�y�� ������`YV�OTWH��j�Y����2��{>~�8���ø�4�¬��]� In August, the United Nations special rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers reported that four justices of the Constitutional Chamber of the Supreme Court were removed by Congress for political reasons and noted the lack of transparency in judicial appointments and lack of public scrutiny in the appointment of high officials. A December 2018 study by the National Committee on the Prevention of Torture, Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment, an official body, reported that the country’s prisons held 21,004 inmates, a figure double that of a decade earlier. Those convicted included a former chief of security for Desarrollos Energéticos SA (DESA), the company building the Agua Zarca dam, against which Cáceres had been campaigning at the time of her assassination.Local activists have criticized the official Mechanism for the Protection of Journalists, Human Rights Defenders and Operators of Justice, created in 2015, for lacking uniform criteria in awarding protection measures and for being ineffective. He was originally convicted in 2016, and the Supreme Court upheld the conviction in January.Because of their vague and broad wording, other provisions of the new penal code could criminalize the lawful exercise of the rights to protest and assembly. one case documented by Human Rights Watch, https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2020/country-chapters/honduras, Austrian Centre for Country of Origin and Asylum Research and Documentation (ACCORD). Many prisoners had access to weapons and other contraband, inmates attacked other inmates with impunity, escapes were frequent, and inmates and their associates outside prison threatened prison officials and their families. Human rights groups reported unjustified lethal force and other excessive use of force by security forces during a police and military crackdown on public protests between March and July. You can use this tool to change your cookie settings. Despite a recent downward trend, the murder rate remains among the highest in the world. This raised further concerns over the shrinking space for civil society in the country. <> UNICEF reports that a third of all Honduran girls marry before 18.CONADEH's Internal Displacement Unit reports that the forced recruitment of children by gangs or criminal groups is the fifth most frequent reason that Hondurans became internally displaced in the first semester of 2019. Impunity for crimes and human rights abuses is the norm.The Mission to Support the Fight against Corruption and Impunity in Honduras (MACCIH), established in 2016 through an agreement between the government and the Organization of American States (OAS), has investigated a small number of cases involving corruption of senior officials. The UN special rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders calls Honduras one of the most dangerous countries in Latin America for human rights defenders.In February, Salomón Matute and his son Juan Samael Matute, both Tolupan indigenous persons who belonged to the San Francisco Locomapa tribe and the Broad Movement for Dignity and Justice (MADJ), died of gunshot wounds despite “precautionary measures” granted by the IACHR in 2013 to ensure the government protected them.In October, María Digna Montero, a member of the Honduran Black Fraternal Organization (OFRANEH) and a defender of the indigenous Garifuna land and culture, was shot and killed in her home in Colón by unknown individuals.In November 2018, a court found seven men guilty of the 2016 murder of environmental and indigenous-rights activist Berta Cáceres. In 2017, the Honduran Congress unanimously passed a bill making all child marriage of those below the age of 18 illegal. Lobo denies the allegations.In August, media reported that a court sentenced former First Lady Rosa Elena Bonilla, wife of ex-President Lobo, to 58 years in prison on corruption charges. Abortion is illegal in Honduras in all circumstances, including rape and incest, when a woman’s life is in danger, and when the fetus will not survive outside the womb.
It was the first conviction achieved by MACCIH.In August, media reported that United States federal prosecutors had released documents implicating Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández in a drug trafficking and money laundering conspiracy with his brother Juan Antonio Hernández. Honduras 2020 Crime & Safety Report. 1 0 obj However, in September the governments of Honduras and the United States signed an Asylum Cooperative Agreement, also known as a “safe third country” agreement, provoking well-founded concerns about Honduras’ capacity to ensure the protection of people forced to seek asylum there, Honduras: Authorities must guarantee transparency in trial of man accused of plotting the murder of Berta Cáceres, Honduras: Authorities must deploy all necessary measures to locate five victims of apparent enforced disappearance, Invitation: Webinar discussion of ‘Who Killed Berta Cáceres?’ by Nina Lakhani. Persistent high levels of crime and violence, impunity, inequality and poverty led thousands of people … We scrupulously investigate abuses, expose facts widely, and pressure those with power to respect rights and secure justice. Your choice regarding cookies on this site As of June 2019, almost half of more than 13,500 police officers evaluated by the commission had been removed for acts committed during their tenure as officers.
