Large-scale projects for tourism, mining and agriculture — most notably banana and African palm (Elaeis guineensis) — have advanced on Indigenous and Afro-descendant land, according to the report. Often, development takes place without free, prior and informed consent, a process in which residents are consulted about how their lives will be impacted by a project.
“[The situation] has consolidated the concentration of wealth for a minority of the population and has affected the state’s ability to advance redistributive justice that improves the lives of the affected communities,” the report said. “This has generated social unrest and conflicts in many communities in Honduras.”
One of the gravest crises is playing out in the Bajo Aguán region in the department of Colón, where locals have clashed with businessmen over land claims and pollution from mining, resulting in death threats, intimidation, disappearances and violent deaths, allegedly at the hands of paramilitary groups. Over 30 rural leaders in one community had arrest warrants issued against them, with eight spending over two years in prison, according to Amnesty International.
Between 2014 and 2015, authorities recovered 86 bodies during investigations, according to the Violent Deaths Unit in Bajo Aguán, which was established to investigate crimes in the area.
Overall, the government hasn’t done enough, critics say. It’s ultimately responsible for violating rural residents’ rights to “life and integrity” by failing to protect them from the violence and bring justice to their aggressors, according to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, which filed a petition with the Inter-American Court of Human Rights last year.
Mechanisms such as roundtables for dialogue and agencies that carry out investigations can help combat these human rights violations. But they need to be stronger and more organized, the OAS report said, noting that many task forces overlap in their duties and often end up doing the same work, or lack the institutional support needed to meet their goals.
The country also needs to create legislation that allows for better land titling and demarcation, especially for collective territories of Indigenous and Afro-Honduran people. The legislation should reinforce the prior consultation process and include protection measures against threats on their land and natural resources.
“Honduras has the opportunity to regain confidence in state institutions,” the OAS said in a release, “and to do so it must prioritize strengthening institutions, providing them with sufficient resources, ensuring public management capacity and implementing policies and budgets from the highest possible levels.”
Banner image: A protest for a murdered environmental activist in Honduras. Photo by Daniel Cima via Flickr. (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
See related from this reporter:
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Agriculture, Conservation, Deforestation, Environment, Environmental Law, Environmental Politics, extractives, Forestry, Governance, Mining, Protected Areas, Rainforest Deforestation, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests
Central America, Honduras, Latin America
Source link : https://news.mongabay.com/2024/05/honduran-environmental-defenders-hit-hard-by-human-rights-crisis-report-says/
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Publish date : 2024-05-28 03:00:00
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