PBI-Honduras observes meeting between civil society and the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights

On September 1, PBI-Honduras tweeted:

“On Tuesday [August 30] we observed a meeting between civil society and @CIDH [the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights] who was visiting #Honduras. We recall the importance of complying with the recommendations in the Vicky Hernández case and the cases of the communities #Garífunas Triunfo de la Cruz and Punta Piedra. #human rights.”

Criterio.hn has also reported:

“In the framework of the protocol visit to Honduras, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) held meetings with human rights organizations, who brought to the attention of the entity issues related to impunity, criminalization and violations against the rights of indigenous peoples.

The delegations present yesterday, Tuesday, August 30 are: the Civic Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras (Copinh), the Broad Movement for Justice and Dignity (MADJ), the Studies for Dignity Law Firm, members of the Tolupán tribe of San Francisco de Locomapa, the Alternative of Community and Environmental Claim of Honduras (ARCAH) and the Committee of Relatives of Disappeared Detainees in Honduras (Cofadeh), among others.

Copinh asked the IACHR to urge the State of Honduras to guarantee access to justice for victims of human rights violations during the processes of complaint, investigation, and prosecution of cases in an effective, prompt, and impartial manner and the punishment of those responsible at all hierarchical levels.

Likewise, it determined as “imperative to ensure the capture, prosecution and punishment of the intellectual authors of the murder of our colleague Berta Cáceres and all the human rights defenders murdered in Honduras.”

The MADJ, together with the Bufete Estudios para la Dignidad and members of the San Francisco de Locomapa tribe, informed the commission of five points related to access and implementation of justice, as well as the growing criminalization of defenders who face extractivism in the country.

The Broad Movement raised the impunity in which crimes against social fighters of the organization remain, the penal reforms that criminalize people who defend human rights and promote corruption, and the violation of the rights of indigenous peoples and communities by extractive companies.

As well as the inefficiency demonstrated in the implementation of sentences that recognize human rights issued by the Supreme Court of Justice, thus perpetuating impunity. Likewise, they raised the absence of comprehensive channels of communication on the part of the current government, through which it assumes its role as generator and implementer of public policies that resolve structural issues, in broad dialogue with the people, not only with related or uncritical groups.

For its part, the Committee of Relatives of Disappeared Detainees in Honduras (Cofadeh) accompanied relatives and victims of human rights violations during the presentation of their cases to the IACHR delegation.

Among the cases shared on Cofadeh’s networks is that of the human rights defender and social communicator, Pablo Hernández, who was murdered in January of this year. The defender’s father, Natividad Hernández, told the IACHR delegation that the authorities had not investigated the whereabouts of the perpetrators of his son’s murder.

The environmental and social problems experienced by the inhabitants of Gualaco, Olancho, were also raised, after a timber businessman placed a chain to prevent the passage through the municipality. As well as the persecution and prosecution of the Nahua indigenous population for the same case, Cofadeh said in one of his publications from social networks.

The Alternative community and environmental claim of Honduras (ARCAH) submitted three letters of application regarding the case of the Employment and Economic Development Zones; water privatization in Honduras; and the case of the poultry company El Cortijo against the Choluteca River and the communities affected by its pollution.

During the protocol visit of the IACHR delegation to Honduras, Commissioner Stuardo Ralón, Executive Secretariat Tania Reneaum, and the technical team held meetings with authorities and conducted training with public officials and civil society regarding the rights of women, Afro-descendants, and indigenous people, the IACHR published.”

The full article can be read at: En visita de la CIDH a Honduras, solicitan instar al Estado a garantizar acceso a justicia.