6 - Translating Scripts for Rule-of-Law Commissions

Summary

Translation of the script of a commission promoting the rule of law in a post-conflict state is the topic of this chapter. The UN, with the support of the USA, EU, and the Guatemalan human rights community, sought to establish a commission on human-rights crime that would be based on an emerging script for hybrid commissions and would work inside the domestic legal system to investigate and prosecute networks that committed human-rights crimes. After years of domestic contestation, a commission, the International Commission against Impunity in Guatemala (Comisión Internacional contra la Impunidad en Guatemala – CICIG), was established which embedded and reshaped the original script. The degree of autonomy envisaged for the commission was reduced and the focus was enlarged to take in organized crime as well as human rights.