Born in 1952, Helen Mack Chang is a business administrator who has dedicated a large portion of her life to socially-oriented, non-profit educational and housing projects in Guatemala. Her life suddenly changed in September 1990 when her sister, Myrna Mack, a social anthropologist who studied the problems of people displaced by the internal armed conflict in the country, was brutally assassinated by a military commando.

Certain that her sister's death was a political crime, Helen Mack insisted on investigating and seeking to bring to justice those responsible, even though impunity for this type of crime was - and continues to be - the norm in Guatemala. The case went before 12 different judges, many of whom were threatened or corrupted, but after overcoming numerous obstacles the soldier convicted of direct responsibility for the murder was sentenced to 30 years in prison. During the trial, the police investigator who provided the main evidence for the prosecution was himself assassinated.

The judicial process led to much harassment, persecution and many death threats for Helen Mack. Despite this she has persevered in seeking to bring to justice those who gave the orders for her sister's assassination. By early 1999, three high-ranking military officers - a General and two Colonels - stood accused on this count and were due to face a public trial. It is the first time in the history of the Guatemalan justice system that the intellectual authors of a crime will have been brought to court.

Mack's extraordinary courage in the fight against impunity has brought her wide renown. Her struggle has been supported by a wide spectrum of Guatemalan society and by thousands of citizens who are following in her footsteps in the search for justice. After receiving the Right Livelihood Award, she created the Myrna Mack Foundation to pursue research, analysis, training and other activities to defeat impunity and defend human rights. The Foundation provides training programmes for judges, lawyers, academics and community leaders.

According to Kerry Kennedy Cuomo, executive director of the Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Center for Human Rights in New York: "Helen has become a symbol of the struggle against impunity in Guatemala. Many Guatemalans now have the faith to challenge the impunity of perpetrators of political crimes and admire Helen for her brave and persistent efforts to promote justice and human rights."

In addition to presiding over the Myrna Mack Foundation and acting as the accuser in the trial against the military officers, Helen Mack is a member of the Commission for the Strengthening of Justice, which makes recommendations for reform of the judicial system including measures against impunity. She is also a promoter of the strategic planning projects "Guatemalan Vision" and "Visualising a Guatemala of the 21st century".