E/CN.4/2005/18/Add.2 page 6 4. The Special Rapporteur would like to thank the Government of Guatemala for its cooperation and for the willingness of its representatives to make themselves available. He is also grateful to the representatives of the Presidential Human Rights Commission and the Presidential Commission on Discrimination and Racism against Indigenous Peoples for the very useful information they gave him. He would like to express his gratitude to Ms. Birgit Gerstenberg, the head of the field office of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights in Guatemala, and to her team for their excellent work in organizing and coordinating his visit; to Mr. Juan Pablo Corlazzoli, the United Nations resident coordinator in Guatemala, for logistical support and his substantial contribution to the success of the mission, and particularly for organizing a meeting with the United Nations country team in Guatemala; and to Mr. Tom Koenig, the representative of the Secretary-General and head of MINUGUA, for the information he supplied and for the logistical support of MINUGUA. Lastly, he would like to thank the regional officials he met in Quezaltenango and Livingston, as well as the representatives of civil society he talked to, including the representatives of the indigenous and Garifuna communities. I. GENERAL OVERVIEW A. Ethnic and demographic situation 5. Guatemala covers an area of 180,889 km2. A country of social contrasts and cultural diversity, it has a population of 11,237,196 inhabitants,2 of whom 50 per cent are female. Four groups give the country its ethnic and racial diversity: the Maya, Ladinos, Garifuna/Garinagu3 and Xinca. The Maya and Ladinos form the largest groups. Some 41 per cent of the population identifies itself as indigenous, and 59 per cent as non-indigenous: 39.3 per cent is of Mayan origin (4,411,964) and 0.2 per cent of Xinca or Garifuna origin (16,214 and 5,040 respectively). B. Political and social context 6. It should be pointed out that it is little more that eight years since peace was established in Guatemala, following the signature on 29 December 1996 of the peace agreements between the Government and the insurgents - the Unidad Revolucionaria Nacional Guatemalteca (URNG) - which put an end to the conflict that had been affecting the country since 1960. Guatemala is thus engaged in a process of profound political change aimed at ensuring the effective participation of all parts of the nation and thus giving the provisions of the peace agreements a chance to become firmly established. The consolidation of democracy and reconciliation in preparation for the establishment of the rule of law remains one of the challenges in this process. The years of conflict have left Guatemalan society with a legacy of resentment and a culture of violence that give rise to injustice and to authoritarian, antisocial and predatory behaviour. Observers agree that the human rights situation has worsened, particularly because of the activities of the illegal and violent groups that continue to kidnap and murder people. As highlighted in several reports by MINUGUA, the denial of the right to justice is one of the most common human rights violations.4 Moreover, the new national civil police force sometimes acts outside the law in an excessively violent manner.