American Bar President Mary Smith said Monday the ABA is”deeply disturbed by the criminalization of lawyers, judges, journalists and human rights defenders who have investigated and prosecuted corruption and human rights abuses in Guatemala,”
These attacks have had a corrosive impact on the independence of Guatemala’s judiciary and harmed unprecedented cases against high-level state actors for acts of corruption and human rights violations,” Smith said. “Protection for the independence of lawyers is a norm enshrined in the Guatemalan Constitution, Interamerican Court precedent and United Nations Basic Principles, and trends in Guatemala raise concern that such guarantees are being violated systematically.”
As the largest voluntary professional association of lawyers in the world, Smith said the ABA calls on the Public Ministry of Guatemala “to cease the unlawful persecution of judges, prosecutors, journalists, human rights defenders and Indigenous leaders who are being targeted for their anti-corruption work or their efforts to provide legal representation to those facing criminalization.
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