PJI lawyers Max Marcus and Kathy Roberts have accompanied Guatemalan prosecutors and analysts in the Internal Armed Conflict unit (CAI; for its initials in Spanish), along with relevant victim lawyers, in relation to specific cases involving war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide, including sexual violence crimes, since 2014.

PJI’s legal team worked intensively with the CAI and relevant victim lawyers from 2014 to 2016, providing ongoing technical support in relation to numerous cases involving conflict-related sexual violence, including the landmark Sepur Zarco case, which resulted in the conviction of two military officers for sexual slavery as a war crime.[1]

The PJI legal team returned to Guatemala in 2020 to support the victim lawyers and prosecutors preparing the trial indictment in Guatemala’s third genocide case (the “Maya Ixil Genocide Case”) and preparing for the attendant evidentiary hearing.[2]

This work has been carried out with the support of UN Women, Advocats Sans Frontiers, Justice Rapid Response, and the Open Society Justice Initiative.

Read more about the context of war crimes trials in Guatemala.

---

[1] See generally, The International Justice Monitor: Guatemala Trials before the national courts of Guatemala. See also Reactions to Historic Sepur Zarco Judgment, International Justice Monitor (2016).

[2] See. e.g., “No One Told This to Me. I Saw It with My Own Eyes.” Survivor Addresses Court As Evidentiary Phase of Maya Ixil Genocide Case Nears Conclusion, International Justice Monitor (2020).