Accord Guatemala project

The signing of peace agreements in 1996 ended 36 years of civil war between the Guatemalan government and the Marxist rebel army, Guatemalan National Revolutionary Unit (Unidad Revolucionaria Nacional Guatemalteca - URNG). Underpinning this brutal conflict were deep-seated historical grievances about unfair land distribution, the marginalization of indigenous people, tight controls on political organization 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.

Negotiating rights: the Guatemalan peace process (Accord issue 2, 1997) analyses the degree to which these concerns became marginalized 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.

"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

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