noviembre 13/ First Inter-American Training Seminar PANEL TOPIC: Design and Implementation of a Civic Education Campaign in Coalition with Other Players Mirtala Concepción Góngora Zetina de Trujillo Magistrada Vocal II

noviembre 13/ Since the creation of the Supreme Electoral Tribunal in 1983, for 25 years the guardian of popular will, it has been necessary to strengthen and implement actions that contribute to the formation of a more informed citizenship in order to strengthen Guatemala’s democratic process, where civic education is a key factor for the construction of a participative democracy.

noviembre 13/ According to the curricular Committee of the Communitarian Civic Education Program of this Tribunal and USAID the definition of civic education is: “a permanent education and training process directed to all national sectors with the aim of strengthening identity, national pride, patriotism, roots and perspectives, promoting the responsible exercise of citizens’ duties and rights contributing to the election of representative governments all these in order to improve the living conditions and a sustainable development in the country”.

noviembre 13/ a ) Prepare the population to exercise its civic and politic rights and duties, and to fulfill its citizens’ duties. b ) Promote among the population the practice of positive attitudes towards democratic values. c) Promote civic development of the population for its effective participation towards the values that sustain the Guatemalan society. S ome of our objectives are:

noviembre 13/ T he experience of civic education campaigns in my country derives from the creation of the Electoral Supreme Tribunal as the highest electoral authority. In 1997 the Tribunal created the Unit for Training, Dissemination and Civic Electoral Education in response to the need of strengthening the training of the temporary electoral bodies’ members (JED, JEM, JRV). This launched an effort of civic electoral education oriented towards the dissemination of knowledge and practice of the Guatemalans’ rights and duties, which can be understood as the knowledge and practice of processes and procedures in the political-electoral sphere.

noviembre 13/ However, this effort has been oriented especially towards temporary bodies, neglecting the citizenship in general, only focusing on informing and guiding the vote during electoral times and strengthening the knowledge on the electoral process. This effort has not been concentrated in training nor in creating a sense of citizen responsibility so that people vote for the best projects and proposals, reading and trying to be informed on what the candidates want for the country and the community, taking the role of a responsible citizen building democracy. In this sense, the experience of the civic education campaigns have been coordinated and taught by UCADE, with the support of International Organizations and Non Government Organizations.

noviembre 13/ T he activities developed in the electoral civic education field were completed through consultancy and financial and technical support by International Organizations, such as: Organization of American States; United States Agency for International Development–USAID- Centre for Electoral Assessment and Promotion –CAPEL- Italian Cooperation –COOPI-; etc.

noviembre 13/ F urthermore, we have received the financial support of countries such as -Sweden, Holland, Japan, and the programs have been executed by UCADE. Because of budgetary and political situations, long term projects have not been developed and Is during the current administration that a process of design and implementation of civic education programs is executed for the first time.

noviembre 13/ S ince the last reform of the Electoral and Political Parties’ Law in 2004, the Tribunal is responsible for designing and executing electoral civic education programs (literal u); Art. 125). However, due to the electoral process of 2007 and the change of administration (2008), we are just starting to design our permanent civic electoral education programs, which are specially focused on young people, women, and indigenous population, because these are the groups with less participation rates in past electoral process.

noviembre 13/ T herefore, we don’t have experience working with civil society and the political parties. We consider important to mention that due to the idiosyncrasy of our people, any action in this field and in the political electoral sense, has been carried out exclusively by the Tribunal. Taking into account this idiosyncrasy, it is better to execute civic education programs in cooperation with society organizations, considering also that political parties in my country do not have a stable organization and a positive image in the citizens’ perception, there is a great institutional weakness within the political parties, which also lack popular support. This has produced a high rate of electoral volatility and a weak relationship with society.

noviembre 13/ O n the other hand, the majority of political parties are characterized by: organizational fragility, scarce presence throughout the national territory, lack of participation of the members in political parties’ inner processes, and lack of inner democracy. These elements are an obstacle for the execution of joint civic education campaigns.

noviembre 13/ C onsidering that impartiality has been one of the Tribunal’s pillars which has provided certainty and trust to the citizen in every electoral process, we consider that involvement with political parties, even though in civic education campaigns, must be cautious and respectful of the population’ will, and must follow the changes we want to generate in the political culture of Guatemala.

noviembre 13/ A s an electoral authority, we consider that the coalition with other players is becoming much more necessary. In this case, one of the greatest challenges that we face is promoting actions related to education, training and participation inside the political parties, in order to create institutional life and other elements that contribute to their democratization process.

noviembre 13/ T here challenges that we think we need to overcome are: First, the lack of trust among the electoral management body, the political parties and the civil society. This is to say, we need to brake the paradigm of political electoral actions oriented to political parties’ interests and establih a new paradigm as an example of full citizenship based on mutual respect and tolerance.

noviembre 13/ T he second challenge is to transform the concept of citizenship into a daily practice on the individual, social and institutional level, where political parties have not only a legal mandate but a moral and ethical one regarding the political civil education, in order to share knowledge.

noviembre 13/ T he third challenge is to deconstruct the collective image that this electoral management body only functions during the electoral process. A permanent civic political education will help to maintain the process of consolidation and identification of the main authority with society regarding civic and political electoral matters.

noviembre 13/ T heoretically, we are facing the challenge to define the impact of civic and electoral education from the perspective of the electoral body. If its restrictive only towards the electoral process and its activities or if its extensive to other topics as the conformation of the State, the values of the democratic system, and the citizenships’ role vis a vis the State and the political parties. It can be concluded that it is important to define this impact, starting from the origins of the State and Democracy, and the current role of institutions in the 21 st Century.

noviembre 13/ Presently, the Tribunal has concentrated its efforts mainly to work with civil society, with the purpose of strengthening and promoting positive actions including dialogue, experiences and proposals oriented to the construction of full citizenship. In this case, special efforts have been made regarding women, by joining forces with the organization named Civic Political Convergence of Women, with whom we are going to develop the First National Meeting on Women and Electoral Politics, in order to promote women’s participation in the electoral processes and to evaluate the last 20 years regarding the promotion women and the recognition of their citizenship. During this meeting other issues are going to be addressed: the public perception on women’s political participation, women’s civic electoral education, the evaluation of women’s participation in the electoral process, among others.

noviembre 13/ T echnical, human and financial efforts have joined the Italian Cooperation in order to carry out the project “Strengthening the participation of Women, Young People and Indigenous People in the Processes of Democratic Representation and Defense of Civil Rights ”, from 2009 to 2012 in 15 municipalities. The objective of the project is to promote a democratic culture, the education on rights and civil responsibilities. The results have been satisfactory, to the degree that we have been organizing in other events in order to awaken civic-political interest of the citizens.

noviembre 13/ A s an immediate goal: We are presenting a draft law that includes the creation of the Civic and Political Electoral Training Institute, under the direction of the Supreme Electoral Tribunal, and we are also studying the possibility of implementing the proposal of the Program for the Formation of Full Citizenship, which was presented to the Tribunal by a coalition of political parties, civil society and State’s Institutions. Additionally the Congress of the Republic has presented a draft law to create the Multiparty Institute, integrated by the General Secretaries of all the political parties and the Magistrates of the Tribunal, as a body that pursues Training and Civic Electoral Formation. This institute will substitute the functions of the Multiparty Institute of Political Studies which was created by the Political Parties Forum, that has not been able to fulfill its functions due to the lack of consensus.

noviembre 13/ As a Guatemalan and as a women committed with my country’s democracy I want to say that I will be in my best disposition to support any effort that lids to a significant change for the exercise of the full citizenship. Thank You!