Luz Méndez of Guatemala

Narrative	Film
"A Just Path, A Just Peace" By Peace Writer Sarah Cross	"Leading the Way to Peace" Produced by Sun & Moon Vision Productions

Biography

Luz Méndez is president of the Advisory Board of Unión Nacional de Mujeres Guatemaltecas, or the National Union of Guatemalan Women (UNAMG), which works for gender equality, social justice and peacebuilding. She participated in the table of peace negotiations as part of the Guatemalan National Revolutionary Unity’s delegation, where she dedicated special attention to the incorporation of gender equality commitments in the accords.

After the end of the war, she was a member of the National Council for the Implementation of the Peace Accords, elected by the women’s organizations. She was also the coordinator of the Women Agents for Change Consortium, an alliance of women’s and human rights organizations working for gender justice for women survivors of sexual violence during the armed conflict.

In the international sphere, Méndez was a member of the Gender Experts' Team to the Burundi Peace Talks, convened by UNIFEM. She was a member of the Advisory Group for the Independent Experts’ Assessment on Women, War and Peace, led by Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and Elizabeth Rehn. She was also a speaker at the first meeting that the U.N. Security Council held with women’s organizations leading up to the passage of resolution 1325 on women, peace and security.

Méndez was a Woman PeaceMaker in 2004.

Updated July 2012