The International Consulting and Litigation Center(CECOLI) is pleased to inform that the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) this week published the friendly settlement agreement between Zury Ríos Sosa and the State of Guatemala (see here).

The facts of the case are related to the unjustified limitation of the political rights of Zury Ríos as a presidential candidate when she was prevented from registering as a candidate. The argument of the authorities responded to constitutional provisions imposing the impossibility of aspiring to the presidency to the relatives of persons who participated in the coup d’état in Guatemala. It should be noted that Zury Ríos Sosa has been the only person who has been imposed this sanction, despite the fact that the history of that country shows that men in the same condition as Zury Ríos Sosa were able to aspire as candidates to that position.

This friendly settlement agreement, in whose process CECOLI legally represented the victims, represents a historic precedent in the framework of the impossibility of transcendence of sentences enshrined in Article 5 of the American Convention on Human Rights and the political participation of women in Guatemala. In the friendly settlement agreement approved by the IACHR, the State committed to recognize its international responsibility, to carry out awareness campaigns to promote equality in the political participation of women in the political life of the State of Guatemala, among others.