friday. The cooperation and coordination between police investigators and public prosecutors should be strengthened to ensure immediate, coordinated and effective investigations into all cases of abduction and murder of women and girls. While Amnesty International was informed that talks are underway within the Commission to Address Femicide to create a database which would record and cross-reference cases of disappeared women and girls with the discovery of dead bodies, at the time of writing no such mechanism existed. (29) Article 116 of the Guatemalan Penal Code gives relatives the right to propose avenues of investigation, participate in proceedings, request certain tests or examinations and seek the intervention of a judge if they disagree with a prosecutor's decision not to carry out a particular line of investigation. The continued vulnerability of women and girls reported missing is also symptomatic of the failure to recognize the killings as a public security issue and to undertake measures to ensure an immediate response to cases where women and girls are in immediate danger. In June 2005 Amnesty International published a report No protection, no justice: killings of women in Guatemala(3) to highlight the murder of women and girls in Guatemala and the state's failure to exercise due diligence in preventing, investigating and punishing these crimes. As highlighted by the IECCP "there is no institutionalized policy of protection for victims and other individuals subject to penal cases which directly correlates to a retraction or abandonment [of testimony] during the trial."(30). (28) Amnesty International understands that both the Public Ministry and Judiciary are yet to formally respond to the PDH's request. In November 2019, a gun battle broke out in the neighborhood of Zona 7 in Guatemala City between a patrol unit and the Police Inspector General's office. Relatives of a number of victims have complained that state investigators have been quick to classify their family members as gang members, prostitutes or involved in drug trafficking and in so doing, relate their death to suspected stereotypical behaviour. Amnesty International offers the following set of recommendations to complement and reinforce those previously made and those of other national and international experts. P. 34(a)(2). 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