Cultural Sensitivity : Judges in Indigenous Areas

Guatemala is a nation rich in cultural and geographic diversity: one half of the population lives in rural areas, and 60 percent of the population are indigenous, descendants primarily of the Mayan Indians.

Guatemala's judiciary faces enormous challenges as a result of this diversity.

Rural municipalities depend on just one percent of the country's lawyers.

The formal judiciary system and traditional indigenous dispute resolution mechanisms operate independently of one another.

The judicial system operates in Spanish, despite the fact that much of the indigenous population is monolingual in one of 21 languages.

It is no wonder then, that the majority of the population does not feel that they have equal access to justice.

The Cultural Sensitivity Training Project which this text documents consisted of workshops involving participants from both the indigenous population and the judiciary.

It was the result of a growing consensus that the state justice system should recognize and reflect the multiethnic, multilingual and multicultural character of Guatemalan society, and early response to the project has been overwhelmingly positive. Guatemala is not mainstreaming the programme at the national level and it is hoped that the training will contribute to the long-term goal of promoting equitable and accessible justice for all indigenous communities in Guatemala.