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We write in advance of the 71st pre-session of the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and its adoption of a list of issues to inform its review of Honduras’ compliance with the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. This submission includes information on judicial and prosecutorial independence, corruption, access to abortion and contraception, discrimination and violence against LGBT people, right to an adequate standard of living for returned migrants, and Indigenous and Garifuna peoples’ land rights.
Honduras’ justice system has suffered political interference for years. Every seven years, Congress selects all 15 members of the Supreme Court from a list of at least 45 candidates prepared by a nominating committee. Several sources shared that once the list gets to Congress, in practice, political parties have split the 15 vacancies among them, according to the proportion of seats they hold.[1] In addition, when a case involving a political party arrives at the Supreme Court, the case is typically assigned to a justice sympathetic to that party.[2] Five of the current fifteen judges are women.
The term of the current Supreme Court ends in 2023. In July 2022, under intense domestic and international pressure, Congress adopted a law regulating the functioning of the nominating committee, laying out concrete criteria for the selection of justices and making the process more transparent.[3] The nominating committee for the selection of the next justices is set to be established by August 31, 2022.
Lack of transparency and clear criteria has also plagued the selection of lower-court judges and decisions over their professional careers. The Supreme Court president has ultimate power over selection, promotion, transfer, and discipline of lower-court judges. We received information on several cases in which candidates had obtained high scores in selection processes, but other candidates with lower scores were appointed instead. Authorities rarely explained the basis for those appointments.[4]
In addition, certain judges are temporary and appointed outside regular selection processes, according to Asociación de Jueces por la Democracia. Lack of secure tenure exposes such judges to a higher risk of external and internal pressure, as they can fear being removed if they adopt decisions that displease powerful interests.
The mechanism to appoint the attorney general lacks transparency and is highly vulnerable to political interference. The current attorney general, appointed in 2018, was not on the list of five candidates that the nominating committee prepared, despite a constitutional provision that mandates that the attorney general be selected from that list.
In 2023, in addition to selecting Supreme Court justices, Congress is scheduled to select the attorney general, the deputy attorney general, and the Board of Auditors, an entity charged with auditing public resources. It is crucial that these appointments be transparent and based on merit and clear criteria.
Human Rights Watch recommends that the Committee call on the government of Honduras to:
Corruption is a structural problem in Honduras. The Mission to Support the Fight against Corruption and Impunity in Honduras (MACCIH) resulted in several convictions in corruption cases against high-level officials, many involving the alleged embezzlement of funds that had been allocated to programs necessary to protect and fulfill human rights, such as the rights to health, water, and education, and to alleviate poverty. But MACCIH was unable to spur wider, lasting reforms to strengthen judicial independence. In 2020, the government of former President Juan Orlando Hernández refused to renew its mandate.
Local prosecutors who had worked for MACCIH were integrated into a new prosecutorial unit, Unidad Fiscal Especializada Contra Redes de Corrupción (UFERCO), but they did not receive the same resources and support that they had received for MACCIH and their capacity to investigate corruption plummeted.[6]
Some laws enacted before, during, and after MACCIH that have hindered the fight against corruption and reduced transparency and accountability include:
President Xiomara Castro signed the repeal of the official secrets law in March 2022.[12] This may help to reinvigorate the Institute for Access to Public Information, which had been unable to provide much information due to the official secrets law.[13] In another positive step, President Castro has also asked the UN secretary general to advance creation of an international commission against corruption and impunity in Honduras.
Human Rights Watch recommends that the Committee call on the government of Honduras to:
Abortion remains illegal under all circumstances, including when the life of the pregnant person is in danger. People who undergo abortions, and those who provide them, face up to six years in prison. In January 2021, Congress passed a constitutional amendment increasing the majority needed to amend the provision banning abortion from two-thirds to three-quarters, complicating future reform.[14] Emergency contraception, or the “morning after pill,” which is used to prevent pregnancy after rape, unprotected sex, or a contraceptive failure, is also prohibited.[15]
In 2019, Human Rights Watch documented how Honduras’ total ban on abortion and emergency contraception violates the rights of women and girls and puts their health and lives at risk.[16] The report included the testimony of Honduran women confronting the cruel effects of the abortion ban, including a woman forced to bear her rapist’s child; a woman facing jail after having a miscarriage; women who had unsafe abortions; a doctor who cannot always act in her patients’ best interests; and a pastor who faced death threats for her activism.
