Historical Clarification Commission - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

The Historical Clarification Commission ( or CEH) was Guatemala

Guatemala

Guatemala is a country in Central America bordered by Mexico to the north and west, the Pacific Ocean to the southwest, Belize to the northeast, the Caribbean to the east, and Honduras and El Salvador to the southeast...

's truth and reconciliation commission

Truth and Reconciliation Commission

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission was a court-like restorative justice body assembled in South Africa after the abolition of apartheid. Witnesses who were identified as victims of gross human rights violations were invited to give statements about their experiences, and some were selected...

.

The creation of the CEH was ordered by the Oslo Accords of 1994 that sought to bring an end to the Central America

Central America

Central America is the central geographic region of the Americas. It is the southernmost, isthmian portion of the North American continent, which connects with South America on the southeast. When considered part of the unified continental model, it is considered a subcontinent...

n nation's three-decade-long Civil War

Guatemalan Civil War

The Guatemalan Civil War ran from 1960-1996. The thirty-six-year civil war began as a grassroots, popular response to the rightist and military usurpation of civil government , and the President's disrespect for the human and civil rights of the majority of the population...

, during which an estimated 200,000 people lost their lives.
Its mandate was to investigate the numerous human rights violations perpetrated by both sides in the armed conflict; succinctly put, to inform Guatemalan society about exactly what had happened in the country between January 1962 and the signing of the Agreement on a Firm and Lasting Peace on 29 December 1996. In the terms used by the 23 June 1994 Accord by means of which it was established:

To clarify with all objectivity, equity and impartiality the human rights violations and acts of violence that have caused the Guatemalan population to suffer, connected with the armed conflict.
To prepare a report that will contain the findings of the investigations carried out and provide objective information regarding events during this period covering all factors, internal as well as external.
Formulate specific recommendations to encourage peace and national harmony in Guatemala. The Commission shall recommend, in particular, measures to preserve the memory of the victims, to foster a culture of mutual respect and observance of human rights and to strengthen the democratic process.

The Commission had three members: Christian Tomuschat

Christian Tomuschat

Christian Tomuschat Christian Tomuschat Christian Tomuschat (born 23 July 1936, in Stettin (Szczecin) is a German jurist. He is emeritus professor of public international law and European law at the Humboldt University in Berlin and is a former member of the UN Human Rights Committee and the UN's...

, a German

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

international law

International law

Public international law concerns the structure and conduct of sovereign states; analogous entities, such as the Holy See; and intergovernmental organizations. To a lesser degree, international law also may affect multinational corporations and individuals, an impact increasingly evolving beyond...

yer, and the Guatemalans Alfredo Balsells Tojo, a jurist, and Otilia Lux de Cotí

Otilia Lux de Cotí

Otilia Lux de Cotí is a Guatemalan social leader and politician.She was a member of that country's Historical Clarification Commission, charged with investigating the human rights violations committed during the Central American nation's 30-year-long civil war. She was later chosen to serve as...

, an expert in indigenous affairs.
The CEH's members heard testimony from thousands of survivors and attended exhumations of clandestine graves; they also interviewed former heads of state and ranking members of the military of Guatemala

Military of Guatemala

The Military of Guatemala consists of National Army of Guatemala , the Guatemalan Navy and the Guatemalan Air Force ....

and pored over thousands of pages of NGO reports. All this was used in the preparation of its final report, titled Guatemala: Memory of Silence, which was published in February 1999.
The report identified a total of 42,275 named victims; of these, 23,671 were victims of arbitrary executions, and 6,159 were victims of forced disappearance

Forced disappearance

In international human rights law, a forced disappearance occurs when a person is secretly abducted or imprisoned by a state or political organization or by a third party with the authorization, support, or acquiescence of a state or political organization, followed by a refusal to acknowledge the...

s. It found that Maya Native Americans accounted for 83% of the victims, and that 93% of the atrocities committed during the conflict had been the work of the armed forces.

See also

Further reading