The initiatives in Villa Nueva and Mixco rely on local politicians whose successors may not share their commitment. (8) See Resolución del Parlamento Europeo sobre Guatemala, P6_TA-PROV(2005)0304, 7 July 2005, See www.acnur.org/biblioteca/pdf/3643.pdf. Amnesty International concurs with other national and international experts that the steps taken by government authorities since have been wholly insufficient to address the scale of the problem. This coverage helped highlight all the shootings that were happening by the police. Then my brother-in-law went to the homicide department; and they said nothing could be done. 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. The testimony of Clara Fabiola, was key to securing the 100 year prison sentence in February 2005 against gang member Oscar Gabriel Morales Ortiz, alias "Small". The. Petitioners are natives and citizens of Guatemala. There are also encouraging developments within the area of preventive or community-oriented policing. On 25 November 2005 the government announced the creation of the Comisión para el Abordaje del Femicidio, the National Commission to Address Femicide, which aims to develop a diagnostic of the situation from a government perspective and improve coordination between state institutions responsible for the prevention, investigation and prosecution of killings of women and girls. The spent shells were reportedly never submitted as part of the investigation. (15) Many victims are raped, tortured or mutilated before being killed. (45) www.unhchr.ch/huricane/huricane.nsf/view01/C7F2A41A172BC438C125717D0056605A?opendocument. Since 2001 over 2,200 women and girls have been murdered in Guatemala and the rate of murders is on the increase. According to the police Female Homicide Unit by the end of 2005 they had archived 100 cases out of a total of 224 cases of murdered women and girls allegedly due to a lack of evidence because families no longer wanted investigations or witnesses were no longer willing to talk for fear of reprisals. (10), The precise number of women who have been murdered continues to be disputed with the Public Ministry, the National Civilian Police (PNC) and the Judiciary generating and referring to different statistics. Commenting on the extent to which the nature and magnitude of gender-related violence is reflected in official documents the PDH remarked "the topic has hardly been touched upon in state institutions. AI Index: AMR 34/013/2006. Statistics also point towards an under-reporting of violence against women in the family, an important contributing factor to murders of women. Insecurity and inequality prevail, and a history of failed opportunities has created disenchantment in a population eager for change. 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. (27) In one of the initial police reports submitted to the Public Ministry the police investigator reportedly suggested that a search be carried out of the property of a man who had previously harassed Cristina and that there were two witnesses who were mugged, apparently by the same individuals who abducted Cristina, but had failed to contribute to the construction of an identikit picture of the suspects. Police Reform in Guatemala: Obstacles and Opportunities, Curtain Falls on Guatemalas International Commission against Impunity. Recognizing the deficiencies in the investigation of the case, in November 2005, the head of the Special Prosecutor's Office on Crimes against Life took over the investigation. 2 United States,8 explaining that the majority have suffered some type of human right violation.9 These violations mainly correspond to poverty, ethnic and gender discrimination, and generalized violence,10 and Guatemalan children usually leave the country as a direct result of combined factors like deprivation of basic social rights, violence, and family On 6 November 2005, the dismembered parts of an unidentified woman were found in three bin bags in Guatemala City. (25) Article 107 of the Procedural Penal Code establishes that the PUBLIC MINISTRY directs criminal investigations. The Guatemalan government should state that gender-based violence is unacceptable and will not be tolerated. (11) In view of the deficiencies in the collection and management of data, the figures provided in this report should not be read as definitive. 6. (2) Interview with father of Cristina Hernndez, BBC This World documentary, Killer's Paradise.. (3) AI Index: AMR 34/017/2005, see http://web.amnesty.org/library/Index/ENGAMR340172005?open&of=ENG-GTM. Economic abuse entails controlling a woman's ability to access economic resources (money, education or employment) as a form . (38) A draft bill on sexual harassment in the workplace was sent to Congress in 2002. In the case of 17-year-old Andrea Fabiola Contreras Bacaro who was raped and murdered in June 2004 in Jocotenango, Sacatepéquez, and who had the word "vengeance" carved into her leg, in February 2005 Otto René Argueta was sentenced to 35 years. Other basic lines of investigation were not pursued such as seeking witness statements at the hotel where "la mudita" worked. The lack of response, according to diplomats, emboldened Guatemala to ratchet up its campaign against the archives. 