Whether as litigants, witnesses or affected parties, people who do not speak or read the official language of a country have difficulty accessing the legal system. In collaboration with Dr. Lesbia Marleny Sis Chén, a public defender with the Instituto de la Defensa Pública Penal of Guatemala, and Cornell law school students, Beth Lyon is developing a case study to compare the language access policies for indigenous minorities in Guatemala and for immigrants United States, within the framework of international human rights laws. This scholarship will distill the policies developed within the two legal systems and produce actionable knowledge about best practices for language access for language minorities in the two countries.