In Honduras, from 2015-2019, 56 percent of pregnancies were unintended.[17] Unintended pregnancies can be caused by rape. In 2019, the Public Ministry received 2,773 complaints of sexual violence against women and girls. Based on this data, the most affected age groups include girls between the ages of 10-19 (representing 54 percent of cases), girls between 0-9 (13 percent), and women between the ages of 20-29 (12 percent). In 2021, the number of complaints the Public Ministry received rose to 2,896.[18] Human Rights Watch learned of women who were raped and forced to proceed with their pregnancies.[19]
Honduras’ bans on abortion and emergency contraception may have particularly harmful impacts on adolescents. Honduras has the second highest rate of teenage pregnancies among Latin American countries.[20] Between 2004-2020, the adolescent birthrate was 89 per 1,000 girls aged 15-19,[21] higher than the regional average of 61, and more than double the world average.[22] In 2020, 23,180 girls between the ages of 10 and 19 gave birth.[23] While not all these pregnancies are unwanted, adolescents can have more to lose from an unplanned pregnancy – like missing out on school or being pressured to get married – and often have less access than adults to information, resources, and support to be able to safely end a pregnancy.
Abortion bans do not end the practice, but rather drive it underground, which can have negative consequences on pregnant people’s health and lives. UN human rights experts estimate that the number of unsafe abortions in Honduras could be between 51,000 and 82,000 per year.[24] In 2021, the Honduran Secretariat of Health reported 10,233 hospital discharges for abortion, which may also include miscarriages classified as abortions.[25] This number, a fraction of the estimated number of unsafe abortions, could be explained by many factors, such as not seeking emergency medical care for complications of abortions done outside the hospital, as well as fear of criminalization or being reported to the police, whether due to an attempted abortion or fear that a miscarriage could be seen as an attempted abortion.[26] This was indeed the result for a 22-year-old woman Human Rights Watch spoke to in 2019, who after going to the hospital to treat a miscarriage, was arrested after doctors called the police for a suspected abortion. She was placed under pretrial supervision and waited over two years for her court date.[27]
Human Rights Watch research worldwide shows that criminalizing abortion not only undermines the ability of women and girls to access essential reproductive health services, but it also exacerbates inequalities and discrimination.[28]
Human Rights Watch recommends that the Committee call on the government of Honduras to:
Discrimination and violence against LGBT people are pervasive in Honduras. In 2020, Human Rights Watch released a report documenting abuses against Honduran LGBT people, including discrimination in access to employment and education, domestic violence, sexual assault, and murder.[29]
Honduras has no comprehensive civil law prohibiting discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity. In 2013, Honduras enacted a penal code reform that provided for higher penalties for all bias-motivated crimes on grounds including sexual orientation and gender identity,[30] but there are no confirmed convictions.[31] Since 2017, criminal complaint forms have included a box that can be ticked if the victim reporting a crime self-identifies as LGBTI, but the Attorney General’s Office told Human Rights Watch in 2020 that a lack of cases indicates “that it is being ignored by the officials receiving the complaints.”[32] A new penal code went into effect in June 2020, which maintained these hate crime provisions.[33]
Honduras has no administrative procedure allowing a person to modify their legal name and gender. Trans people interviewed by Human Rights Watch described constant challenges related to the mismatch between their appearance and the name and sex marker on their official documents: challenges doing everyday activities, such as routine banking or buying a long-distance bus ticket, contributed to a sense of perpetual alienation and exclusion.[34] This also affected employment opportunities. Juan Y., a 35-year-old trans man, told Human Rights Watch that he faced discrimination on the job market, compounded by the fact that his identification documents did not match his gender identity.[35] In May 2022, the president of Honduras committed to creating a legal gender recognition procedure, but her government and the civil registry had not done so at the time of writing.[36]
LGBT people in Honduras experience discrimination both during job searches and in the workplace. Of the twenty-five LGBT Hondurans we interviewed for our 2020 report, eight, including seven trans people and one gay man, described experiences of employment discrimination. William, a 36-year-old transgender man from Comayagüela, said that when he tried to get a job at a beauty salon, they did not want him because he looked like a man. When he tried to get a job in a carpentry shop, he was told they only wanted men.[37]
Seven interviewees told Human Rights Watch that they had experienced bullying and discrimination in educational settings. They described being targeted by peers, teachers, and administrators. Some said they felt compelled to leave school as a result, reducing their opportunities in life and placing them on a path to heightened economic insecurity. Anabel H., a trans woman from Tegucigalpa, said that from age 10, she stopped attending school halfway through every year because of bullying. In high school, she said her classmates threatened to rape her and threw water bottles at her. When she complained to the school director, she was told she should act like a boy if she did not want to be bothered.[38]
Human Rights Watch interviewed four LGBT Hondurans who described experiencing domestic violence or neglect at the hands of family members, intimate partners, or both. Anabel H., a trans woman from Tegucigalpa, said that after her father saw her wearing makeup and women’s clothing, he kicked her out of the home at age 17. Once on her own, friends introduced her to sex work, the only way they knew to survive. For children under age 18, sex work is considered under international law as one of the worst forms of child labor, and Anabel experienced it as rape.[39]
Human Rights Watch recommends that the Committee call on the government of Honduras to:
Violence, lack of opportunity, unemployment, and climate-related disasters continue to push thousands of Hondurans to leave the country.[40] More than 50,000 Hondurans were forcibly returned to Honduras in 2021, almost 80 percent from Mexico and 20 percent from the US.[41] Just from January through July 2022, over 56,000 were returned.[42]
Civil society organizations, UN agencies, and Honduran agencies working at airports and at the border provide deportees with some assistance. But once inside Honduras, returned migrants are on their own, as there is no effective reintegration program. Unsupported in their communities, some opt to head for the US again. Only those who express fear of violence if they return home receive some support, consisting of a review by UN agencies of relocation possibilities in other parts of the country and monitoring of their situation, according to UN representatives.[43]
Human Rights Watch recommends that the Committee call on the government of Honduras to:
The Honduran state has granted rights to land and exploitation of natural resources to companies and well-connected individuals through contracts that lack transparency and elicit allegations of corruption, without proper consultation with communities, without considering their rights to land and resources, and with poor or non-existent implementation of their right to free, prior, and informed consent, Indigenous and Garifuna communities said. [44] In 2018, the government introduced a bill to regulate the right to free, prior, and informed consent, but Indigenous and Afro-Honduran organizations rejected it saying it did not guarantee the effective exercise of this right and they had not been included in the bill’s drafting process. The bill is still pending.
