Final report : evaluation of Harvard Law School program Guatemala

training. The Harvard Law School is the implementing agency. External evaluation covers the period 7/87-9/89. The project is meeting objectives and having a positive impact on the Guatemalan criminal justice system. To date, 14 Guatemalan judges and prosecutors have attended five fellowship programs at Harvard. In turn, these participants have held in-country seminars for nearly 350 Guatemalans. Although regular TA meetings have been terminated, there have been numerous individual meetings between Harvard staff and key Guatemala officials as well as short-term research visits to Guatemala. The project has benefited in particular from a close and fruitful working relationship between Harvard and the President of the Supreme Court. The establishment of pilot courts to try out reforms and innovations has become the major project focus. Such courts are operating in Guatemala City and the rural town of Totonicapan and are proposed to begin in two other areas. Although the effort is viewed favorably by participants, it faces several problems: prosecutorial staff of the Ministerio Publico became involved only recently in Guatemala City and are not yet involved in rural areas; the promised cooperation of the national police is not yet effective; not all promised equipment has been supplied nor the remodeling of court facilities completed; and no concrete plan exists for improving the participation of public defense in the activity. Other activities have not achieved the degree of concreteness of the pilot courts. A special prosecution unit created in the Ministerio Publico has been abandoned due to opposition from the Attorney General. Research and consultations have not produced concrete proposals for improving public defense, protecting witnesses, increasing the willingness of the public to use and participate in the justice system, or dealing with corruption of judicial officials. The project has also failed to create a capacity within the court system to analyze problems and propose solutions and to bring about the participation of the Guatemalan Bar Association or the faculties of law in the project. In addition, Harvard's staff continues to be concentrated in Cambridge, despite increasing project focus on activities in Guatemala.