Geneva.
Honduras continues to face challenges in the area of fundamental freedoms, “including high levels of violence, impunity“Discrimination and lack of access to economic, social and cultural rights,” said UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet today.
In her report on the situation in this and other countries at the United Nations Human Rights Council, the High Commissioner also stressed that the covid-19 pandemic and the impact caused by the hurricanes Iota and Eta last year “they have exacerbated the pre-existing obstacles facing the most vulnerable.”
Bachelet stated that during the state of emergency declared in Honduras due to the pandemic, 665 social protests were registered, and expressed concern about the arbitrary detentions carried out in them, as well as the excessive use of force by the security operations.
He also expressed concern about the “militarization of public safety” during the pandemic, so he called on the Honduran government to “undertake a gradual process of demilitarization and strengthening of the civil institutions“In terms of security.
The former Chilean president noted that in 2020 the UN office he heads watched as threats, persecution and even killings of human rights, environmental and land defenders continued in the Central American country.
He also expressed concern about “obstacles to access to justice in various lawsuits,” including one related to the assassination of Honduran indigenous leader Berta Cáceres, committed five years ago.
The High Commissioner also lamented that the Honduran government has not yet initiated participatory consultations to reform the new Penal code, And stressed that many returned Hondurans, after being part of the so-called “caravans of migrants”, returned “without meeting the criteria of will, dignity and security.”