The Admission of State Responsibility

Given the lack of progress in the domestic case, in early March 2000 Helen Mack and Human Rights First requested that the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights begin the process of elevating the case to the binding jurisdiction of the Costa Rica -based Inter-American Court of Human Rights. Shortly thereafter, at a joint press conference held with the Commission on March 7, 2000 in Washington, D.C., the Government acknowledged that the State bears material and intellectual responsibility in the Mack case and a host of other human rights cases from the last decade. This unprecedented admission, made by Guatemala's recently-inaugurated Portillo administration, reversed a long-standing government posture of ignoring or denying formal responsibility for the atrocities committed during Guatemala's civil war. As well, the Guatemalan government agreed to a specific timetable for progress in the Mack case domestic proceedings. However, the recognition of the wrong and the promise of progress has yet to lead to significant steps forward in the domestic proceedings, which remain stalled.