35
98.
In the same sense, the expert Helen Mack, stated that:
Even though it is true that Centers for the Administration of Justice were opened in
three different regions, since there aren’t roads available many times this becomes
ineffective, for example, moving from one town to another by foot takes more than six
hours […], that on one hand, and on the other hand we can mention the economic cost
this implies because if you go by foot, you have to miss several days of work in order to
go to the justice system and if you are going to travel by vehicle it is more difficult
because there are not enough roads to be able to do so. Of course there are currently a
few more, but the cost of moving is very expensive. There was also a program for
translators in justice matters, there was a program in which 300 translators were
trained, and of these 300 translators the Supreme Court of Justice only hired 60, there
was a follow-up of these 60 translators and it was established that many of them did not
speak all the languages of the indigenous groups and some of them do not even speak
one indigenous language, nor are they in the regions where they should be, thus these
translators are not accessible to the indigenous people.
99.
The Court warns that access to justice and the special protection that must be
granted to indigenous communities is regulated in the Constitution of the State of
Guatemala.106 However, this Tribunal has established that “the legislation itself is not
enough to guarantee full effectiveness of the rights protected by the American
Convention, instead it entails the need of a governmental behavior that ensures the
existence, in reality, of an effective guarantee of the free and full exercise of human
rights.”107
100. This Tribunal considers that in order to guarantee the victims’ right to a fair
trial –as members of the Maya indigenous community- and that the investigation of
the facts of the case under study be performed with due diligence, without obstacles
or discrimination, the State must ensure that they understand and are understood in
the legal proceedings started, thus offering them interpreters or other effective
means for said purpose. Similarly, the State shall guarantee, as far as possible, that
the victims of the present case do not have to make excessive or exaggerated efforts
to access the centers for the administration of justice in charge of the investigation
of the present case. Without detriment to the aforementioned, the Court considers it
necessary to order the State to pay an amount for future expenses, as a way of
guaranteeing that the victims can act as plaintiffs in the criminal proceedings started
before the ordinary justice system (infra para. 128).
106
The Constitution of Guatemala establishes that:
Article 29.- Free access to the courts and dependencies of the State. All persons shall
have free access to the State’s courts, dependencies, and offices, in order to exercise
their actions and assert their rights pursuant with the law. […]
Article 58.- Cultural Identity. The right of persons and communities to their cultural
identity according to the values, language, and customs is acknowledged.
Article 66.- Protection to ethnical groups. Guatemala is formed by different ethnical
groups among which there are indigenous groups of Mayan descent. The State
acknowledges, respects, and promotes their life style, customs, traditions, forms of
social organization, the use of the indigenous clothing in men and women, languages,
and dialects.
107
Cfr. Case of the Pueblo Bello Massacre v. Colombia, supra note 1, para. 142; and Case of the
Sawhoyamaxa Indigenous Community v. Paraguay, supra note 104, para. 167.
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