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Guatemala: Defamation Trial Violates Right to Free Expression

Children’s Rights Advocate Should Not Face Prison Sentence for Public Statement

The trial tomorrow in Guatemala of children’s rights advocate Bruce Harris for criminal defamation violates the right to free expression, Human Rights Watch said. Human Rights Watch, which will send an observer to the trial, called on Guatemala to repeal provisions allowing for prison sentences for ordinary libel and slander cases.

Harris, the outspoken executive director of Casa Alianza, accused a group of Guatemalan lawyers of involvement in irregular adoptions. After he leveled the charges at a September 1997 press conference, one of the lawyers brought a criminal action against him.

“People should not face criminal charges for speaking out,” said Michael Bochenek, counsel to the Children’s Rights Division of Human Rights Watch. “The remedy for a false accusation should be normally limited to a correction, with financial compensation if necessary. And under no circumstances should somebody be held liable for a statement unless it is shown to be untrue.”

The Guatemalan penal code criminalizes speech that “dishonors, discredits, or disparages another person,” regardless of whether the statement is true. If convicted, Harris could be sentenced to up to five years in prison.

When Harris asked the Constitutional Court to dismiss the case against him as an infringement of his right to free expression, the court ruled in 1999 that the Guatemalan Constitution protects expression only by the media.

The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights has sharply criticized the use of criminal penalties for defamation. In 1995 the commission stated, “Considering the consequences of criminal sanctions and the inevitable chilling effect they have on freedom of expression, criminalization of speech can only apply in those exceptional circumstances when there is an obvious and direct threat of lawless violence.”

Human Rights Watch called on Guatemala to guarantee fully an individual’s right to freedom of expression, as protected by international treaties to which the country is a party. Guatemala should also eliminate criminal penalties for defamation in cases that do not involve direct and immediate incitement to acts of violence, discrimination or hostility, Human Rights Watch said.

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