Negotiating rights: The Guatemala peace process
The signing of peace agreements in 1996 ended 36 years of civil war between the Guatemalan government and the Marxist rebel army, the Guatemalan National Revolutionary Unit.
Underpinning this brutal conflict were deep-seated historical grievances about unfair land distribution, the marginalisation of indigenous people, tight controls on political organisation and unacceptable state violence. The peace process went beyond an arrangement between armed groups, allowing regional and civic actors to advance their concerns on issues of social justice, political power-sharing and the rule of law.
Accord 2 analyses the degree to which these concerns became marginalised during the process, and the remaining challenges in consolidating the peace agreement. Written by local and international authors, the publication also includes a timeline of the peace process, the full peace accord texts and profiles of the main people and institutions involved.
This issue of Accord was edited by Rachel Sieder and Richard Wilson.
As one who has participated in facilitating all Oslo agreements for the Middle East, Guatemala and elsewhere, I find your fact-oriented and balanced reviews of peace processes very helpful.
Jan Egeland, Former Norwegian Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs