WUNRN

http://www.wunrn.com

 

GUATEMALA: 12 Years After Conflict, Few Solutions for Internally Displaced Persons or Other Victims - Women

 

Over 200,000 people were killed or disappeared at the height of the conflict between 1981 and 1983, and between 500,000 and 1,500,000 people were internally displaced or fled the country. Although the majority of IDPs returned to their homes shortly after they fled, a large number of people remained displaced throughout the country. Most of these longer-term IDPs settled in the shanty towns of the capital Guatemala City, where they worked in the informal sectors as street sellers, domestic workers or in factories, or on the southern coast, where some worked as seasonal labourers on large land holdings. Many displaced people emigrated to seek work in the United States.

Political developments over the past decade have had little impact on the structural inequalities that triggered the armed conflict, and many Guatemalans remain among the poorest people in the western hemisphere. Crime rates have escalated since the official end of the war in 1996, and Guatemala is in 2008 among the most violent countries in the world that is at peace. The time elapsed since the end of the conflict, and the complex and protracted crisis the majority of Guatemalans face regardless of whether they were displaced are good reasons to stop counting IDPs. Yet IDP organisations claim their members are still suffering from trauma, loss of land, work and indigenous language rights, and still facing the widespread impunity of those who perpetrated abuses against them.

 

Full Text Link - Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre:

http://www.internal-displacement.org:80/8025708F004CE90B/(httpCountrySummaries)/95E1A3E18A54153EC125747A00296FED?OpenDocument&count=10000

 

_____________________________________________________________________

 

Mujer en Panajachel, Sololá, Guatemala 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/ivancastroguatemala/461172127/

 

Guatemalan Women by ivan castro guatemala.

 

 

Amnesty International USA

Save Women's & Girls' Lives in Guatemala

The prevalence of violence against women in Guatemala today has its roots in historical and cultural values which have maintained women’s subordination. These circumstances were most evident during the 36-year internal armed conflict that ended with the signing of the United Nations-brokered Peace Accords in 1996. Of the estimated 200,000 people who "disappeared" or were extra-judicially executed during Guatemala’s internal armed conflict, a quarter of the victims were women.

The consequences of the internal armed conflict in terms of the destruction of communities, displacement, increased poverty and social exclusion has a bearing on levels of violence against women today as does the failure to bring to account those responsible for past human rights violations.

______________________________________________________________

http://www.internal-displacement.org:80/8025708F004CE90B/(httpCountrySummaries)/95E1A3E18A54153EC125747A00296FED?OpenDocument&count=10000

 

Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre

 

Almost twelve years after the end of Guatemala’s 36-year civil war in 1996, the merit of considering internally displaced people (IDPs) separately is open to debate. Some claim that the many problems still shared by IDPs and other groups of victims render the category obsolete, but others argue that the number of forcibly displaced people still unable to regain their land or reintegrate elsewhere means the distinction remains important.

Over 200,000 people were killed or disappeared at the height of the conflict between 1981 and 1983, and between 500,000 and 1,500,000 people were internally displaced or fled the country. Although the majority of IDPs returned to their homes shortly after they fled, a large number of people remained displaced throughout the country. Most of these longer-term IDPs settled in the shanty towns of the capital Guatemala City, where they worked in the informal sectors as street sellers, domestic workers or in factories, or on the southern coast, where some worked as seasonal labourers on large land holdings. Many displaced people emigrated to seek work in the United States.


Political developments over the past decade have had little impact on the structural inequalities that triggered the armed conflict, and many Guatemalans remain among the poorest people in the western hemisphere. Crime rates have escalated since the official end of the war in 1996, and Guatemala is in 2008 among the most violent countries in the world that is at peace. The time elapsed since the end of the conflict, and the complex and protracted crisis the majority of Guatemalans face regardless of whether they were displaced are good reasons to stop counting IDPs. Yet IDP organisations claim their members are still suffering from trauma, loss of land, work and indigenous language rights, and still facing the widespread impunity of those who perpetrated abuses against them.

Nonetheless, no national or international institutions are specifically targeting IDPs or their organisations. In January 2008, the United Nations and the social-democratic government elected in November 2007 set up the International Commission against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG). One of the tasks of the new Commission will be to investigate crimes and the criminal networks that emerged after the conflict, with the intention of offering some justice to the victims, whether internally displaced or not.





================================================================
To contact the list administrator, or to leave the list, send an email to: wunrn_listserve-request@lists.wunrn.com. Thank you.