The MINUGUA transition process: ensuring progress on Guatemala's road to peace.

With the signing in December 1996 of the Peace Accords, Guatemala embarked on the path of social and political transformation after 36 years of internal conflict.

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The United Nations Verification Mission in Guatemala (MINUGUA) was a central player in this Central American nation's peace-building efforts during the last ten years, verifying and supporting the implementation of the agreements signed between the Government and insurgent organizations. During this period, the country has taken important strides forward. But even with the advances in the implementation of the peace accords, which constitute a comprehensive national agenda to guide policy for democratization, development and social justice, it is clear that the peace process will continue to require sustained efforts through the coming years, after the formal closing of MINUGUA on 15 November 2004.

Several years before its mandate would end, the Mission began to analyze the possible effects of its withdrawal from Guatemala and address what could be done during its final years, to lessen the potential impact and to contribute to the long-term consolidation of the peace process. To tackle these challenges, MINUGUA established in 2002 a special Transition Unit, headed by a senior officer reporting directly to the Special Representative of the Secretary-General. This Unit has provided strategic guidance and coordinated key elements of a "transition" programme for the Mission. The transition strategy grew out of the conviction that the long-term success of the Guatemalan peace process depended on Guatemalan institutions, both State and civil society, and their commitment to the peace accords. It has emphasized national capacity-building and sharing the Mission's accumulated experience and know-how with these institutions and organizations that can "make a difference" for peace-building in the future.

The transition programme involved the entire Mission, both at headquarters and in field offices. It required important political and operational changes in at least three main aspects. First, it meant that MINUGUA progressively lower its own political profile and gradually scale back its good offices role, while encouraging Guatemalans to take an increasingly stronger lead in publicly demanding compliance with the peace accords and in resolving conflicts. In addition, it required that staff change their way of thinking about the Mission's work, sharply redefine priorities and concentrate their efforts on strengthening the skills of local and national counterparts. Finally, decentralization was key, as field offices were given much wider discretionary authority to define their specific priorities and adapt the general strategy to meet the needs in each particular local context.

In the push to strengthen national capacities, MINUGUA emphasized the efforts of its own substantive staff, rather than relying on the usual mechanism of trust fund-supported technical assistance projects that use outside consultants. Working together with national counterparts, Mission staff identified the technical resources that would be most important and developed the appropriate training and reference materials, producing book-length resource materials that draw heavily on the 4,500 cases of human rights violations investigated by the Mission and on its many situational studies regarding peace accords issues. Digitalized document collections on human rights, justice sector reform, land issues and the history of the peace process are being developed and distributed. In addition, MINUGUA has worked closely with Guatemala's National University to create a specialized Peace Library, built around core documentary and reference materials provided by the Mission.

Major emphasis was also given to strengthening the Human Rights Ombudsman's Office (PDH), especially in field offices. In 2003, MINUGUA carried out an intensive capacity-building programme for PDH, which included dozens of decentralized training workshops given by Mission staff, using the materials on human rights monitoring, conflict analysis and the content and status of the peace accords. MINUGUA worked with PDH in practical terms, sharing databases and methodologies, discussing cases and conducting joint verifications. In addition, field offices facilitated an increased PDH role in a number of ongoing participatory fora that the Mission fostered over the years to address human rights, justice and other peace-building problems at the local level.

MINUGUA also provided training and in-depth information to a variety of civil society organizations, focusing on issues related to the peace accords, assisting and advising them on matters ranging from indigenous peoples' rights to the formulation of local development agendas, to citizen oversight techniques and improving advocacy strategies. Specifically on human rights issues, the Mission took advantage of the materials developed for PDH and provided training for dozens of local organizations, focussing on the smaller ones, initially in regions often ignored by larger institutions. As part of this effort, the Mission also developed a user-friendly database system for managing human rights denunciations, with more than forty local organizations throughout the country, to provide a basic tool for a growing civil society network of human rights defenders.

In late 2003, MINUGUA created a special on-the-job training programme to incorporate into the Mission's substantive work in its final year, sixty young Guatemalan professionals as United Nations volunteers. These "National Transition Volunteers" are doing work previously carried out by international staff. The Mission made a concerted effort to identify indigenous and women candidates from all over the country who would go back to their communities and parent institutions, and take with them the Mission's work methods and know-how. MINUGUA has structured internships for these volunteers in State and civil society institutions for the final months of the project, with the possibility in a number of instances of conversion to long-term appointments.

Support from the donor community was very important throughout the transition process. Several countries that had provided funds to the MINUGUA Trust Fund gave permission to use unspent balances from earlier donations to support the Transition Volunteer Programme, as well as some other initiatives, such as the creation of the Peace Library and the production of digitalized reference collections. This allowed the Mission to carry out these very important components of the transition plan without having to seek additional voluntary contributions from Member States in its final period.

The transition strategy also included efforts to assure continued United Nations and other international cooperation on key issues, such as human rights and indigenous peoples' rights, in particular through the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. MINUGUA provided its staff with multiple briefings on all relevant aspects of its work, sharing documentation and contact information, especially at the field level. In addition, the Mission participated in the elaboration of a common country assessment and the United Nations Development Assistance Framework to ensure continued focus on peace accord objectives. It worked closely with the United Nations Development Programme and other UN specialized agencies, funds and programmes in Guatemala to develop indicators for use in future reporting on pending socio-economic aspects of the accords. Finally, throughout the transition, MINUGUA worked closely with the United Nations system to assure continuity on key technical assistance projects, especially on land issues, citizen participation, public security and the justice sector.

MINUGUA made the transition the centre of its work during its final two years. With this early focus on defining a strategy and the concerted involvement of all concerned in the implementation process, the Mission hopes that its efforts will bear fruit for Guatemala long after it has closed.

Tom Koenigs is Special Representative of the Secretary-General and Head of Mission of MINUGUA. From 1999 to 2002, he worked as Deputy Special Representative responsible for civil administration in the United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo. Prior to that, he held a number of political and administrative positions in Germany.

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Marcie Mersky is Chief of the Transition Unit at MINUGUA. She has also worked with the UN Office for Project Services in a range of peace-building activities and with the Historical Clarification Commission, Guatemala's Truth Commission, as well as a number of non-governmental organizations involved in human rights and peace issues.

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