More than 45,000 people were forcibly disappeared during Guatemala’s internal armed conflict – most of them Mayan Indigenous people. Each forced disappearance leaves an open wound, a life in perpetual suspense, and a silenced truth.
The Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACHR) put forth a ruling in November 2024 that holds the State of Guatemala accountable to the design, implementation, and enforcement of a national strategy, mechanism, or program to search for missing persons who were victims of forced disappearance, including those who disappeared in the context of the internal armed conflict. Such a plan would restore answers to the relatives of the disappeared, and be a step towards truth, justice, and memorialisation.
