Iduvina Hernández

Iduvina Hernández (born 1955) is a Guatemalan journalist and internationally-known human rights activist. Her work has involved analyzing democracy and state security. Specifically, her research has focused on the violence which occurred during the Guatemalan Civil War and rebuilding the structures to support the country's democracy. In her childhood, her father was threatened by the National Civil Police and her husband was killed in 1984. She interrupted her education after his murder and moved to Mexico, living in exile there and working as a journalist until 1989. After her return to Guatemala, Hernández wrote articles focused on the war and counterinsurgency for ''Crónica'' magazine.

When the Peace Accords were accepted in 1996, Hernández worked with the Historical Clarification Commission and then with the Myrna Mack Foundation, hoping to assist families in gaining information to prosecute human rights violations which occurred during the war. In 2000, she co-founded an NGO, Seguridad em Democracia (SEDEM, Security in Democracy), with the goals of helping victims of the war and reestablishing processes which would facilitate democracy and reform in Guatemala. Between 2003 and 2007, she worked on projects to protect and digitize the archival records of the Estado Mayor Presidencial (EMP, Presidential General Staff) and the National Police Archives. Because she believed the public had a right to access the records, she was among the activists who successfully pressed for the passage of the 2008 Ley de Libre Acceso a la Información Pública (Law of Free Access to Public Information).

Hernández has written numerous reports analyzing the war and the processes necessary re-establish systems which offer both transparency and provide for state security within a democratic framework. She has also conducted training on both national and an international level for the implementation of processes to ensure that security services are balanced. Her work has resulted in numerous threats against her safety and intervention from international human rights organizations. Provided by Wikipedia