Guatemala

In recent years, Guatemalan prosecutors have made progress in cases of extrajudicial killings and corruption, due in significant part to support the Attorney General’s Office has received from the United Nations-backed International Commission against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG). Yet efforts to promote accountability for atrocities committed during the country’s internal armed conflict – which ended in 1996 – have had mixed results, and impunity for human rights abuses remains widespread. Threats and violence against human rights defenders, trade unionists, and journalists remain a major concern. Gang-related violence is an important factor prompting people, including unaccompanied youth, to leave the country.