Indigenous and Afro-Honduran communities report enormous obstacles to obtaining title to traditional lands. In cases where communities were able to obtain land titles, parts of their ancestral territory were excluded. And even after they received formal documentation, some communities faced court-ordered evictions when third parties presented state-issued titles to the same land, Indigenous and Afro-Honduran organizations told Human Rights Watch.[45]
A 2013 law of Zonas de Empleo y Desarrollo Económico (ZEDE) created areas where private companies were granted extensive operational and functional autonomy.[46] Indigenous and Afro-Honduran organizations say that such zones were created without proper consultation.[47] Congress has since revoked the law, but dismantling ZEDE that are currently functioning remains an issue.[48]
Human Rights Watch recommends that the Committee call on the government of Honduras to:
[1] Human Rights Watch interviews with a prominent member of a political party, Tegucigalpa, January 26, 2022; with M. D. and R. V., judges and members of Asociación de Jueces por la Democracia, Tegucigalpa, January 25, 2022; with I. Z., analyst at the Foro Social de la Deuda externa y Desarrollo de Honduras (FOSDEH), Tegucigalpa, January 23, 2022; and with K. M. and R. E., analysts at Asociación por una Sociedad más Justa (ASJ), Tegucigalpa, January 24, 2022.
[3] Decreto 74 2022 Junta Nominadora Corte Suprema, on file with Human Rights Watch.
[4] Human Rights Watch interviews with M. D. and R. V., judges and members of Asociación de Jueces por la Democracia, Tegucigalpa, January 25, 2022.
[5] United Nations Office of the High Commissioner on Human Rights, “Basic Principles on the Independence of the Judiciary,” adopted 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., chief of the Unidad Fiscal Especializada contra Redes de Corrupción (UFERCO), Tegucigalpa, January 25, 2022.
[7] Government of Honduras, Decreto No. 418-2013, March 7, 2014, https://www.tsc.gob.hn/web/leyes/Ley%20para%20la%20Clasificaci%C3%B3n%20de%20Documentos%20P%C3%BAblicos%20relacionados%20con%20la%20Seguridad%20y%20Defensa%20Nacional.pdf (accessed July 27, 2022).
[8] Government of Honduras, Decreto 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, Decreto 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, Decreto 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, Decreto 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, Decreto 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, Ley de Transparencia y Acceso a la Información Pública (“Law of Transparency and Access to Public Information”), Decreto Legislativo 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 news release, January 23, 2021, https://www.hrw.org/news/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, Decreto 54-2009, April 2, 2009, https://data.miraquetemiro.org/sites/default/files/documentos/Decreto%2054-2009,%20Prohibibi%C3%B3n%20de%20la%20PAE,%20Honduras.pdf (accessed July 27, 2022).
[16] Amy Braunschweiger and Margaret Wurth, “Life or Death Choices for Women Living Under Honduras’ Abortion Ban,” commentary, Human Rights Watch Witness piece, June 6, 2019, https://www.hrw.org/news/2019/06/06/life-or-death-choices-women-living-under-honduras-abortion-ban.
[17] Guttmacher Institute, “Country Profile: Honduras,” https://www.guttmacher.org/geography/latin-america-caribbean/honduras (accessed July 28, 2022).
[18] Centro de Derechos de Mujeres, Observatorio de Derechos Humanos de las Mujeres, “Violencia sexual contra niñas y mujeres en Honduras – 2021,” June 2022, https://derechosdelamujer.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/Boletin_VS2022.pdf (accessed July 28, 2022).
