Vad är problemet?

Sammanfattning: Vad är problemet? (What is the problem?) is about human right defenders protecting the land, territorial and environment and the situation about the ongoing criminalization in Guatemala. The purpose of this essay is to highlight and understand how the State of Guatemala is talking about the represented problem (criminalization) by studying the discourse about the implementation from presented policy proposal. Carol Bacchi’s “What’s the problem represented to be”, has been working as a tool to conduct this study. By defining the problem towards the current criminalization, it has also creates boundaries for further problem representations. Furthermore, this thesis is able to present the unequal power relations existing between the human right defenders and the state of Guatemala due to the postcolonial theory. The dichotomy about the other them” and “we creates an understanding about who is the existing norm and who is the varying subject. The result of this paper demonstrate the State of Guatemala’s discourse around the criminalization that is framed as security issue that ought to be solved by adding protection instruments. However, the norm and the social stigmatisation towards human right defenders are still present in the case of Guatemala.