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Voices from Honduras: Human Rights and Accountability

Date:
Location:
2255 Rayburn House Office Building

Announcement

Please join the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission for a briefing on the human rights situation in post-election Honduras.   

Widespread protests occurred in the aftermath of the disputed November 2017 general elections in Honduras. In response, the Honduran government imposed a state of emergency and curfew, and deployed police and members of the armed forces to remove protesters from the streets. The UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights registered 23 people killed during the post-electoral protests, and identified other irregularities that led the Office to express concerns about the use of excessive lethal force. Non-governmental organizations documented additional abuses.

Prior to the elections, there was already widespread alarm about threats and attacks against human rights defenders.  The March 2016 assassination of Berta Cáceres, an award-winning indigenous rights and environmental leader, is the most notorious case. But Honduras has the highest number of killings of human rights defenders on a per capita basis in the world. Broad international concern with the ineffectiveness of the judicial system had informed the creation of the Mission to Support the Fight against Corruption and Impunity in Honduras (MACCIH) just two months before Cáceres’ death.

Honduras is encompassed within the U.S. Strategy for Engagement in Central America, and U.S. officials just concluded a bilateral human rights dialogue. This briefing will provide an opportunity to hear from Honduran human rights defenders about the current situation on the ground, and ask what more Congress and the U.S. government should be doing in light of  ongoing human rights problems.

This briefing will be open to Members of Congress, congressional staff, the interested public, and the media. For any questions, please contact Kimberly Stanton at 202-225-3599 or Kimberly.Stanton@mail.house.gov(for Rep. McGovern) or Jamie Staley at 202-226-1516 or Jamie.Staley@mail.house.gov (for Rep. Hultgren).

Hosted by:

James P. McGovern
Member of Congress
Co-Chair, TLHRC
Randy Hultgren
Member of Congress
Co-Chair, TLHRC
Witnesses

Opening Remarks

Panelists

  • Rev. Ismael Moreno Coto, S.J. (Padre Melo), Jesuit priest in Honduras
    Written statement
  • Karla Rivas, Honduran journalist
    Written statement
  • Ely Castro Rosales, Local Coordinator, Convergence Against Continuance, Honduras
    Written statement
  • Lisa Haugaard, Executive Director, Latin America Working Group
    Written statement
  • Charles Call, Associate Professor, School of International Service, American University and Nonresident Senior Fellow, Brookings Institution

Moderator

  • Peter J. Meyer, Specialist in Latin American Affairs, Congressional Research Service

Bios

Meeting Documents

Resources

 

Contact The Commission

Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission
House Committee on Foreign Affairs
4150 O'Neill House Office Building
200 C Street SW
Washington, D.C. 20515
United States of America

Phone: +1 (202) 225-3599
Fax: +1 (202) 226-6584
TLHRC@mail.house.gov

Accessibility

The Commission seeks to make its events, meetings and hearings accessible to persons with disabilities.

If you are in need of special accommodations, please call (202) 225-3599 at least four business days in advance.

Questions with regard to special accommodations in general (including availability of Commission materials in alternative formats and assistive listening devices, sign language interpretation, etc.) may be directed to the Commission.

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