6 de November de 2025 Press Release

Panel of independent experts to observe the election of Guatemala’s attorney general and Constitutional Court

Guatemala City, nov 6, 2025. In 2026, Guatemala will undergo two decisive processes for the future of justice: the selection of the Attorney General and the appointment of permanent and alternate judges to the Constitutional Court (CC), the highest court responsible for ensuring the supremacy of the Constitution.

These processes will define the course of the rule of law and citizens’ trust in justice. Therefore, and with the aim of strengthening transparency, legitimacy, and adherence to international standards in these
processes, the undersigned international organizations have promoted the formation of a new Panel of Independent Experts (Panel de Personas Expertas Independientes – PEI-GT). The PEI-GT is an independent civil society observation initiative that continues the work carried out by the Panel formed in 2024, which observed the selection process for judges of the Supreme Court of Justice and the Courts of Appeals in a technical and autonomous manner. The PEI-GT is now expanding its scope to observe the processes regarding the Attorney General’s Office and the Constitutional Court.

The panel will observe all stages of both processes, from the call for applications to the final appointment, assessing the institutions’ commitment to national regulations and international human rights standards. Based on this observation, it will generate public information, promote informed citizen participation, and issue recommendations to the competent national bodies, contributing to decisions being made with transparency and objectivity.

The panel is made up of Ana Lorena Delgadillo Pérez (Mexico), lawyer and human rights defender, founder and former director of the Foundation for Justive and the Democratic Rule of Law (Fundación
para la Justicia y el Estado Democrático de Derecho – FJEDD). With over twenty years of experience, she has worked on issues of forced disappearances, femicides, judicial autonomy, and access to justice for migrants.

In this new chapter, José Ugaz (Peru) joins the team. He’s a lawyer and academic specializing in criminal law, known for his fight against corruption and defense of the rule of law. He was an ad hoc rosecutor in the trial against former president Alberto Fujimori and has chaired Transparency International and Proética (Transparencia Internacional y Proética). In 2023, he received the International Anti-corruption Excellence Award for his outstanding career. He is a member of the Ethics Tribunal of the Peruvian Press Council and the author of several works on corruption and justice.

Jaime Arellano (Chile), a lawyer and academic with extensive experience in judicial management and policy, serves as executive secretary of the PEI-GT. He was Chile’s deputy minister of justice, directed the OAS’s Justice Studies Center of the Americas (Centro de Estudios de Justicia de las Américas – CEJA), and is currently executive secretary of several international observation missions for justice processes in Mexico, Honduras, Ecuador, and Peru.

The PEI-GT will make its first visit to Guatemala from November 11th to the 14th and will conduct other visits to document and hold meetings with authorities, the press, civil society organizations, the diplomatic community, and citizens. It will also issue public statements and reports with findings and specific recommendations to strengthen objectivity, transparency, and impartiality in these election
processes.

panelaltascortesgt.org/
@pei_guatemala

Organizations that support this statement

Abogados sin fronteras Canadá (ASFC Canadá)

American Jewish World Service (AJWS)

Be Just

Centro por la Justicia y el Derecho Internacional (CEJIL)

CIVICUS, Alianza Global

Comisión Internacional de Juristas (CIJ)

Fundación para el Debido Proceso (DPLF)

Fundación para la Justicia y el Estado Democrático de Derecho (FJEDD)

Fundación Luis von Ahn

Guatemala Human Rights Commission/USA

Impunity Watch

Instituto de Estudios Comparados en Ciencias Penales de Argentina (INECIP)

Latin America Working Group (LAWG)

Oficina en Washington para Asuntos Latinoamericanos (WOLA)

Plataforma Internacional contra la Impunidad

Programa ACTuando Juntas Jotay

Protección Internacional Mesoamérica

RFK Human Rights