Honduras

A December 2010 report by Human Rights Watch outlines the lack of accountability for human rights abuses committed during and following the June 2009 coup in Honduras. The report also documents 47 cases of threats or attacks, including 18 killings, against journalists, human rights defenders, and political activists since the inauguration of Honduran President Porfirio Lobo in January 2010.

As an official “Truth Commission” was inaugurated May 4th in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, leading Honduran human rights groups expressed serious concerns and announced an alternative commission.

Saying that a real truth commission “should provide a space which has been denied to the victims, in which they can be heard and injury to their rights repaired,” the groups criticized the official commission for “exclusion of the victims” and the “lack of processes to ensure effectiveness and impartiality.”