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50+ Organizations to UN Voting States: Honduras has no legitimacy in the Human Rights Council

Updated: Oct 14, 2021

For immediate release

Photo: Martin Calix, Contra Corriente



Today, more than 50 national and international civil society organizations sent this letter to UN voting States, urging them to leave their ballot blank when voting for Honduras - one of the world's deadliest countries for human rights defenders - for the Human Rights Council.


October 13, 2021


The undersigned civil society organizations denounce the Honduran State's nomination for a seat on the UN Human Rights Council. Honduras, one of the most dangerous places in the world for human rights defenders, has no legitimacy to implement a mandate to "Promote and protect human rights worldwide". Although the Honduran State is part of a "closed slate" candidacy, we urge voting States to leave the ballot blank when it comes to Honduras, a State manifestly unqualified for the seat, as a symbolic way of denouncing the State's failure to respect the highest standards in the promotion and protection of human rights and to cooperate fully with the Council.


For years, Honduras has been plagued by assassinations, arbitrary detentions, threats and intimidations against those who courageously defend their rights. Faced with the serious human rights situation, the IACHR has presented three reports on the country in 2009, 2015 and 2019, in which it identifies the persistence of structural problems such as poverty, inequality, corruption and impunity that disproportionately affect the most vulnerable sectors of society, due to the existence of a "selective justice" that, on the one hand, acts belatedly in relation to human rights violations, but on the other hand, acts in favor of the interests of various actors linked to public, political and business power.


On the other hand, there has been little movement on the recommendations made by the former Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Defenders, Michel Forst, after his visit to Honduras in 2019, and the situation of vulnerability and risk faced by defenders has not diminished. On the contrary, regressive laws, including profound changes to the penal code, have served to deepen the situation of risk faced by defenders, their communities and their families.


Ahead of the Human Rights Council elections on October 14, Amnesty International and the International Service for Human Rights held an engagement event for candidate states on September 8, 2021. During the event, we were surprised that Honduras pledged to cooperate with civil society and States from all regions, when just this year, far from respecting the will and spirit of the UN to protect and promote human rights, Honduras failed to comply with Resolution Opinion No. 85/2020 of the Working Group on Human Rights. 85/2020 of the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, concerning José Daniel Márquez Márquez, Kelvin Alejandro Romero Martínez, José Abelino Cedillo, Porfirio Sorto Cedillo, Orbín Nahúm Hernández, Arnold Javier Alemán, Ewer Alexander Cedillo Cruz and Jeremías Martínez Díaz (Honduras), known as the Guapinol defenders, which urged the State to immediately release the eight water defenders who have been arbitrarily detained for more than 25 months. The Honduran State not only failed to implement the resolution but has since prolonged without cause the arbitrary detention of the defenders who were fighting to defend their community's drinking water from mining projects in Carlos Escaleras National Park.


This October 14, UN member states should not promote Honduras, but take action to stop the State from acting against its own people and their rights.


ACI PARTICIPA, Honduras


AIDEVISH, Honduras


Asociacion APUVIMEH, Honduras


ASOPAZH, Honduras


Bandera Socialista, Honduras


Bufete "Estudios para la Dignidad", Honduras


Bufete Jurídico Justicia Para Los Pueblos, Honduras


CADEHO, Alemania-Germany


Caritas. Diócesis de San Pedro Sula, Honduras


Casa Visitacion, Iglesia Catolica, Honduras


Central Nacional de Trabajadores del Campo CNTC, Honduras


Centro de Derechos de Mujeres, Honduras


Centro de Estudio para la Democracia (CESPAD), Honduras


Centro de Estudios de la Mujer - Honduras, Honduras


Centro de Prevención, Tratamiento y Rehabilitación de las Victimas de la Tortura y sus Familiares (CPTRT), Honduras


Chicago Religious Leadership Network on Latin America, EEUU-USA


Coalición Contra la Impunidad, Honduras


Comité de Defensa de los Bienes Comunes y Publicos de Tocoa, Honduras


Comité de Familiares de Detenidos Desaparecidos en Honduras, Honduras


Comité por la Libre Expresión (C-LIBRE), Honduras


Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador (CISPES), EEUU-USA


Consejo Indigena Lenca Reitoca, Honduras


Consejo Indigena Municipal de Santa Elena La Paz, Honduras


COPINH, Honduras


Coordinadora de Organizaciones Populares del Aguan (COPA), Honduras


Equipo Jurídico por los Derechos Humanos, Honduras


ERIC-SJ, Honduras


FIDH en el marco del Observatorio para la Protección de los Defensores de Derechos Humanos


Foro Honduras Suiza, Suiza-Switzerland


Fundación San Alonso Rodríguez (FSAR), Honduras


Grupo Musical Son de Pueblo, Honduras


Hondurasdelegation, Alemania-Germany


Iniciativa Mesoamericana de mujeres defensoras de derechos humanos, Mesoamerica


Institute for Policy Studies - Global Economy Program, EEUU-USA


Just Association (JASS), Mesoamerica


Mesa Nacional de Incidencia para la Gestión de Rieagos MNIGR, Honduras


MEU, Honduras


Movimiento Amplio por la Dignidad y la Justicia (MADJ), Honduras


Movimiento de Diversidad en Resistencia (MDR), Honduras


Movimiento PATRIA en Acción, Honduras


OMCT en el marco del Observatorio para la Protección de los Defensores de Derechos Humanos, Internacional


Oficina Ecuménica por la Paz y la Justicia, Alemania


Organización Ayudamos Honduras (OAH), Honduras


OrganizaciÓn Fraternal Negra Hondureña (OFRANEH), Honduras


Plataforma Agraria, Honduras


Plataforma de solidaridad con Honduras, España-Spain


Plataforma Internacional Contra la Impunidad, Honduras-Suiza


Red Coiproden, Honduras


Red de mujeres del Progreso, Honduras


Red europea de Comités Oscar Romero, Bélgica-Belgium


Red Nacional de Defensoras de Derechos Humanos en Honduras , Honduras


Sede Comunidad LGBTI Ofraneh, Honduras


Solidaridad con Guatemala de Austria, Austria


Trócaire, Honduras



NOTES:


CIDH. Situación de Derechos Humanos en Honduras. Washington, D.C. 27 de agosto 2019, p. 47, párr. 75


End of mission statement by Michel Forst, United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders on his visit to Honduras, 29 April to 12 May https://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=23063&LangID=E



ONU: Liberar a defensores de Guapinol de inmediato e investigar a responsables de detención ilegal https://www.guapinolresiste.org/post/onu-liberar-a-defensores-de-guapinol-de-inmediato-e-investigar-a-responsables-de-detenci%C3%B3n-ilegal

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1 Comment


arteografo
Oct 13, 2021

Exigimos una verdadera justicia en Honduras y por el momento no permitir que este gobierno tenga ninguna representación en el.consejo de las naciones unidas y sus órganos operativos...

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