Honduras: Killing of rights defenders highlight perils they face, says UN rights office

Honduras: Killing of rights defenders highlight perils they face, says UN rights office

19 August 2016 – With at least eight human rights defenders killed in Honduras this year, two United Nations and international rights experts today said the country is one of the most hostile and dangerous for rights defenders and urged the Government to take urgent steps to ensure their protection.

“The Government of Honduras must immediately adopt and apply effective measures to protect human rights defenders, so they can carry out their human rights work, without fear or threat of violence or murder,” Michel Forst, UN Special Rapporteur on human rights defenders, and José de Jesús Orozco Henríquez, Inter-American Rapporteur on Human Rights Defenders, said today in a news release issued by the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR).

“Violence and attacks against news release not only affect the basic guarantees owed to every individual. They also undermine the fundamental role that human rights defenders play in building a society that is more equal, just and democratic,” they added.

In the most recent violence, Kevin Ferrera, a lawyer and outspoken youth leader of Juventud Liberal (Liberal Youth, a section of the Liberal Party of Honduras) and founding member of the organization Oposicion Indignada (Indignant Opposition), on 9 August. According to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), so far this year, at least eight rights defenders have been killed.

More:
http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=54720#.V7fOQ-RTGYE