instrumental in the creation and institutionalization of the broader movement. Protestant churches,

involving a far smaller proportion of the population, have also been active in the organized defense of

civil and religious liberties since 1950 and are involved in today's broader rights movement.

48

The first human rights groups per se were created in the late 1970s. The  second phase  of the military

government had begun to reverse some of the more popular reform measures undertaken by the

preceding Velasco regime, had laid off thousands of public employees, and had applied an economic

structural adjustment program which brought serious deterioriation in living standards. From the start,

therefore, human rights groups in Peru have combined the ethical perspective of the Church and a

concern for social justice with conventional defense of human rights and civil liberties.

In the early 1980s, a number of other organizations were established to document and denounce the

atrocities taking place in the fight against the Shining Path terrorist movement in remote regions of the

highlands and particularly Ayacucho. Their efforts brought international attention to the  dirty war 

between the terrorists and the armed forces, which claimed more lives and caused greater damage to the

country under civilian rule than the previous twelve years of military dictatorship.

In 1985 the 

Coordinadora Nacional de Derechos Humanos

 (CNDDH) was formed as an umbrella

organization to coordinate disparate human rights activities. Today the 

Coordinadora

 involves virtually

all of Peru's main human rights organizations, which number more than 50 groups nationwide.  With

members ranging from small grassroots groups working in rural areas to Lima based NGOs staffed by

lawyers with international prestige and experience, the CNDDH is considered a model worldwide for its

breadth and unity, ability evolve its strategy over time, and effectiveness in curbing human rights abuses

and raising public consciousness.

As the most grave human rights violations associated with the  dirty war  subsided in the 1990s, the

human rights movement has been able to move effectively into defending democracy and documenting

and denouncing a broader range of human rights and civil liberties. As noted by WOLA Senior Associate

Coletta Youngers,  it has also made the leap from 

denuncia

 to 

propuesta

 (from denunciation to making

proposals), encouraging legislative and other reforms to protect human rights and democracy 

(Youngers, 2000, p. 5).

The Peruvian human rights movement is unique for several reasons, in addition to the outstanding unity

and leadership of the 

Coordinadora

. First, the nature of the  dirty war  in Peru led human rights groups

to take a strong stand against violence of any kind, and to document and denounce abuses by the

terrorists as well as the armed forces. This has provided them legitimacy with a population that suffered

considerably at the hands of the Shining Path and MRTA. Second, although they have often been the

targets of attacks by government, the military, and the terrorists, human rights groups have not suffered

the same level of repression as their counterparts in Central America in the 1980s or in Colombia. Their

relative freedom of association has enabled them to grow nationally, making the transition from

traditional denunciatory work to addressing a broader agenda of democracy and civil rights concerns.

48

 Historical references in this section are drawn from Joanna Drzewieniecki,  The Coordinadora Nacional de

Derechos Humanos: A Case Study,  a draft document prepared for the Civil Society and Democratic Governance in

the Andes and Southern Cone Project, Ford Foundation and PUCP, December 1999. The rest of this section draws

heavily from Coletta A. Youngers,  Human Rights and Politics in Peru Today,  a paper prepared for delivery at the

2000 Meeting of the Latin American Studies Association, March 18, 2000.

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