Young NIMD

Up till now, Young NIMD has hosted two fact-finding missions in Guatemala as well as an exchange visit of a Guatemalan delegation in the Netherlands. The first fact-finding mission was in April 2006, the second in October 2006, both were short one-week missions that aimed to gain an understanding of the role of Guatemalan youth in politics and within their political parties. This has been attained through meetings with Guatemalan youth, cooperation in a seminar, meetings with involved NGOs and UNDP, and talks with members of the Guatemalan youth platform el Foro (within the context of the political party forum) and political parties.

The main goal of the second Young NIMD mission to Guatemala was to identify the areas in which Young NIMD could have a future role. In order to accomplish this, three kind of activities have been undertaken. Firstly, a Dutch delegation has participated in a youth seminar on political youth participation. This gave not only the opportunity to experience a youth capacity-building activity in a Guatemalan context, but also facilitated the possibility to exchange experiences with the participation in politics of Guatemalan youngsters. Secondly, a meeting has been organized twice with the youth from the forum. This resulted in a discussion on possible future projects, as well as the interchange of experiences. Thirdly, a study has been conducted on the state of development of political parties, including its formal structures, resource possibilities, and the level of participation of minorities. Together, these three kind of activities have resulted in a report, including recommendations on future projects.

In 2007, a mission of three delegates from the Guatemalan youth forum visited the Netherlands for a week to learn more about political youth organization and participation. The programme included a training on debating skills, and introduction of political youth participation in the Netherlands, a visit to the Parliament, a discussion with NIMD staff, a visit to the IPP on the voting indicator, and a visit to the General Assembly of Dutch political youth organization the Young Democrats. After this successful week, a number of possibilities for future cooperation have been identified, including: (1) further development of debating skills in Guatemala, (2) training on promotion and campaign by youth, (3) the development of a youth law, (4) sharing of the democratic model of the Netherlands, and (5) further learning on the voting indicator tool. Further development of the programme in Guatemala is planned for 2008.

The political context
Guatemala has a violent political history. After a Civil War of 36 years, a peace treaty was signed in 1996. A national reforendum in 1999 – with a participation of only 18 percent of registered voters – voted down constitutional reforms that were meant to regulate the rights of indigenous people, to add checks and balances to the executive office, retool the national security apparatus, and introduce a fiscal reform, meaning higher taxes essential for financing the implementations of the Peace Accords. In the same year presidential elections were won by Alfonso Portillo of the conservative Frente Republicano Guatemalteco (FRG). Portillo was seen as the front man of General Efraín Ríos Montt, responsible for the scorched-earth terror campaign in the 1980s. Since the elections of 2003 up to 2007 President Oscar Berger from the Gran Alianza Nacional (GANA) was the Head of State as well as the Head of Government. As from the elections of 2007, Álvaro Colom of the Unidad Nacional de la Esperanza (UNE) is president and his party the largest in Parliament. There is a large variety of political parties in Guatemala, some large ones such as the conservative FRG, and the more left-wing UNE with a social democratic ideology, the Partido Patriota and GANA. Besides these bigger parties, some smaller parties include the right-wing Partido de Avanzada Nacional (PAN), the Encuentro por Guatemala, and Partido Unionista. The political spectrum shows, however, a large fluidity, meaning that since the elections of 2004 some major shifts have occurred in the political landscape.

On the social situation in Guatemala, not that many positive announcements have been made by international orgnizations. The United Nations’ Human Development Index (2002), for instance, ranked Guatemala 120th of the world. Poverty, illiteracy, lack of education, and poor medical facilities are widely spread, especially in the rural areas were the Maya population is concentrated. Many other international organizations have criticized the human rights situation in Guatemala, including the European Parliament and the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. The social and political exclusion of indigenous people remains an important issue until now. The same holds for the situation of women and youth. These three groups remain marginalized, although they consist of the majority of Guatemalan population. Although many political parties claim to attach high importance to the inclusion of these groups, the exclusion remains highly present.