The Russian Constitution was adopted by a referendum on December 12, 1993. It was inspired by Western constitutional traditions and internationally recognised democratic and human rights values. The Constitution established three core features of the Russian constitutional order, all breaking with the Soviet past:

• • The Constitutional provisions on the foundations of the constitutional system, the protection of human rights, and constitutional review are unchangeable and cannot be amended, except via the summoning of a new Constitutional Assembly/national referendum (art. 135).

• • The Constitution established a strongly monist approach to international law, integrating it into the Russian legal order and giving priority to duly ratified international treaties and agreements to override conflicting domestic laws (art. 15(4)).

• • The Russian Constitutional Court enjoys exclusive competence to interpret the Constitution via binding precedents.

On December 29, 1996, the Guatemalan government and guerrillas of the Unidad Revoludonaria Nadonal Guatemalteca (Guatemalan National Revolutionary Unity) (URNG) signed an “Accord for a Firm and Lasting Peace,” formally ending Central America's longest and bloodiest internal armed conflict. According to estimates by Guatemalan human rights groups, brutal counterinsurgency campaigns by the army and civil defense groups took over 100,000 lives, resulted in the “disappearance” of some 40,000 others, and produced hundreds of thousands of refugees and internally displaced persons.