Honduras Accompaniment Project

 

 

U.S. Rep. Hank Johnson (D-GA) has extended the deadline for signatures to the Congressional “Dear Colleague” addressing ongoing human rights violations against Afro-indigenous communities in Honduras until Wednesday, January 23 at 5 pm.

Relatives of people who have died at the hands of military personnel, as well as surviving victims, demanded justice at a press conference held today at the headquarters of COFADEH (Committee of the Relatives of the Detained and Disappeared in Honduras). Decree 223-2011, using the second and last paragraphs of Article 274 of the Constitution as its basis, allowed the Armed Forces to perform police functions when there is a ‘state of emergency in public security’ and has been renewed 4 times through executive decrees. It has resulted in the involvement of military personnel in the violent deaths of civilians, including children.
 

 

From the Committee of Family Members of the Detained and Disappeared of Honduras (COFADEH) to the national and international community, to organizations that defend human rights and to organizations that defend freedom of expression, we communica

 

November 15, 2012, New York, Paris and The Hague – Today, two leading human rights organizations submitted evidence to the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague, including expert testimony, periodic compilations of crimes against humanity committed in the last year, and evidence showing there has been no accountability so far for the crimes in Honduras since the 2009 coup.  The Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) and the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) made the submission.

Rep. Howard Berman is the Ranking Member of the Committee on Foreign Affairs on the U.S. House of Representatives (i.e. the top-ranking Democrat on foreign policy issues in the House). In November 2011, Berman wrote a letter to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton expressing his concern regarding the human rights situation in Honduras and the need to examine the continuation of aid to Honduran security forces in light of corruption scandals and reigning impunity.