Permissions UNICEF has reported that no reliable statistics exist concerning how many children have been recruited into these groups. x�`�����\`���*Μ�J¬�-���j�W]�r����ݜ��4ì�S�D={�i�صޚ΄��=<0�UցI�zX�E��[&3���&�����ӽV�N0���ub��&��+��+�AD�+�Μ�_d�3���X�;��vZ�)^��+���r\!��e�m��G��p���N%�� ��V�l��d��j~�����eR��? October 7, 2020 Report “Every Day I Live in Fear” Violence and Discrimination Against LGBT People in El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras, and Obstacles to Asylum in the United States endobj It was not clear how many of those killed or injured were victims of excessive force by authorities.Journalists, environmental activists, and lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) individuals are vulnerable to violence. The IACHR expressed concern over the use of violence and other measures to prevent people from leaving the country, and urged Honduras to guarantee the migrants’ rights, including the right to leave any country.In September, Honduras and the US signed an “asylum cooperation agreement” that requires Honduras to receive asylum-seekers who are referred by the US. The law also sanctions abortion providers.The government also bans emergency contraception, or the “morning after pill,” which can prevent pregnancy after rape, unprotected sex, or a conceptive failure. This raised further concerns over the shrinking space for civil society in the country. Three other journalists had been killed in 2019 as of November.In May, a new penal code was adopted that maintained the crimes of defamation, libel, and slander, all of which have been used to prosecute journalists for “crimes against honor.” In August, Congress announced that it would decriminalize those offenses, allowing only civil suits. Media reported that Honduran authorities obstructed and in some cases barred Hondurans from leaving the country by demanding identity documents, establishing checkpoints and blockades, and even teargassing the caravan.
Human rights defenders continued to be subjected to attacks, including killings and the misuse of criminal proceedings against them. This raised further concerns over the shrinking space for civil society in the country. %PDF-1.7 After a two-week trial in the US, in October, Hernández was convicted of drug conspiracy. In one case documented by Human Rights Watch in June 2019, a transgender woman was killed and mutilated near San Pedro Sula in an apparent hate crime.In March, a new adoption law that prohibits same-sex couples from adopting children went into effect. Several United Nations agencies working in Honduras have noted that violence against LGBT individuals forces them into “internal displacement” or to flee in search of international protection. In November, the legislature postponed the entry into force of the penal code, which was planned for November 2019, to May 2020. Persistent high levels of crime and violence, impunity, inequality and poverty led thousands of people to flee Honduras, either individually or as part of several “caravans” seeking refuge in the USA and Mexico. In October, the IACHR published its report on the human rights situation in Honduras following a visit to the country in 2018.
World Report 2020 is Human Rights Watch’s 30th annual review of human rights practices around the globe. In October, the US announced the partial restoration of previously frozen foreign aid to Honduras, as well as to El Salvador and Guatemala, after all three countries entered into asylum cooperation agreements with the US.In April, the IACHR brought a case against Honduras before the Inter-American Court of Human Rights concerning the extrajudicial execution of a transsexual woman and human rights defender in 2009, while a curfew was in force. This includes the crime of “public disturbances,” vaguely defined to include “violence or serious intimidation [that] frightens a population or part of it.” The code also uses overly broad language in defining the crimes of “illicit assembly,” “demonstrations,” and “terrorism.” In July 2019, the IACHR and OHCRH expressed concern over these provisions and called for their review. HONDURAS 5 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2019 United States Department of State • Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor personnel. 2019 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices March 11, 2020. Cookie Statement ecoi.net wird durch den Asyl-, Migrations- und Integrationsfonds, das Bundesministerium für Inneres und die Caritas Österreich kofinanziert. Americas Media Manager, +52 (1) 55 48 48 82 66 Under the agreement, Honduras cannot return or remove the migrants until their asylum cases are resolved by the US federal authorities.
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