Weekly Report - 20 February 2020 (WR-20-07)

Approved on 11 February, Ley 5257 was first presented in 2017 as part of a series of reforms to the penal code. It seeks to regulate the formation, registration, finances, and other aspects of NGOs’ activities. It is controversial due to provisions such as that granting the executive the authority to shut NGOs down if deemed disruptive and another which states that no donation or external financing “may be used to carry out activities that disturb the public order in national territory”. Michelle Bachelet, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, previously pointed out that there was no definition of civil unrest. The manner in which Ley 5257 was passed by congress itself attracted criticism given it was not on the legislative agenda but approved via a privileged motion – which US-based lobby group Washington Office on Latin America (Wola) described as “a ruse” by those seeking to push it through.

With the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), the European Union (EU), the US, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), Amnesty International (AI), and Transparency International (TI) among those to have flagged up concerns about Ley 5257, local human rights groups were swift to respond to the law’s approval, with the Centro para la Acción Legal en Derechos Humanos and Acción Ciudadana, TI’s local branch, filing complaints the following day before the constitutional court, warning that it constitutes an attack “against the freedoms of action, of association, of expression, of protest, and of passive resistance that belong to all citizens as rights”. Meanwhile, a letter dated 13 February and signed by 215 national organisations, 28 international organisations, and 94 individuals attributed the bill’s approval to the so-called ‘Pacto de Corruptos’ (an allusion to corruption in the country’s political institutions, such as the legislature) as part of efforts to weaken transparency efforts, and it urged Giammattei to veto it.

Another state of prevention

Giammattei has yet to indicate what he intends to do about Ley 5257, insisting he will make the decision once he has received and read it. However, these renewed concerns about human rights come as civil-society groups are already on the alert due to Giammattei’s continued use of measures which suspend civil liberties to tackle crime. Most recently on 14 February he announced a six-day state of prevention, which restricts the right of citizens to take part in public protests and carry arms, and allows for a military deployment, in six municipalities in Escuintla department, namely Escuintla (the departmental capital), Nueva Concepción, Santa Lucía Cotzumalguapa, Tiquisate, San José, and Palín.

Giammattei has previously announced the measure (similarly for six days) on three other occasions: on 4 February, in three municipalities in Chimaltenango department (Chimaltenango, San Andrés Itzapa, and El Tejar); on 24 January, in Villa Nueva municipality, Guatemala department; and on 17 January in Mixco and San Juan Sacatepéquez municipalities, also in Guatemala department. Human rights activists such as Helen Mack have criticised Giammattei’s invocation of the state of prevention as populist.

HRDs

At the end of January, a local human rights group, Unidad de Protección a Defensoras y Defensores de Derechos Humanos (Udefegua), reported that in 2019 a total of 462 attacks were registered against human rights defenders, including 15 murders and five attempted murders, although this is less than the record 26 murders of HRDs and 18 attempted killings registered in 2018.

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