Extrajudicial executions remain a widespread phenomenon in Honduras, says UN expert

Honduras must face decades of impunity in terms of extrajudicial executions and hold the perpetrators of these abuses accountable, an independent UN expert said this Friday.

After a ten-day visit to the Central American nation, the UN special rapporteur* on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions highlighted “the manifest political will and the ongoing efforts of the Honduran government to strengthen human rights”, but indicated that these Actions “must translate into effective prevention and investigation of unlawful deaths”.

In a Preliminary report Morris Tidball-Binz** assessed Honduras’ progress since the visits of his two predecessors, Asma Jahangir and Christof Heyns in 2001 and 2016, respectively.

“Effective investigations, access to information and justice for victims continue to be hampered by limited investigative capacity and a culture of impunityeven though they are essential to break the protracted cycle of violence,” observed the UN expert.

Extrajudicial executions, which were systematic in the 1980s and peaked after the 2009 military coup and the 2017 post-electoral crisis, remain a widespread phenomenon.

It affects all social layers

The rapporteur placed the ubiquity of these human rights violations in all social layersbut stressed that they especially affect groups in vulnerable situations, such as indigenous peoples, Garífuna (Afro-Honduran) communities, peasants, human and environmental rights defenders, journalists and people from the LGBTIQ+ collective.

“The government must ensure that the use of force by security and defense bodies is strictly regulated in accordance with international standards,” Tidball-Binz said.

The expert applauded the bill on the use of force, based on these principles, which is being studied by the National Congress, and urged its adoption.

The rapporteur pointed out the obstacles that victims face in documenting and investigating their complaints, as well as the lack of adequate reparations. He also expressed his concern for harassment and reprisals against victims and witnesses of unlawful deathsas well as the challenges for the effective protection of these people.

Murders of women and the LGTBI+ community

Tidball-Binz welcomed the demilitarization of the prison system and urged the government to establish a single digitized system to record deaths in custody.

“All deaths in custody must be investigated in accordance with international standards set out in the Protocol of Minnesota on the Investigation of Potentially Wrongful Deaths (2016)“, specific.

The expert also highlighted the unequal impact of the murders of women and lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex people. She expressed her concern about the lack of specialized protocols to investigate violence against women, including femicides and violent deaths of LGBTIQ+ people, and asked the Government to adopt and apply them.

The Special Rapporteur stated that a critical step to effectively investigate and prevent unlawful killings is the creation of an Institute of Legal Medicine independent, autonomous and well financed. Tidball-Binz welcomed a recent legislative proposal to this effect.

“Holding the perpetrators and masterminds of extrajudicial executions accountable is not an option, but rather an obligation under international law,” said the expert. “

The special rapporteur will present his final report to the Human Rights Council in June 2024.

*The special rapporteurs are part of the “Special Procedures” of the Human Rights Council. Special Procedures, the largest body of independent experts in the UN system for Human Rights, is the general name of the independent fact-finding and monitoring mechanisms established by the Council to deal with specific country situations or thematic issues worldwide. the world. Special Procedures experts work on a voluntary basis; they are not UN staff and do not receive a salary for their work. They are independent of any government or organization and act in their individual capacity.

**The UN Special Rapporteur on summary or arbitrary extrajudicial executions is a doctor specializing in forensic sciences, human rights and humanitarian action. He is currently Associate Clinical Professor of Forensic Medicine in the School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine, Monash University School of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences, Australia, and Visiting Professor in the Department of Forensic Medicine, Ethics and Medical Law. from the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Coimbra (Portugal) and from the Department of Biomedical Health Sciences of the University of Milan (Italy). Mr. Tidball-Binz has worked for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), where he helped establish and was the first director of the Forensic Unit and Services. He also co-founded the Argentine Forensic Anthropology Team, a pioneer organization in the application of scientific methods to investigate serious human rights violations and crimes against humanity.