Guatemala Accompaniment Project

What is NISGUA? The Network in Solidarity with the People of Guatemala (NISGUA) is an activist organization that stands with Guatemalan social movements in their struggle for justice, human rights, and self-determination. NISGUA provides human rights monitoring for grassroots movements; creates people-to-people connections for groups in the U.S. and Guatemala fighting for social and environmental justice; and educates the U.S. public about Guatemala.

The Guatemala Accompaniment Project (GAP) of the Network in Solidarity with the People of Guatemala (NISGUA) trains and places qualified candidates as human rights accompaniers. Accompaniers work as human rights observers, providing an international presence to Guatemalans organizing in defense of their rights in a variety of contexts, including precedent-setting legal cases and local defense of life and territory in the face of mega-projects and extractive industries. Accompaniment is one tool used in response to the threats, harassment, and violence faced by survivors of Guatemala's 36-year long civil war, grassroots organizations working for justice, and indigenous communities combating destructive mega-development projects on their land.

What do human rights accompaniers do? Accompaniers work as human rights observers, providing an international presence to Guatemalans organizing in defense of their rights in a variety of contexts, including precedent-setting genocide cases and local opposition to mega-projects. Accompaniers work in pairs, travel between the capital and an assigned region, share in rural life, observe and report on conditions, monitor the human rights situation and provide a link to the international community. NISGUA trains volunteers and matches them with groups in the U.S. that support the accompanier's stay, both financially and personally.