Statements & declarations
10-12-2010
Open Letter to the President of Guatemala
Your Excellency Alvaro Colom, President of the Republic of Guatemala
The International Rehabilitation Council for Torture Victims (IRCT) in partnership with la Oficina de Derechos Humanos del Arzobispado (ODHAG), condemns in the strongest possible terms the recent kidnapping and killing of sociologist, investigator of human rights violations and advisor of political issues to indigenous organizations in Huehuetenango, Emilia Quan, in Guatemala.
Emilia Quan was kidnapped on Tuesday 7/12 and was found dead on Wednesday 8/12 in Todos Santos Cuchumatanes, Huehuetenango. She had been working at Guatemala’s Centro de Documentación de la Frontera Centro Occidental (CEDFOG), and had previously worked at the “Oficina de Derechos Humanos del Arzobispado” investigating violence in Guatemala within the United Nations program for development while a fellow at the Latin American faculty of Social Sciences as well as at the Myrna Mack foundation.
We are calling for an urgent, thorough and impartial investigation in accordance with international standards to identify and hold accountable those responsible for her murder.
We also raise our concerns for Quan’s family, for the staff at the CEDFOG, for ODHAG and for the wider human rights movement. We therefore call on the authorities of Guatemala to do everything in their power to ensure their safety.
Brita Sydhoff Nery Rodenas
Secretary-General (IRCT) Director Ejecutivo (ODHAG)
