News & Articles (/latest)

GUATEMALA: CULTURAL
SURVIVAL SUBMITS
PETITION TO INTER-
AMERICAN
COMMISSION ON
HUMAN RIGHTS
September 27, 2012

(https://www.culturalsurvival.org/sites/default/ les/styles/max_2600x2600/public/images/cor
itok=uGWS56jd)
On September 28, Cultural Survival and Sobrevivencia Cultural, (our sister organization in
Guatemala), submitted a petition to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights
(IACHR), to appeal the decision of Guatemala's Constitutional Court which violates
Indigenous Peoples' rights through the country's telecommunications law that
excludes Indigenous Peoples from operating community radio stations. 

In October 2011, Cultural Survival’s sister organization in Guatemala, Sobrevivencia Cultural

submitted an action of unconstitutionality to the Constitutional Court, declaring economic
and ethnic discrimination in the state’s mechanism for distribution of radio frequencies. 
The action argued that by auctioning o frequency licensees to the highest bidder,
Indigenous communities, who historically and currently are among the most economically
disadvantaged in the country, lack fair access to state-owned media. 

In March the Constitutional Court of Guatemala ruled against our action, upholding the
telecommunications law as is.  However, the court did recommend the congress legislate in
favor of Indigenous People’s access to radio.  The congress has not responded to the court’s
recommendation.  The Constitutional Court is the highest court Guatemala o ers.  The
Inter-American Commission is therefore our next recourse of action. "It is regrettable that
the Guatemala Congress has not been able to nd a way to grant licenses to Indigenous
community radio stations; all that is required is to amend the current telecommunications
law with eight additional words. The right of Indigenous communities to their own media is
rmly established in numerous agreement endorsed by Guatemala, but the current
licensing law is lacking. Every day communities in Guatemala choose to exercise their rights
at great personal risk. Our hope is that the petition will convince the government of
Guatemala to nally honor their obligations," says Mark Camp, Cultural Survival's Deputy
Executive Director.

If the IACHR rules in favor of the petition, they may decide to refer the case to the Inter-
American Court for ruling. Decisions of the Inter-American Court are binding, meaning that
the state of Guatemala would be required to change the law if the court were to rule in
favor of the petition.

“The state of Guatemala would advance a great deal if it would promote reforms to the
current Telecommunications Law that would recognize community radio as a fundamental
tool for the development of Indigenous Peoples, their culture, and the protection of Mayan
languages,”  declared Anselmo Xunic, manager of Sobrevivencia Cultural in Guatemala.

Xunic explained that the State assumed the responsibility at the signing of the Accord of
Identity and Cultural Rights in 1995, which established among other things, that media
monopolies should be eliminated through reforms to the Telecommunications law, and the
adoption of a more egalitarian process for the delegation of radio frequencies.  Later, the
Peace Accords were signed in 1996, which called for the promotion of local radio stations
that would allow for grassroots development if Indigenous communities. When the state
eliminated monopolies in radio and television, the people would be given spaces for the
promotion of their rights.
Cultural Survival also calls on the members states of the United Nations to demand that
Guatemala ful lls its obligations to its Indigenous Peoples while the country is under
Universal Periodic Review (UPR) at the UN headquarters in Geneva this year on October
24th.  The review is a mechanism for evaluating states and their e ective application of
human rights.   The same recommendation was submitted by the country of Norway in the
last UPR of Guatemala in 2008.  Recommendations on the modi cation of this law have
been submitted by two Special Rapporteurs on Freedom of Expression, to the Organization
of American States and the UN during the last decade. 

The immediate adoption of these recommendations would help to improve the situation of
freedom of expression and access to information, commented the Latin American and
Caribbean Network for Exchange and the Defense of Freedom of Expression, (IFEX-ALC).   A
delegation of this organization, consisting in member organizations from Peru, Guatemala,
and Argentina, will meet in Geneva this year to promote recommendations on the situation
of freedom of expression in those three countries, reported CERIGUA.
(http://www.lahora.com.gt/nacional/guatemala/departamental/165583-poblaciones-
indigenas-piden-reformas-a-ley)

Country: Guatemala (/country/guatemala) Issues:

Human Rights (/issues/human-rights)
Languages and Cultures (/issues/languages-and-cultures)

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