August 2022
We wrote to you before the previous 71st meeting of the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and its adoption of a list of problems to draw your attention to Honduras’ compliance with the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. This presentation includes data on the independence of the judiciary and prosecution, corruption, abortion and contraception, discrimination and violence against LGBT persons, the right to a sufficiently popular life for returning migrants, and the territorial rights of indigenous and Garifuna peoples.
Honduras’ judicial formula has suffered from political interference for years. Every seven years, Congress selects the 15 members of the Supreme Court from a list of at least forty-five candidates prepared through a nomination committee. Several resources indicated that once the list reaches Congress, in practice, the political parties divide the 15 vacancies among themselves, according to the proportion of seats they occupy. [1] In addition, when a case involving a political party is brought before the Supreme Court, the case is assigned to a ruling that sympathizes with that party. [2] Five of the fifteen existing courts are women.
The existing Supreme Court’s term ends in 2023. In July 2022, under intense domestic and foreign pressure, Congress passed a law regulating the functioning of the nominating committee, concrete criteria for the variety of judges, and making the procedure more transparent. [3] The nomination committee for the variety of upcoming judges is expected to be established until August 31, 2022.
The lack of transparency and transparent criteria has also hampered the variety of lower court judges and decisions made in their professional careers. The Chief Justice has the ultimate authority over the variety, promotion, movement and field of lower court judges. We obtained data in several cases where applicants had received high scores in the variety processes, but instead other applicants with lower scores were appointed. The government has rarely explained the rationale for these appointments. [4]
In addition, some judges are transient and appoint outdoor regulators for various processes, according to the Association of Judges for Angels Democracy. you may worry about firing if they make decisions that displease hard interests.
The mechanism for the appointment of the Attorney General lacks transparency and is highly vulnerable to political interference. The current Attorney General, appointed in 2018, is not on the list of five candidates prepared by the nominating committee, despite a constitutional provision requiring the attorney general to be selected from that list.
In 2023, in addition to electing Supreme Court justices, Congress is expected to elect the Attorney General, the Deputy Attorney General, and the Board of Auditors, the entity in charge of overseeing public resources. It is that these appointments are transparent and based on merit. and transparent criteria.
Human Rights Watch recommends that the Committee urge Honduras to:
Corruption is a structural challenge in Honduras. The Mission to Support the Fight against Corruption and Impunity in Honduras (MACCIH) has resulted in several convictions in corruption instances against high-level officials, many of which involved the alleged misappropriation of budgets that had been allocated to mandatory programs for the coverage and realization of human rights. such as the rights to health, water and education, and to reduce poverty. But the MACCIH has not been able to push for broader and longer-lasting reforms to judicial independence. In 2020, the government of former President Juan Orlando Hernández refused to renew his mandate.
Local prosecutors who had worked for the MACCIH were incorporated into a new fiscal unit, the Specialized Fiscal Unit Against Corruption Networks (UFERCO), but they did not get the same resources and had won for the MACCIH and their ability to investigate corruption collapsed. [6 ]
Some laws enacted before and after the MACCIH that hindered the fight against corruption and reduced transparency and accountability include:
President Xiomara Castro signed the repeal of the Official Secrets Act in March 2022. [12] This would possibly help revitalize the Access to Public Information Institute, which was not providing much information due to the Official Secrets Act. [13] In another positive step, President Castro also asked the UN Secretary General to move forward with the creation of an external commission against corruption and impunity in Honduras.
Human Rights Watch recommends that the Committee urge Honduras to:
Abortion remains illegal in all circumstances, even more so when the life of the pregnant user is in danger. People who undergo and perform abortions face up to six years in prison. In January 2021, Congress passed a constitutional amendment that expanded the majority needed to replace the provision banning abortion from two-thirds to three-quarters, complicating long-term reform. [14] Emergency contraception, or the “morning-after pill,” which is used to prevent pregnancy after rape, unprotected sex, or failure of the contraceptive method, is also prohibited. [15]
In 2019, Human Rights Watch documented how Honduras’ blanket ban on abortion and emergency birth control violates the rights of women and women and puts their physical condition and lives at risk. [16] The report includes testimony from Honduran women facing the ruthless effects of the abortion ban, adding a woman forced to have a child from her rapist; a woman faces prison after suffering a miscarriage; women who have had unsafe abortions; a doctor who cannot act in the best interests of his patients; and a pastor who faced death threats for his activism.
