Nevertheless, social discrimination against LGBTQI+ persons persisted, as did physical violence. The most recent national and local elections were held in November. Thousands of Hondurans affected by hurricanes Eta and Iota, violence and poverty were forced to leave the country and headed north. Military Abuses and Extrajudicial Killings. The Secretariat of Human Rights reported that as of September 7, the total prison population was 20,768 in 25 prisons and one detention center. Reproductive Rights: There were no reports of coerced abortion or involuntary sterilization on the part of government authorities. The law entered into force on November 1. Low salaries and a lack of internal controls rendered judicial officials susceptible to bribery. The law places restrictions on these rights, such as requiring that a recognized trade union represent at least 30 workers, prohibiting foreign nationals from holding union offices, and requiring that union officials work in the same substantive area of the business as the workers they represent. The reported killings took place during law enforcement operations or were linked to criminal activity by government agents. A large chunk of those arrived via cruise ships, however. Both the STSS and the courts may order a company to reinstate workers, but the STSS lacked the personnel and transportation resources to verify compliance. The law criminalizes discrimination based on race and ethnicity and includes crimes committed against individuals because of race or ethnicity as aggravating circumstances to increase penalties for criminal offenses. As of September the Secretariat of Human Rights reported the countrys pretrial detention center held 33 individuals. Some judges, however, ruled that such suspects may be released on the condition that they continue to report periodically to authorities. Most of the abusers were reported to be male classmates, but there were also reports of sexual abuse by community members. June 13, 2022. Regulations for implementing the law remained under development as of November. The Honduran National Polices Special Victims Investigations Unit, formerly known as the Violent Crimes Task Force, investigated crimes against high-profile and particularly vulnerable victims, including journalists as well as judges, lawyers, and members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and intersex (LGBTQI+) community. Health-care workers protested the lack of adequate protective equipment and delayed salary payments during the COVID-19 pandemic. These reporting centers were in addition to the 298 government-operated womens offices one in each municipality that provided a wide array of services to women, focusing on education, personal finance, health, social and political participation, environmental stewardship, and prevention of gender-based violence. The government provided victims of sexual violence access to other health-care services. Honduras: Freedom in the World 2021 Country Report | Freedom House UPDATES: THE INVASION OF UKRAINE Our Issues Perspectives Policy Recommendations Explore the Map Donate Freedom in the World 2021 Honduras Partly Free 44 100 Last Year's Score & Status 45 100 Partly Free Global freedom statuses are calculated on a weighted scale. Powerful special interests, including organized criminal groups, exercised influence on the outcomes of some court proceedings. On April 23, the Public Ministry arrested and charged Josue Exequiel Martinez Martinez, Siriaco Mejia Santos, Francisco Lopez Lazo, and Mario Anibal Lopez Velasquez for the December 2020 murder of Felix Vasquez. Employers frequently refused to comply with STSS orders that required them to reinstate workers who had been dismissed for participating in union activities. Public-sector trade unionists raised concerns regarding government interference in trade union activities, including its suspension or ignoring of collective agreements and its dismissals of union members and leaders. Her most recent evaluation was in August, and the court declared her fit to stand trial in September. On July 5, the National Tribunal Court found Roberto David Castillo Mejia guilty for his role as one of the alleged intellectual authors of her murder. Freedom to Participate in the Political Process, Section 4. The Secretariat of Human Rights stated it was taking every precaution to protect prisoners rights and assure that the work provided opportunities for prisoners to develop skills they could use in legal economic activities after their release. We are considering visiting Roatan and have read about the crime rate being high, home invasions, break ins etc. LGBT people in Honduras are frequently the targets of violence and discrimination, according to Human Rights Watch research. Bay islands in Honduaras by daarwasik (CC BY) That meant that Honduras generated around $722M (USD) in the tourism sector, accounting for 3% of the national GDP. The change increases the penalty from two to four years to four to six years. Credible allegations of corruption in the STSS continued. Funding will be drawn from the 2023 Additional Ukraine Supplemental Appropriations Act passed in . NGOs reported the government did not effectively combat discrimination and promote equal access to government services or employment opportunities. EL SALVADOR / 3 . Corruption along with a lack of investigative resources and judicial delays led to widespread impunity, including in security forces. According to UNDP data, informal workers played a large role in nearly every industry, including agriculture and fishing; mining; manufacturing; utilities; construction; wholesale retail, hotels, and restaurants; transport and storage; and personal services. Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. Travel to Honduras should be . Honduras' population growth rate has slowed since the 1990s and is now 1.2% annually with a birth rate that averages 2.1 children per woman and more among rural, indigenous, and poor women. This definition included workers who did not contribute to any form of social security protection, and thus it may have undercounted underemployed workers who rely on jobs in both the formal and informal sectors. Some employers either refused to engage in collective bargaining or made it very difficult to do so. The legal age of consent is 18. Although 74 percent of births were attended by skilled health care personnel, NGOs reported significant gaps in obstetric care, especially in rural areas. Prison conditions were harsh and at times life threatening due to pervasive gang-related violence and the governments failure to control criminal activity within the prisons. According to UNICEF, 34 percent of women and 12 percent of men ages 20 to 24 married before age 18. In-country Movement: There were areas where authorities could not assure freedom of movement because of criminal activity and a lack of significant government presence. Contraception supplies continued to be limited. The Military Police of Public Order report to military authorities but conduct operations sanctioned by civilian security officials as well as by military leaders. Persons with HIV and AIDS continued to be targets of discrimination, and they suffered disproportionately from gender-based violence. On March 3, unknown assailants killed Martin Pandy, president of the Garifuna community of Corozal, and another community member. Child Abuse: Child abuse remained a serious problem. During 2021, a total of 342 femicides were recorded in Honduras. Vanessa worked as a volunteer in the Association for Prevention and Education in Health, Sexuality, AIDS, and Human Rights. Freedom of Association and the Right to Collective Bargaining, b. The law criminalizes discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity characteristics and includes crimes committed against individuals because of their sexual orientation or gender identity as aggravating circumstances to increase penalties for criminal offenses. The Office of the Inspector General of the Armed Forces and the Humanitarian Law Directorate investigated abuses by the military. Pandy was a human rights and land rights activist. Visiting Honduras right now is as safe as it ever was: not very. Forced labor occurred in street vending, domestic service, the transport of drugs and other illicit goods, other criminal activity, and the informal sector. Institutions such as the National Womens Institute attempted to enhance the governments response to domestic violence by opening three additional womens centers in the country. These conditions contributed to an unstable, dangerous environment in the penitentiary system. A large percentage of the population in Honduras is armed. Its operations to receive and process cases were reliant on substantial support from UNHCR. Some larger cities have police forces that operate independently of the national police and report to municipal authorities. OSAC promotes effective cooperation by working to assist the U.S. private sector to better anticipate security issues, including identifying and tracking threats, particularly those targeting private sector personnel, facilities, investments, interests, and intellectual property. Long periods of pretrial detention remained common and problematic, with many other pretrial detainees held in the general population with convicted prisoners. This is the second consecutive year that the murder rate falls below 40 per 100,000 population since 2014, which. Honduras crime rate & statistics for 2017 was 40.98, a 26.23% decline from 2016. Victims were primarily impoverished individuals in both rural and urban areas (see section 7.c.). The law prohibits workers from legally striking until after they have attempted and failed to come to agreement with their employer, and it requires workers and employers to participate in a mediation and conciliation process. The Internal Displacement Monitoring Center estimated there were approximately 247,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) due to violence in the country as of 2020. The government continued to prosecute individuals allegedly involved in the 2016 killing of environmental and indigenous activist Berta Caceres. May Be Getting Away With It. Oral updates and . A 2019 Inter-American Commission on Human Rights report noted there were insufficient hospital beds and inadequate supplies at the only hospital that serviced Gracias a Dios Department, home to most of the Miskito community. Nevertheless, social discrimination against racial and ethnic groups persisted, as did physical violence. The law allows the release of other suspects pending formal charges, on the condition that they periodically report to authorities, although management of this reporting mechanism was often weak. Wedged between Costa Rica and Honduras, Nicaragua is a good all-round destination.Think beautiful cathedrals, elegant architecture, a ton of history, and loads of nature to get to grips with. Most foreign crime victims don't realize they're victims until they wake up and . The Taliban, which regained control of the country in 2021, has pledged to stamp out the opium industry, but it is such a vital part of the country's struggling economy that it will be difficult to eliminate. See the Department of States International Religious Freedom Report at https://www.state.gov/religiousfreedomreport/. The law also requires that public-sector workers involved in the refining, transportation, and distribution of petroleum products submit their grievances to the Secretariat of Labor and Social Security (STSS) before striking. Administration: The judicial system is legally responsible for monitoring prison conditions and providing for the rights of prisoners. The U.S. government estimates that approximately 4% of all cocaine shipments from South America passed through Honduras by air or sea in 2019 of cocaine, equivalent to a U.S. street value of over $11.5 billion at current rates. On October 7, the National Congress increased penalties for forced labor under the trafficking-in-persons article of the penal code from five to eight years imprisonment to 10 to 15 years, bringing the penalties in line with the penalties for other analogous serious crimes, such as kidnapping. October and February were the deadliest months, with 43 and 38 women murdered on account of their gender, respectively. The prosecution may request an additional six-month extension, but