Laureate Lawyers for Lawyers Award laureate 2023
After 36 years of internal warfare, Guatemala struggled for democracy and installed an International Commission against Impunity (CICIG). From 2011 to 2019, a period known globally for unprecedented accountability for corruption in Guatemala, Claudia González Orellana was a prosecutor with the CICIG. CICIG successfully prosecuted high level government officials, Supreme Court and Congress members, and other members of organized crime. This work threatened the interests of a corrupt network, the so-called ‘Pacto de corruptos’ a group of economic, military and political elites. In September 2019 CICIG closed down and the former team of lawyers faced several attacks.
As a prosecutor with CICIG Claudia González Orellana pursued accountability for corruption and human rights abuses. She and her family now face extremely high risks of arrest or physical harm for the work she did as a CICIG prosecutor and now as a superb, persistent and public-facing defense attorney for those being targeted. She is now subject to online harassment and threatening rhetoric, verbal threats indicating she may be criminally prosecuted herself, and physical acts of intimidation outside her home. Despite these pressures, Ms González has remained in Guatemala and continues to handle dozens of defense cases, representing individuals who are being prosecuted for their involvement in cases relating to the fight against corruption. For example, she is the lead defense attorney for Virginia Laparra, who has been arbitrarily imprisoned in retaliation for her work as a prosecutor and who has been designated as a prisoner of conscience by Amnesty International.
Guatemalan lawyer Claudia González Orellana laureate Lawyers for Lawyers Award 2023 – Lawyers for Lawyers
Laureate Lawyers for Lawyers Award laureate 2023
After 36 years of internal warfare, Guatemala struggled for democracy and installed an International Commission against Impunity (CICIG). From 2011 to 2019, a period known globally for unprecedented accountability for corruption in Guatemala, Claudia González Orellana was a prosecutor with the CICIG. CICIG successfully prosecuted high level government officials, Supreme Court and Congress members, and other members of organized crime. This work threatened the interests of a corrupt network, the so-called ‘Pacto de corruptos’ a group of economic, military and political elites. In September 2019 CICIG closed down and the former team of lawyers faced several attacks.
As a prosecutor with CICIG Claudia González Orellana pursued accountability for corruption and human rights abuses. She and her family now face extremely high risks of arrest or physical harm for the work she did as a CICIG prosecutor and now as a superb, persistent and public-facing defense attorney for those being targeted. She is now subject to online harassment and threatening rhetoric, verbal threats indicating she may be criminally prosecuted herself, and physical acts of intimidation outside her home. Despite these pressures, Ms González has remained in Guatemala and continues to handle dozens of defense cases, representing individuals who are being prosecuted for their involvement in cases relating to the fight against corruption. For example, she is the lead defense attorney for Virginia Laparra, who has been arbitrarily imprisoned in retaliation for her work as a prosecutor and who has been designated as a prisoner of conscience by Amnesty International.
Guatemalan lawyer Claudia González Orellana laureate Lawyers for Lawyers Award 2023 – Lawyers for Lawyers