In Honduras, from 2015 to 2019, 56% of pregnancies were unwanted. [17] Unwanted pregnancies can be due to rape. In 2019, the Attorney General’s Office won 2,773 prosecutions for sexual violence against women and women. Based on these data, the maximum age teams affected are women over 10 to 19 years old (representing 54 consistent with the percentage of cases), women over 0 to 9 years old (13 according to the percentage) and women over 20 to 29 years old (12 according to the percentage). [18] Human Rights Watch learned that women had been raped and forced to continue their pregnancies. [19]
Bans on abortion and emergency birth control in Honduras can have destructive effects on adolescents. Honduras has the highest rate of teenage pregnancies among Latin American countries. [20] Between 2004 and 2020, the adolescent birth rate was 89 consistent with 1000 women over the age of 15 to 19,[21] higher than the regional average of 61 and more than double the global average. [22] In 2020, 23,180 women aged 10 to 19 gave birth. [23] While not all of those pregnancies are unwanted, teenage women would likely have more to lose from an unplanned pregnancy, such as missing school or being stressed about getting married, and would have less access than adults to information, resources, and help in being able to live safely. terminate a pregnancy.
The ban on abortion does not put an end to this practice, but makes it clandestine, which can have negative consequences on the health and lives of pregnant women. United Nations human rights experts estimate that the number of unsafe abortions in Honduras may also be between 51,000 and 82,000 in a year. [24] In 2021, the Honduran Ministry of Health reported 10,233 hospital discharges for abortion, which would also possibly come with spontaneous abortions classified as abortions[25]. This number, a fraction of the estimated number of unsafe abortions, can also be explained by many factors, such as not seeking emergency medical care for headaches from out-of-home abortions. hospital, as well as the concern of being criminalized or reported to the police, either for an attempted abortion or the concern that a miscarriage may also be considered an attempted abortionArray[26] This is indeed the result of a 22-year-old woman Human Rights Watch spoke with in 2019, who after going to the hospital to receive medication for a miscarriage, was arrested after doctors called the police on suspicion of miscarriage. She was placed under pre-trial surveillance and waited more than two years for her court date. [27]
Human Rights Watch studies around the world show that criminalizing abortion not only undermines women’s and girls’ ability to access essential reproductive health services, but also exacerbates inequality and discrimination. [28]
Human Rights Watch recommends that the Committee urge Honduras to:
Discrimination and violence against Honduran LGBT people is widespread in Honduras. In 2020, Human Rights Watch published a report documenting abuses against Honduran LGBT people, adding discrimination in employment and education, domestic violence, sexual assault, and murder. [29]
Honduras does not have a comprehensive civil law prohibiting discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity. In 2013, Honduras enacted a reform of the penal code that offers harsher consequences for all crimes motivated by prejudice on grounds such as sexual orientation and gender identity. ,[30] there are still no proven convictions. [31] Since 2017, the criminal reporting bureaucracy has included a box that can be checked if the victim reporting a crime identifies as LGBTI; however, the attorney general told Human Rights Watch in 2020 that the lack of instances indicates “that officials ignore it. “receipt of complaints. [32] A new penal code came into force in June 2020, which maintained those provisions on hate crimes. [33]
Legal popularity of the genre (Article 2)
Honduras does not have an administrative procedure that allows a user to change their legal name and gender. Other transgender people interviewed by Human Rights Watch described ongoing demanding situations, such as the mismatch between their appearance and the name and sex marker on their official documents: difficulties in performing daily activities, such as banking or buying a long-distance bus ticket, contributed to a sense of perpetual alienation and exclusion. [34] This has also affected employment opportunities. Juan Y. , a 35-year-old trans man, told Human Rights Watch that he was discriminated against in the hard labor market, compounded by the fact that his identity documents did not fit his needs. gender identity. [35] In May 2022, the President of Honduras pledged to create a legal procedure for gender recognition, but her government and civil registry had not done so at the time of writing. [36]
Right to paintings (Articles 2, 6)
LGBT people in Honduras face discrimination both in the job search and in the workplace. Of the twenty-five Honduran LGBT people we interviewed for our 2020 report, eight, adding up to seven trans people and one gay, described reports of discrimination in employment. William, a 36-year-old transgender boy from Comayagüela, said that when he tried to place an assignment in a good-looking classroom, they didn’t need it because he looked like a boy. When he tried to locate a task in a carpentry shop, he said they were just looking for men. [37]
