IACHR

Press Release

IACHR Makes On-site Visit to Honduras

July 26, 2018

More on the IACHR

A+ A-

Washington, D.C. - The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) will conduct an on-site visit to Honduras from July 30 to August 3, 2018, at the invitation of the Honduran State. The IACHR will conduct field observations on the human rights situation in the country, addressing issues related to justice and impunity, violence, inequality, democratic institutions, the rights of children, adolescents and young people, economic, social, cultural and environmental rights, and freedom of expression. In particular, the IACHR will analyze the human rights situation in the post-electoral context. In addition, the IACHR will pay attention to the situation of human rights defenders and law enforcement officials, persons deprived of their liberty, including adolescents in contact with criminal law, and other groups at particular risk. The Commission appreciates the cooperation of the Government of Honduras and civil society organizations in the planning and preparation of the visit.

The delegation that will lead the visit will be led by the First Vice-President, Esmeralda Arosemena de Troitiño; the Second Vice-President, Luis Ernesto Vargas Silva; Commissioners Flávia Piovesan and Antonia Urrejola, and Commissioners Francisco Eguiguren Praeli and Joel Hernández García. The delegation also includes the Executive Secretary of the Commission, Paulo Abrão; the Deputy Executive Secretary, María Claudia Pulido; the Chief of Staff of the Executive Secretary, Marisol Blanchard Vera; the Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Expression, Edison Lanza; the Special Rapporteur for Economic, Social, Cultural and Environmental Rights (ESCR), Soledad García Muñoz; and specialists from the Executive Secretariat.

The Inter-American Commission will meet with government authorities from the three branches of government and will meet with representatives of civil society and other relevant actors. The delegation will visit Tegucigalpa, Bajo Aguan, San Pedro Sula, Tela and Puerto Lempira. The Commission’s delegation will receive complaints and information at an office in the Marriott Hotel in Tegucigalpa on all days of its visit, as well as in the places to be visited outside the capital city.

The IACHR will present its preliminary observations at the end of the visit at a press conference on Friday, August 3, at 12:00 at the Marriott Hotel.

A principal, autonomous body of the Organization of American States (OAS), the IACHR derives its mandate from the OAS Charter and the American Convention on Human Rights. The Inter-American Commission has a mandate to promote respect for and to defend human rights in the region and acts as a consultative body to the OAS in this area. The Commission is composed of seven independent members who are elected in an individual capacity by the OAS General Assembly and who do not represent their countries of origin or residence.

No. 164/18