[19] “Life or Death Choices for Women Living Under Honduras’ Abortion Ban,” https://www.hrw.org/news/2019/06/06/life-or-death-choices-women-living-under-honduras-abortion-ban.
[20] United Nations, “Honduras: Expertas de la ONU deploran la enmienda constitucional que ataca el derecho al aborto seguro,” January 19, 2021, https://news.un.org/es/story/2021/01/1486792 (accessed July 29, 2022).
[21] UN Population Fund (UNFPA), “Seeing the Unseen: The case for action in the neglected crisis of unintended pregnancy,” 2022, https://www.unfpa.org/sites/default/files/pub-pdf/EN_SWP22%20report_0.pdf (accessed July 29, 2022).
[22] UNFPA, “Un drama televisivo hondureño ilustra las realidades del embarazo en adolescentes,” November 4, 2020, https://www.unfpa.org/es/news/un-drama-televisivo-hondureno-ilustra-las-realidades-del-embarazo-en-adolescentes#:~:text=Seg%C3%BAn%20el%20reciente%20informe%20del,del%20doble%20del%20promedio%20mundial (accessed July 29, 2022).
[23] Centro de Derechos de Mujeres, Observatorio de Derechos Humanos de las Mujeres, “Violencia sexual en 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: Expertas de la ONU deploran la enmienda constitucional que ataca el derecho al aborto seguro,” January 19, 2021, https://news.un.org/es/story/2021/01/1486792 (accessed July 29, 2022).
[25] Centro de Derechos de Mujeres, Observatorio de Derechos Humanos de las Mujeres, “Violencia sexual contra niñas y mujeres en Honduras - 2021,” https://derechosdelamujer.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/Boletin_VS2022.pdf.
[27] “Life or Death Choices for Women Living Under Honduras’ Abortion Ban,” https://www.hrw.org/news/2019/06/06/life-or-death-choices-women-living-under-honduras-abortion-ban.
[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 Obstacles 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 of 2013, https://www.poderjudicial.gob.hn/CEDIJ/Leyes/Documents/CodigoPenal-ReformaIncluida.pdf (accessed July 27, 2022).
[31] Government of Honduras, Ministerio Público, Oficio S.D.G.F. no. 480-2020, September 25, 2020.
[33] Government of Honduras, Decreto 130-2017, Código Penal (Decree 130-2017, Penal Code), https://www.tsc.gob.hn/web/leyes/Decreto_130-2017.pdf (accessed July 27, 2022), art. 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 Its Responsibility in Trans Killing,” May 13, 2022, commentary, Human Rights Dispatch, https://www.hrw.org/news/2022/05/13/honduras-recognizes-its-responsibility-trans-killing.
[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::P12100_ILO_CODE:C182 (accessed September 11, 2020), art. 3(b); Human Rights Watch interview with A. H., Comayagüela, May 16, 2019.
[40] UN 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 mobiity tracking within the context of COVID-19 report #6, August 24, 2021, https://dtm.iom.int/reports/honduras-baseline-assessment-migration-flows-and-mobiity-tracking-within-context-covid-19-3 (accessed July 28, 2022); UNHCR, “In Honduras, climate change is one more factor sparking displacement,” November 9, 2021, https://www.unhcr.org/en-us/news/stories/2021/11/61844eef4/honduras-climate-change-factor-sparking-displacement.html (accessed July 28, 2022).
[41] Government of Honduras, Observatorio Consular y Migratorio, “Comparativo Hondureños Retornados, 2015-2022,” updated July 2022, https://conmigho.hn/retornados-2022/ (accessed July 28, 2022).
[43] Human Rights Watch interview with UNHCR representatives, Tegucigalpa, January 26, 2022.
[44] Human Rights Watch interviews with OHCHR representatives in Honduras, Tegucigalpa, January 24, 2022; with L. S., chief of UFERCO, Tegucigalpa, January 25, 2022; and with R. C., analyst of the Organización Fraternal Negra Hondureña (OFRANEH), February 2, 2022.
[45] Human Rights Watch interviews with B. Z. C., director of the Consejo Cívico de Organizaciones Populares e Indígenas de Honduras (COPINH), Tegucigalpa, January 25, 2022; and with R. C., analyst of the OFRANEH, February 2, 2022.
[46] Government of Honduras, Decreto 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 Consejo Cívico de Organizaciones Populares e Indígenas de Honduras (COPINH), Tegucigalpa, January 25, 2022; and with R. C., analyst of the OFRANEH, February 2, 2022.
[48] Government of Honduras, Decreto No. 33-2022, April 26, 2022, https://www.tsc.gob.hn/web/leyes/Decreto-33-2022.pdf (accessed July 28, 2022).
Violence and Discrimination Against LGBT People in El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras, and Obstacles to Asylum in the United States
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