Access to (Articles 2, 13)
Seven interviewees told Human Rights Watch that they had been intimidated and discriminated against in the course of education. They described being targeted through their peers, employees and administrators. Some said they felt compelled to drop out of school as a result, reducing their chances in life and steering them toward greater economic insecurity. Anabel H. , a trans woman from Tegucigalpa, said she stopped going to school in the middle of each year since she was 10 because of bullying. She said her classmates threatened to rape her and threw water bottles at her. When she complained to the school principal, she told her that she had to act like a child if she didn’t need to be disturbed. [38]
Domestic violence (Arts. 3, 10)
Human Rights Watch interviewed 4 Honduran LGBT people who described experiencing domestic violence or forgetting through family members, intimate partners, or both. Anabel H. , a trans woman from Tegucigalpa, said that after her father saw her in makeup and women’s clothing, he kicked her out of the place at the age of 17. Once alone, her friends took her to sexual paintings, the only way they knew how to survive. For young people under the age of 18, sex paintings are subject to foreign laws one of the worst bureaucracies of child labor, and Anabel experienced it as rape. [39]
Human Rights Watch recommends that the Committee urge Honduras to:
Violence, lack of opportunity, unemployment and climate-related messes continue to push thousands of Hondurans to leave the country. [40] More than 50,000 Hondurans were forcibly returned to Honduras in 2021, only about 80% from Mexico and 20% from the United States. [41] From January to July 2022 alone, more than 56,000 people were returned. [42]
Civil society organizations, UN agencies and Honduran agencies operating at airports and at the border provide assistance to deportees. But once inside Honduras, returning migrants must fend for themselves, as there is no effective reintegration program. Without in their communities, some decide to return to the United States. According to UN officials, only those who explicitly care about violence if they return home get a matrix that includes a review through UN agencies of relocation opportunities in other parts of the country and monitoring of their situation. [43]
Human Rights Watch recommends that the Committee urge Honduras to:
The Honduran state has granted land and herbarium rights to well-connected, U. S. corporations through contracts that lack transparency and generate allegations of corruption, without proper consultation with communities, ignoring their rights to land and resources, and with poor or no implementation. of their right to free, prior and informed consent, the indigenous and Garifuna communities said. [44] In 2018, the government submitted an invoice for the right to free, prior, and informed consent, but indigenous and Afro-Honduran organizations rejected it, saying that it did not guarantee the effective exercise of this right and that they had not been included. in the invoice drafting procedure. The invoice is still pending.
Indigenous and Afro-Honduran communities report enormous barriers to offloading the name of classic lands. In cases where communities have gone to download the names of the lands, portions of their ancestral territory have been excluded. And even after receiving the official documents, some communities faced court-ordered evictions. when third parties submitted state-issued names on the same land, indigenous and Afro-Honduran organizations told Human Rights Watch. [45]
A 2013 Employment and Economic Development Zones (ZEDE) law created zones where personal corporations were granted broad operational and functional autonomy. [46] Indigenous and Afro-Honduran organizations claim that these areas were created without consultation. [47] Congress has since repealed the law, but dismantling the lately functioning ZEDEs remains a problem. [48]
Human Rights Watch recommends that the Committee urge Honduras to:
[1] Human Rights Watch interviews with prominent political party member, Tegucigalpa, January 26, 2022; with M. D. et R. V. , judges and members of the Association of Judges for Los Angeles Democracia, Tegucigalpa, January 25, 2022; with I. Z. , analyst of the Social Forum of the Angels External Debt and Development of Honduras (FOSDEH), Tegucigalpa, January 23, 2022; and with K. M. et R. E. , analysts of the Association for a Fairer Society (ASJ), Tegucigalpa, January 24, 2022.
[2] Ibid.
[3] Decree 2022 Supreme Court Nominating Board, registered with Human Rights Watch.
[4] Human Rights Watch interviews with M. D. et R. V. , judges, and members of the Association of Judges for Angels Democracy, Tegucigalpa, January 25, 2022.
[5] Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, “Basic Principles on the Independence of the Judiciary,” followed by September 6, 1985, https://www. ohchr. org/en/instruments-mechanisms/instruments/basic-Principles-Independence-Judiciary (accessed July 27, 2022).
[6] Human Rights Watch interview with L. S. , head of the Specialized Prosecutor’s Unit against Corruption Networks (UFERCO), Tegucigalpa, January 25, 2022.
[7] Government of Honduras, Decree No. 418-2013, March 7, 2014, https://www. tsc. gob. hn/web/leyes/Ley for Angels Clos Angelessification of Public Documents Related to Angels National Security and Defense. pdf (accessed July 27, 2022).