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. 2. In the absence of thorough investigations, various non governmental organizations (NGOs) and other groups have presented their own investigations and analysis regarding the reasons behind the killings. Local human rights organisations believe the break-in was linked to the prominent role played by the Women's Sector in calling for an end to violence against women in Guatemala. (14) For example see Femicidio en Guatemala: crimenes contra la humanidad, Unidad Revolucionaria Nacional Guatemalteca (URNG), November 2005, p67-90. Reporting gang activities to police puts a person in greater danger because it aggrevates the gang, challenges their authority, and shows disrespect. (33) Draft law no. She had reportedly been raped and strangled. 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.(9). They said many young girls run off with boyfriends; and so they couldn't start a search for 24 hours.(2). Before examining why and how Guatemala's international adoptions and child protection laws have been changed, one must first look at the Hague convention (Dolor, L, 2008). (24) On many occasions interviews do not take place until months after the crime when witnesses or family members are no longer willing to talk or cooperate, often because they have been threatened. (29) In cases where there are no relatives exerting pressure on the authorities to investigate either because relatives are too afraid to actively pursue investigations or the victim has not been identified, investigations seldom advance. Nearly one year on, and despite the existence of critical leads, including witnesses and a potential suspect no further investigations have been carried out. Concern was also expressed over the tendency of the authorities to blame the victims rather than focusing resources on investigating and prosecuting the perpetrators of the killings. Page 234, available at: http://hdr.undp.org/2005. (30) Violencia contra las mujeres. In two municipalities outside Guatemala City, Villa Nueva and Mixco, activist mayors are trying to combat gangs and create stronger ties between the local communities and law enforcement. But all too often citizens distrust and fear the police widely dismissed as inefficient, corrupt and abusive as much as the criminals. Press reports, quoting the PNC, have consistently quoted 640 cases of murdered women during 2005. Comisión de la Mujer del Congreso de la República. Steps need to be taken to guarantee the independence, and availability of adequate human and financial resources of the recently established National Forensic Institute. 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. The state must improve the ability of officers to respond to such calls, and those officers who fail to discharge their duties effectively must be held to account. . The United States is also making it more difficult for unaccompanied children in the care of the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) to unite with relatives already in the country. 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. IECCP, 2005. . UNICEF Botswana focuses on strengthening institutions to prevent and respond to gender-based violence, abuse, neglect, and exploitation of children. The Public Ministry's Witness Protection Programme should be strengthened to guarantee the safety of both witnesses and family members. After Cristina Hernndez was murdered in July 2005, her family went into hiding in fear for their safety after they were intimidated. However, police scholars have criticized . Nor do police exist in a vacuum; permanent change can only take place within broader efforts to battle corruption and favouritism within the justice system as a whole. Uniformed police agents who came to the hotel allegedly removed the spent shells and told the hotel owner to wash away the blood. The Unit for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders in Guatemala (UDEFEGUA) recorded 839 attacks against human rights defenders between January and November. The nongovernmental organization (NGO) Unit for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders (UDEFEGUA) alleged that at least seven members of rural and indigenous activist groups were killed or died in disputed circumstances between January and November. (4) Between 1 January 2006 and 5 May according to police statistics 229 women and girls were killed. Mara Salvatrucha and Barrio 18, recruit children who do not attend school or lack adult supervision and protection. Official statistics focus on the cause of death, leaving out data regarding sexual violence, mutilation and dismemberment, rendering invisible the nature, history and dimensions of gender-based violence suffered by many victims. 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