Tracking cases that protect freedom of expression, association, and assembly
Location: Honduras
According to the CIVICUS Monitor, civic space in Honduras is rated as “repressed”. Early in December 2022, President Xiomara Castro declared a state of exception in several regions of Honduras to address gang violence. An executive decree suspended fundamental guarantees that include freedom of association and assembly. Hundreds of security agents were deployed to urban areas particularly affected by organised crime. The state of exception has been extended several times, the latest lasting until 6th October 2023.
Human rights groups have warned of an escalation in killings of human rights defenders and campesino groups in the Bajo Aguán region of Honduras. Armed attacks and threats against regional campesino cooperatives continue in the region.
The attacks against freedom of expression, particularly against journalists, persist in Honduras. The government in Honduras has not made an effort to build consistent alliances with civil society or to build new foundations for open and transparent public administration.
For more information about the country, visit: https://monitor.civicus.org/country/honduras/
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Carlos Ávila Case
Carlos Eduardo Ávila Aguilera is a journalist, writer, high school teacher, and political leader in Choluteca, Honduras. He has faced prolonged legal persecution since 2007 when he published articles in media outlets about the complaints of sexual harassment filed by four underage students against a professor at the José Cecilio del Valle Institute. For more…
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Wilfredo Moncada Case
Wilfredo Moncada was murdered during a peaceful protest on April 10, 2019. There has been little progress on the criminal proceedings against the police agents responsible for his death.
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Guapinol Case
Guapinol defenders have faced criminalization and attacks against them for years, in retaliation for their work as community leaders and human rights defenders. This case discusses the arbitrary detention of eight Guapinol defenders who were released in 2022, after a legal procedure full of human rights violations.
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Berta Cáceres Case
Berta Cáceres, an indigenous Lenca leader, was murdered in 2016, as a retaliation for her activism against the installation of the Agua Zarca hydroelectric project. Thanks to her family’s constant efforts, the men responsible for the crime were brought before justice. However, they are still seeking to clarify the responsibility of the family who owns…
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Jhony Andrés Salgado Fuentes Case
Jhony Andrés Salgado Fuentes was arbitrarily and illegally detained inside his home in the context of the 2017 post-election protest. The case against him was dismissed in March 2022. Even though there was a criminal proceeding against the police officers responsible for the detention, they were cleared of criminal responsibility.
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Action of unconstitutionality against the reform to Honduras’ Penal Code
On May 10, 2020, the new Criminal Code entered into force in Honduras, through Decree no. 130-2017. This legal instrument includes several criminal offenses that criminalize journalism and the defense of human rights, and limit the right to information, freedom of expression, and the right to protest. Several actions of unconstitutionality against it are pending…
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Iris Argentina Chávez Case
Land defender Iris Argentina Álvarez Chávez was murdered on April 2, 2020, as a result of a violent and illegal eviction carried out by a private company. Even though two men were indicted a few days later, they have not been convicted.