[8] Government of Honduras, Decree No. 116-2019, October 18, 2019, https://www. tsc. gob. hn/web/leyes/Decreto-116-2019. pdf (accessed July 27, 2022).
[9] Government of Honduras, Decree No. 117-2019, October 18, 2019, https://www. tsc. gob. hn/web/leyes/Decreto-117-2019. pdf (accessed July 27, 2022); Human Rights Watch interview with Luis Javier Santos, UFERCO, January 25, 2022.
[10] Government of Honduras, Decree No. 57-2020, October 13, 2020, https://www. tsc. gob. hn/web/leyes/Decreto-57-2020. pdf (accessed July 27, 2022).
[11] Government of Honduras, Decree No. 93-2021, November 1, 2021, https://www. tsc. gob. hn/web/leyes/Decreto_93-2021. pdf (accessed July 27, 2022).
[12] Government of Honduras, Decree No. 12-2022, March 15, 2022, https://www. tsc. gob. hn/web/leyes/Decreto-12-2022. pdf (accessed July 27, 2022).
[13] Government of Honduras, Law on Transparency and Access to Los Angeles Public Information, Decree Legislos angelestivo No. 170 – 2006, https://www. tsc. gob. hn /web/leyes/Ley_de_Transparencia. pdf (accessed July 27, 2022).
[14] “Honduras: Attack on Reproductive Rights, Marriage Equality,” Human Rights Watch press release, January 23, 2021, https://www. hrw. org//2021/01/23/honduras-attack-reproductive-rights Marriage Equality; Tatiana Arias, “How Lawmakers Made It Nearly Impossible to Legalize Abortion in Honduras,” CNN News, January 31, 2021, https://www. cnn. com/2021/01/31/americas/honduras-abortion-ban-ratified-intl/index. html (accessed July 28, 2022).
[15] Government of Honduras, Decree 54-2009, April 2, 2009, https://data. miraquetemiro. org/sites/default/files/documentos/Decreto 54-2009, Prohibition of% 20the PAE, Honduras. pdf (accessed July 27, 2022).
[16] Amy Braunschweiger and Margaret Wurth, “Life and Death Options for Women Living Under the Abortion Ban in Honduras,” commentary, Human Rights Watch witness article, June 6, 2019, https://www. hrw. org/news/2019/06/06/life-or-death-options-women-living-under-the-abortion-ban-in-Honduras.
[17] Guttmacher Institute, “Country Profile: Honduras,” https://www. guttmacher. org/geography/latin-america-caribbean/honduras (accessed July 28, 2022).
[18] Women’s Rights Center, Women’s Human Rights Observatory, “Sexual Violence Against Girls and Women in Honduras – 2021,” June 2022, https://derechosdelamujer. org/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/Boletin_VS2022. pdf (accessed July 28, 2022).
[19] “Life and Death Option for Women Living through Honduras’ Abortion Ban,” https://www. hrw. org/news/2019/06/06/life-or-death-choices-women-living–Honduras-Abortion-Prohibition.
[20] United Nations, “Honduras: UN Experts deplore the constitutional amendment attacking the right to safe abortion,” January 19, 2021, https://news. un. org/es/story/2021/01/1486792 (accessed July 29, 2022).
[21] United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), “Seeing the Invisible: The Case for Action in the Neglected Unwanted Pregnancy Crisis,” 2022, https://www. unfpa. org/sites/default/files/pub-pdf/ EN_SWP22 report_0. pdf (accessed July 29, 2022).
[22] UNFPA, “A Honduran Television Drama Illustrates the Realities of Teen Pregnancy,” November 4, 2020, https://www. unfpa. org/es/news/un-drama-televisivo-hondureno-ilustra-las-Teen Pregnancy-Realities#:~:text=According to the recent report, twice the global average (accessed July 29, 2022).
[23] Women’s Rights Center, Women’s Human Rights Observatory, “Sexual Violence in Honduras 2019-2020,” January 2021, https://derechosdelamujer. org/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/Boletin-VS-2019-2020_final. pdf (accessed July 29, 2022).
[24] UN, “Honduras: UN Expertas deplores the constitutional amendment that attacks the right to safe abortion,” January 19, 2021, https://news. un. org/es/story/2021/01/1486792 (accessed July 29, 2022).
[25] Women’s Rights Center, Women’s Human Rights Observatory, “Sexual Violence against Girls and Women in Honduras – 2021,” https://derechosdelamujer. org/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/Boletin_VS2022. Pdf.
[26] Ibid.
