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From February
25 to March 4 a large group of representatives from national and international
organizations and networks will be in Valle del Aguán, northeastern Honduras, to
conduct a careful assessment of the state of human rights and raise
international awareness on the appalling living conditions of the area’s peasant
families. Rel-UITA will be one of the organizations participating in the mission
and will provide ongoing coverage of this important initiative
The process of
land dispossession and concentration and the spread of African palm plantations
and other single crop plantations has been undermining the right to food
security of thousands of peasant families in Bajo Aguán, generating an alarming
situation of violence and repression.
Rel-UITA
(IUF Latin America) and FIAN International (Foodfirst Information &
Action Network) report that 18 activists from peasant communities were murdered
in 2010.
This is a
highly critical situation that is framed in a context of widespread and
systematic harassment, repression and violent expulsion of peasant organizations
demanding access to land and an full agrarian reform.
“In view of
this situation, several organizations1
decided that it was necessary to conduct a mission to monitor the situation in
Bajo Aguán,” Claudia Pineda, a member of FIAN International in
Honduras, said.
According to
Pineda, the mission’s objectives include assessing the state of human rights
in the area, expressing the support and concern of the international community
to peasant and social organizations in the region, and raising global awareness
of the human rights situation in Bajo Aguán.
“We also want
to contribute with our own specific analysis of the conflict to the preparation
of the preliminary study that will be presented to the International Criminal
Court (ICC) and the Inter-American Commission for Human Rights (IACHR),”
the FIAN International activist said.
The
organizations that participate in the mission will make field visits to the
peasant settlements targeted by repression and will interview members of social,
popular, and labor organizations, and meet with legal experts to determine the
extent of impunity in the region.
Meetings with
officers of the National Agricultural Institute (INA), the Human Rights
Prosecutor’s Office, and representatives of the diplomatic community and
international organizations are also planned.
The final
report will be submitted to the IACHR and its results will be discussed
at the next session of the UN Human Rights Council’s Universal Periodic Review
of Honduras.
“It will also
be conveyed to the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR),
to the different competent bodies of the Organization of American States (OAS)
and the European Union, to EU member States, and to the
International Criminal Court,” Pineda concluded.
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