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Honduras Domestic Human Rights Organizations
Human rights groups in Honduras first became active in
the early
1980s when revolution and counterrevolution brought
violence and
instability to Central America. In Honduras, these groups
organized
in response to the mounting level of violence targeted at
leftist
organizations, particularly from 1982-84, when General
Gustavo
lvarez commanded the military. Human rights organizations
were at
times targeted by the Honduran military with harassment
and
political violence. According to some observers, the
United States
embassy in Honduras also got involved in a campaign to
discredit
Honduran human rights organizations at a time when
Honduras was
serving as a key component of United States policy toward
Central
America by hosting the Contras and a United States
military
presence.
In the early 1990s, there were three major
nongovernmental human
rights organizations in Honduras: the Committee for the
Defense of
Human Rights in Honduras (Comité para la Defensa de
Derechos
Humanos de Honduras--Codeh); the Committee of the Families
of the
Detained and Disappeared in Honduras (Comité de las
Familias de los
Detenidos y Desaparecidos Hondureños--Cofadeh); and the
Center of
the Investigation and Promotion of Human Rights (Centro de
Investigación y Promoción de los Derechos
Humanos--Ciprodeh).
Established in 1981 by Ramón Custodio, Codeh became the
country's foremost human rights organization in the 1980s,
with a
network throughout the country. The organization withstood
harassment and intimidation by Honduran security forces.
In January
1988, Codeh's regional director in northern Honduras,
Miguel Ángel
Pavón, was assassinated before he was about to testify in
a case
brought before the Inter-American Court of Human Rights
(IACHR). In
1981 and 1982, Codeh and Cofadeh had brought three cases
before the
IACHR involving the disappearances of two Hondurans,
Ángel Manfredo
Velásquez and Saúl Godínez, and two Costa Ricans traveling
in
Honduras, Fairen Garbi and Yolanda Solís Corrales. The
court
ultimately found Honduras responsible for the
disappearances of the
two Hondurans, but not for the two Costa Ricans.
In the 1990s, Codeh remained the country's most
important and
most internationally known human rights organization.
Codeh
continued to issue annual reports and to speak out
frequently, not
only on human rights violations, but also on economic,
social, and
political issues. Some observers, however, have criticized
Codeh
for going beyond a human rights focus, as well as for
exaggerating
charges against the government and military. In the 1980s
and as
late as 1990, the United States Department of State in its
annual
human rights reports on Honduras charged that Codeh's
charges were
ill-documented, exaggerated, and in some cases false.
Cofadeh was founded in 1982 by Zenaida Velásquez,
sister of
Ángel Manfredo Velásquez, the missing student and labor
activist
whose case Codeh and Cofadeh brought before the IACHR. As
its name
suggests, Cofadeh's membership consisted of relatives of
the
disappeared and detained, and in the 1980s its members
often
demonstrated near the Presidential Palace in the center of
Tegucigalpa.
Ciprodeh, founded in 1991 by Leo Valladares, provides
human
rights educational and legal services. The group offers
human
rights courses and monthly seminars and has a special
program for
the protection of the rights of children and women.
The Honduran government did not established an
effective human
rights monitor until late 1992, and Codeh and Cofadeh
often served
this purpose. In 1987 the Azcona government established
the InterInstitutional Commission on Human Rights (Comisión InterInstitucional de Derechos Humanos--CIDH), made up of
representatives from the three branches of government and
the
military, to investigate human rights violations. The CIDH
proved
ineffective and did not receive cooperation from either
civilian
judicial or military authorities.
In December 1992, the Callejas government inaugurated a
new
governmental human rights body headed by Valladares. In
1993 this
new office of the National Commission for the Protection
of Human
Rights (Comisión Nacional para la Protección de Derechos
Humanos--
Conaprodeh) received complaints of human rights violations
and, in
some instances, provided "protection" to those citizens
issuing
complaints.
In the early 1990s, Honduras also had a number of
ethnic-based
organizations representing Hondurans of African origin and
the
nation's indigenous population. Six ethnic-based
organizations were
loosely grouped together under the Honduras Advisory
Council for
Autonomous Ethnic Development (Consejo Asesor Hondureño
para el
Desarrollo de las Étnicas Autóctonas--CAHDEA).
Representing the
nation's black population, including the
Garifuna (see Glossary),
and English-speaking
Creoles (see Glossary) was the
Honduras Black Fraternal Organization (Organización Fraternal Negra
Hondureña--Ofraneh), a group established in 1977 for the betterment
of social, political, economic, and cultural conditions of black
Hondurans. The indigenous peoples of Honduras first began forming
national organizations in the 1950s, and in the 1990s, five
indigenous
organizations were represented in CAHDEA. These consisted
of
organizations representing the Miskito, Pech, Lenca,
Towaka, and
Jicaque peoples. According to the United States Department
of State
in its human rights report for 1992, Honduran indigenous
peoples
had "little or no participation in decisions affecting
their lands,
cultures, traditions, or the allocation of natural
resources." The
report further asserted that legal recourse is commonly
denied to
indigenous groups and that the seizing of indigenous lands
by
nonindigenous farmers and cattle growers is common.
Data as of December 1993
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