Case Study Analysis: Guatemala

Guatemala was thrown into civil war in 1954, after the installation of Castillo Armas in a rigged election. The years that followed ravaged the country, as multiple coups occurred along with the creation of multiple different rebel groups. Through this, many human rights violations were committed, including the drafting of child soldiers. The war included multiple distinct phases, and lasted for about 36 years, through which time negative effects such as noticeable drops in literacy rates for adults and enrolment of children in school occurred. While the majority of early victims were mostly members of the lower classes, such as guerilla sympathizers, school teachers, and union leaders, later war crimes were more geographically targeted, with the period from 1979 to 1984, the period containing 91% of all war crimes, mostly committed by state forces and related paramilitary groups, being committed against the native Mayan community (Chamarbagwala and Morán, 2011). 

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Women played a key role in ending the war and ensuring accountability. The National Coordinating Group of Guatemalan Widows, formed in 1988, was critical to the signing of the peace accords ending the war (Helle, 2015). Key contributions of women in this process included broadening the agenda of the accords, working across political and geographical lines, staging mass action to pressure actors into signing, and aiding in disarmament (Council on Foreign Relations, 2021). Through their efforts, ideas such as women’s rights were included in the accords. These would prove critical to ensuring justice for the victims of war crimes particularly rape and sexual slavery, and particularly the Mayan women victims, who through working with organizations such as the Tribunal of Conscience, were able to bring about the first convictions for sexual violence and domestic and sexual slavery in 2016 (Crosby and Lykes, 2021).

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Women also played a key role in the post-war peace. For example, Claudia Paz y Paz Bailey, the first female Guatemalan attorney general, was a key activist in decreasing impunity across the country. The trials for the first convictions of sexual slavery were also overseen by a female judge (Council on Foreign Relations, 2021). Guatemalan women activists have also acted to both reduce negative gender perceptions of men towards women within the country and to positively influence women’s rights worldwide (Inclusivepeace.org, 2021).

 

Guatemala, as a country, also adopted their first National Action Plan in 2017, based on the recommendations of the Inter-Agency Roundtable on Women, Peace and Security, established in 2012, which aimed to facilitate implementation of developments advancing women’s rights (Peacewomen, 2021).

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Case Study: Peru

Peruvian civil conflict began in 1968, when the military toppled elected president Fernando Belaúnde. Following this, nationalization of companies failed to solve economic problems and in 1975, a new military junta toppled the old military leaders. As this did not alleviate Perus’s problems, the military gave democracy another change in 1980, when Belaúnde was reelected . However, at this time the Shining Path guerilla  movement launched attacks against the government, and a state of emergency was declared in 1983. In 1992, after the situation continued to worsen, the elected president declared a military coup, with opposition form the international community but support from Peruvians, and used his powers to both consolidate the power of the state and crush the guerilla movement, helping Peruvian democracy re-emerge in the long run and building a longer lasting domestic peace (Hybel and Yurova, 2020).

 

Women have played a critical role in both helping to keep peace within Peru and aiding the transition to democracy. For example, new research shows that women reacted to the insurgency by changing their behaviour and becoming more involved in politics, particularly in areas affected by the insurgency, a process gender quotas in institutions post-war aided (Garcia-Ponce, 2017). This has led to actions such as Peru signing on to implementing the UNSC resolution 1325 on Women, Peace, and Security, in particular using tribunals to aim to integrate historically under-represented indigenous women into the peace building process like Guatemala (UN Women 2021). Peru has also taken other actions to aid in implementing this resolution, such as a zero-tolerance policy on sexual violence and using women peacekeepers (Peacewomen 2021).

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Peruvian women have also played a critical role in the transition to democracy and rebuilding domestic institutions in Peru. For example, the Mujeres por la Democracia (Women for Democracy), a civil society movement in Peru, was critical in the implementation of both the transition to democracy after the authoritarianism of the 1990’s and the implementation of universal suffrage (Rousseau, 2006). Women also created critical support organizations in the aftermath of the civil war, such as communal kitchens and victim-survivor support groups, which became platforms for self-expression (Waardt and Ypeij, 2016). The increased access for women to capital and leadership in the economy has also helped alleviate Peru’s economic problems, brought about by increasing female representation in Peru’s legislative assembly and in Peru’s domestic justice system (Nathaninc.com, 2016).

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