27 July 2011 | News | Human rights | Social activists at risk
Against Impunity
National and international trade union organizations demand justice in Guatemala
Download: MP3 (1.7 Mb)
Last Thursday July 21, the second International Conference Against Impunity and for the respect of trade union, labour and human rights was held in Guatemala. Workers from different countries met to check the progress made in terms of safety and justice in Guatemala.
The conference was organized by the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) and the Trade Union Confederation of the Americas (TUCA), with the support of the International Labour Organization (ILO) and Solidarité Mondiale. The event stressed the high level of violence and the impunity associated with it. It was the continuation of the First Trade Union Conference on Impunity, held in Guatemala in January of 2008.
Guatemala is one of the most dangerous countries for the workers to exercise their rights. In the past three years, 57 trade unionists were murdered in Guatemala. Only one of the cases was clarified in court. Besides, on the opening session of the International Conference Against
Impunity, another trade union leader was murdered in Guatemala.
“Until Core labour standards and Convention 169 are implemented and fully respected, prosecuted where they are breached, and until there is an end to the massacres, then we know that life will not be as we choose: decent work, a livelihood that you can count on, and safe work where people can go every day knowing they will return to their families,” said Sharan Burrow, general secretary of the ITUC, in her opening speech to the Conference, according to a press release issued by the trade union confederation.
Meanwhile, Guatemalan leader Rigoberta Menchu pointed out that impunity is rooted in the fact that the big capital does not allow any trade union freedom in the country, which agreed with the reasons expressed by the organizers for doing the conference.
The document circulated by the trade unions read “When we verify and analyze the situation faced by most trade unions in Guatemala, we realize there is still a policy of intolerance of the business sector to prevent the working class from exercising their right to free unionization and to collective bargaining. Murders, death threats and detentions have become customary. Trade union organizations are systemically discredited and excluded from all spaces of social dialogue”.