[27] “Life and Death Option for Women Living Under honduras’ abortion ban,” https://www. hrw. org/news/2019/06/06/life-or-death-choices-women-living-under-Honduras-Abortion-Prohibition.
[28] Human Rights Watch, “Sexual and Reproductive Health,” https://www. hrw. org/topic/health/sexual-and-reproductive-health.
[29] “Every Day I Live in Fear”: Violence and Discrimination against LGBT People in El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras, and Barriers to Asylum in the United States (New York: Human Rights Watch, 2020), https:// www. hrw. org/report/2020/10/07/every-day-i-live-fear/violence-and-discrimination-against-lgbt-people-el-salvador.
[30] Government of Honduras, Penal Code 2013, https://www. poderjudicial. gob. hn/CEDIJ/Leyes/Documents/CodigoPenal-ReformaIncluida. pdf (accessed July 27, 2022).
[31] Government of Honduras, Public Ministry, Oficio S. D. G. F. no. 480-2020, September 25, 2020.
[32] Ibid.
[33] Government of Honduras, Decree 130-2017, Penal Code (Decree 130-2017, Penal Code), https://www. tsc. gob. hn/web/leyes/Decreto_130-2017. pdf (accessed July 27, 2022), Article 32(8).
[34] Human Rights Watch interviews with P. B. (pseudonym), Tegucigalpa, May 14, 2019, and A. H. (pseudonym), Tegucigalpa, May 16, 2019.
[35] Human Rights Watch interview with J. Y. (pseudonym), Tegucigalpa, May 17, 2019.
[36] Cristian González Cabrera, “Honduras recognizes responsibility for murders of transsexuals,” May 13, 2022, commentary, Human Rights Office, https://www. hrw. org/news/2022/05/13/honduras-recognizes-his-responsibility-trans-murder.
[37] Human Rights Watch interview with W. A. M. , Tegucigalpa, May 16, 2019.
[38] Human Rights Watch interview with A. H. , Tegucigalpa, May 16, 2019.
[39] International Labour Organization, Worst Forms of Child Labour Convention, 1999 (No. 182), https://www. ilo. org/dyn/normlex/en/f?p=NORMLEXPUB:12100:0::NO: 😛 12100_ILO_CODE:C182 (accessed September 11, 2020), art. 3(b); Human Rights Watch interview with A. H. , Comayagüela, May 16, 2019.
[40] United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), Fact Sheet on Honduras, March 2022, https://reliefweb. int/report/honduras/unhcr-factsheet-march-2022 (accessed July 28, 2022); International Organization for Migration (IOM), Honduras-Baseline Assessment of Migration Flows and Mobility Monitoring within the Context of COVID-19 Report #6, August 24, 2021, https://dtm. iom. int/reports/honduras-baseline – Assessment-Migration-Flows-and-Mobility-Monitoring-Within the Context-Covid-19-3 (accessed July 28, 2022); UNHCR, “In Honduras, climate change is another cause for displacement,” November 9, 2021, https://www. unhcr. org/en-us/news/stories/2021/11/61844eef4/honduras-weather-replace-factor-sparking-displacement. html (accessed July 28, 2022).
[41] Government of Honduras, Consular and Migration Observatory, “Comparative Honduran Returnees, 2015-2022,” updated July 2022, https://conmigho. hn/retornados-2022/ (accessed July 28, 2022).
[42] Ibid.
[43] Human Rights Watch interview with UNHCR officials, Tegucigalpa, January 26, 2022.
[44] Human Rights Watch interviews with OHCHR representatives in Honduras, Tegucigalpa, January 24, 2022; with L. S. , head of UFERCO, Tegucigalpa, January 25, 2022; and with R. C. , analyst of the Honduran Black Fraternal Organization (OFRANEH), February 2, 2022.
[45] Human Rights Watch interviews with B. Z. C. , director of the Civic Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras (COPINH), Tegucigalpa, January 25, 2022; and with R. C. , analyst OFRANEH, February 2, 2022.
[46] Government of Honduras, Decree No. 120-2013, September 6, 2013, https://www. tsc. gob. hn/web/leyes/Ley_zonas_empleo_desarrollo_eco_2013. pdf (accessed July 28, 2022).
[47] Human Rights Watch interviews with B. Z. C. , director of the Civic Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras (COPINH), Tegucigalpa, January 25, 2022; and with R. C. , analyst OFRANEH, February 2, 2022.
[48] Government of Honduras, Decree No. 33-2022, April 26, 2022, https://www. tsc. gob. hn/web/leyes/Decreto-33-2022. pdf (accessed July 28, 2022).