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31 December 2008
Between 500,000 and 1.5 million people were displaced by internal armed conflict in Guatemala in the early 1980s. The conflict between government forces and insurgent factions grouped under the Guatemalan National Revolutionary Unity (URNG) ended in 1996, but not before the armed forces had carried out brutal “scorched-earth” campaigns to crush the insurgents, which involved extensive human rights violations against civilians.
The end of conflict left large numbers of IDPs dispersed across the country, many of them 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. These IDPs joined the ranks of the poorest citizens of what is one of the poorest countries in the Americas, and their access to the basic necessities of life and enjoyment of economic, social and cultural rights has remained difficult. This is still the case for both IDPs and other vulnerable groups who were also affected by the conflict, such as people without work, disabled people, or people with specific health care needs.
Twelve years after the end of the conflict, some suggest that there are no merits to keep on considering IDPs separately. However, outstanding problems such as the number of forcibly displaced people still unable to regain their land or fully reintegrate elsewhere means it is still necessary to consider them as a separate group with specific protection needs related to their former displacement. IDP organisations claim their members are still suffering from loss of land and work. Government land programmes are not moving forward and access to land remains necessary for IDPs to return to home areas. The situation is not likely to improve without greater government capacity and willingness to manage land programmes including the credit system for land purchases.
In 2008 there were no institutions specifically addressing the needs of IDPs in Guatemala. The land reforms which the government had attempted had not brought any positive results, and IDPs were still waiting for effective reparations.
Structural inequality, restricted political participation and discriminatory state policies are at the core of Guatemala’s challenges today as they were 50 years ago when its war started. 14 years have passed since the signing of the peace accord which marked the end of the country’s conflict and promised durable solutions for those people displaced.
No profiling exercise has established the number or specific needs of internally displaced people (IDPs), and the government chose to address their needs within general (and generally ineffective) anti-poverty measures. In 2009, any effort to estimate the number of IDPs based on existing figures would be unreliable. What is clear is that the indigenous Maya population and rural peasants were more affected by displacement, and both are still disproportionately affected by extreme poverty and marginalisation.(...)
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8 December 2009