HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS RESULTING FROM THE ALTERNATIVE MEASURES PROHIBITION

Abstract

In Guatemala, pre-trial detention is a personal coercion which restricts the liberty right and is intended to ensure the accused presence in the proceedings instituted against him, However, in order to be applied, the judge must make a reasonable assessment of whether there is any other less injurious measure that could replace the imposition of pre-trial detention; the lack of human rights weighting of the accused would entail a series of conventionally valuable rights violations, to this end, it is of the utmost importance to stress that accused persons enjoy a display of human rights which States, through the courts, are obliged to guarantee, otherwise, it would entail a series of conventionally valuable rights violations, despite this, Guatemala adds and amends article 264 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, which lists a range of offences in which the granting of any other legally recognized alternative measure is strictly prohibited, Pre-trial detention is the only measure applicable to those accused of committing such offences; resulting in the human rights violation such as the right to the presumption of innocence, the pro-liberties principle and the principle of proportionality, which are guarantees closely linked to pre-trial detention as a measure of last resort.