It has assisted Guatemalans seeking political asylum in other countries, for instance by introducing resolutions to the US Congress, and supporting cases before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.
GHRC was founded in 1982 by the American nun, Alice Zachmann, SSND (School Sisters of Notre Dame), in response to having witnessed the human rights abuses taking place in the country in the late 1970s during the Guatemalan Civil War (1960–1996).
To counteract the lack of public attention to the rise in political and state violence in the 1980s, the Commission published urgent action bulletins, organized speaking tours and delegations, and created "Voiceless Speak", a program that provides financial assistance to Guatemalans living in the United States who promote peace and respect for human rights in their native country.
In the early 1990s, the Commission supported, among others, the efforts of Jennifer Harbury, an American lawyer who worked to learn about the whereabouts and fate of her husband, the Maya guerrilla commander Efraín Bámaca Velasquez after he "disappeared" in 1992 in Guatemala.
They were aided by the work of Richard Nuccio, a whistleblower in the State Department, who advised a Congressman of CIA complicity in the actions of death squads in the country, in violation of a Congressional ban on funding the Guatemala military.