President Alejandro Giamattei, President of Guatemala
c/o Secretary of Social Communication of the Presidency
October 26, 2020
Dear President Giamattei:
We are strongly opposed to your unilateral decision on October 5 to close the offices of the Secretary of Peace (SEPAZ), the Secretary of Agrarian Affairs (SAA), and the Presidential Commission for the Coordination of Executive Policy on Human Rights (COPREDEH). These institutions were created to comply with the Peace Accords of 1996 and Guatemala’s international obligations to seek justice for all human rights violations committed during the armed conflict.
SEPAZ is responsible for promoting a culture of peace in line with the values, conduct and traditions of Guatemala and to discourage recourse to violence. The National Reparations Program (PNR), which functions under SEPAZ, will be totally paralyzed with its closing. SAA is in charge of ensuring compliance with the agrarian and rural development aspects of the Peace Accords. COPREDEH formulates and promotes human rights policy, including coordination of police protection for human rights and labor activists. COPREDEH, which generally operates without political or party interference, also monitors the State’s compliance with its international obligations. It
Your government has replaced SEPAZ, SAA, and COPREDEH with the Commission for Peace and Human Rights (COPADEH). This action is unconstitutional because your office does not have the authority to break the commitments assumed by the State in the Peace Accords. The Government Agreement 100-2020 of July 30 does not specifically assume the functions of the SEPAZ, the SAA and the COPREDEH, nor does it have a budget allocation in the General State Budget for 2021. This is evidence of abandonment of the Peace Accords, the negating of State responsibility for grave violations of human rights in the past, and the ignoring of the rights to reparations for victims of state violence.
We continue our years of solidarity and advocacy for the human rights of the people of Guatemala. We join with the international community in urgently demanding that
- the Constitutional Court of Guatemala immediately suspend the closure of the SEPAZ, the SAA and the COPREDEH
- the Central Government respect the commitments of the State of Guatemala to peace and human rights, and cease authoritative and anti-democratic actions
- the Guatemalan Congress fulfill their oversight function and not remain passive in the face of arbitrary decisions.
Sincerely,
Brian J. Stefan Szittai and Christine Stonebraker Martínez
Co-coordinators
