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International accompaniers' use their physical presence as a form of non-violent intervention to deter political violence against local human rights defenders. Threatened members of Guatemala's civil society have relied on accompaniment as part of their security strategy since the early 1980s. Approximately one thousand volunteers from a dozen countries have accompanied in Guatemala.International accompaniment has been a key component of the effort to prosecute former military general and president Efraín Ríos Montt and other perpetrators of mass human rights violations in Guatemala. Victim witnesses and their legal counsel have included accompaniment as part of their protection strategy since 2000. Important questions have nonetheless been raised with respect to accompaniment's effectiveness as a tool for protection, and the possibility that accompaniment reinforces power inequalities. An exploration of these questions in the context of the Guatemala genocide trial may shed light on how accompaniment could be used in other countries where the prosecution of human rights atrocities depends on witness testimony.

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