many detainees remained in pretrial detention much longer, including for more time than the maximum period of incarceration for their alleged crime. Although the law generally prohibits such actions, a legal exception allows government authorities to enter a private residence to prevent a crime or in case of another emergency. The security situation is expected to continue to deteriorate in 2020 and 2021. Location: Peru (countrywide) Event: Crime Advisory (February 10, 2022) For over 15 years, the U.S. Department of State has rated Peru at a critically high risk level for crime. Today at the World Economic Forum, Administrator Samantha Power announced the Administration's intent to work with Congress to provide $125 million to support the resilience of Ukraine's energy and utility infrastructure in the face of the Russian Federation's relentless, systematic attacks. The law requires an employer to begin collective bargaining once workers establish a union, and it specifies that if more than one union exists at a company, the employer must negotiate with the largest. Pretrial Detention: Judicial inefficiency, corruption, and insufficient resources delayed proceedings in the criminal justice system, and lengthy pretrial detention was a serious problem. The Jewish community numbered approximately 275 members. As of September the Public Ministry had received nine reports of racial or ethnic discrimination. Also see the Department of Labors Findings on the Worst Forms of Child Labor at https://www.dol.gov/agencies/ilab/resources/reports/child-labor/findings. Arbitrary Deprivation of Life and Other Unlawful or Politically Motivated Killings, c. Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, Arrest Procedures and Treatment of Detainees, f. Arbitrary or Unlawful Interference with Privacy, Family, Home, or Correspondence, a. As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, the unemployment rate increased from 1.8 percent in 2019 to 3 percent in 2020 but improved to 2.2 percent as of the fourth quarter of 2021. Denying me access . Violence was often rooted in a broader context of conflict over land and natural resources, extensive corruption, lack of transparency and community consultation, other criminal activity, and limited state ability to protect the rights of vulnerable communities. The law provides citizens the right to choose their government in free and fair periodic elections held by secret ballot and based on nearly universal and equal suffrage. The safety situation in Honduras has been deteriorating in recent years due to gang violence and organized crime. The accused were in pretrial detention awaiting the next phase of the judicial process. Effective June 2, 2021: All travelers, regardless of age, must provide either proof of full vaccination against COVID-19 or negative test results for a PCR, Antigen or ELISA COVID-19 test taken less than 72 hours before entry into Honduras. 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011: DOS International Religious Freedom Report - 2021, 2020, . Performance. Prohibition of Forced or Compulsory Labor, c. Prohibition of Child Labor and Minimum Age for Employment, d. Discrimination with Respect to Employment and Occupation. Under the Comprehensive Regional Protection and Solutions Framework, with significant support from the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the government continued to build capacity to provide services to vulnerable populations, including IDPs, those at risk of forced displacement, refugees, and returned migrants. Physical Conditions: Prisoners suffered from severe overcrowding, malnutrition, lack of adequate sanitation and medical care, and, in some prisons, lack of adequate ventilation and lighting. Official data on forced internal displacement, especially displacement due to violence, was limited in part because gangs controlled many of the neighborhoods that were sources of internal displacement (see section 6, Displaced Children). Incidents of crime along roads, including carjacking and kidnapping, are common in Honduras. Impunity and excessive use of force Keyla Martnez died of asphyxia in February in police custody after being arrested for breaking the curfew imposed to curb the spread of Covid-19. Authorities often did not effectively enforce the law. The law does not cover domestic workers, the vast majority of whom were women. Tourists in Belize are often victims of theft, but few experience real violence. Intentional homicide is defined by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) in its Global Study on Homicide report thus: . There was limited support for persons with mental illnesses or disabilities. honduras crime and safety report 2021frankie ryan city on a hill dead. Puerto Rico (Spanish for 'rich port'; abbreviated PR; Taino: Boriken, Borinquen), officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico (Spanish: Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico, lit. In January the government funded the opening of a UN Office of Drugs and Crime office to begin a government transparency project and support the drafting of the countrys first national anticorruption strategy. Displaced Children: Civil society organizations reported that common causes of forced displacement for youth included death threats for failure to pay extortion, attempted recruitment by gangs, witnessing criminal activity by gangs or organized criminal groups, domestic violence, attempted kidnappings, family members involvement in drug dealing, victimization by traffickers, rape including commercial sexual exploitation by gangs, discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity, sexual harassment, and discrimination for having a chronic medical condition. Honduras crime rate & statistics for 2019 was 42.01, a 7.91% increase from 2018. It stipulates that a prosecutor has 24 additional hours to decide if there is probable cause for indictment, whereupon a judge has 24 more hours to decide whether to issue a temporary detention order. See the Department of States Annual Report on International Parental Child Abduction at https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/International-Parental-Child-Abduction/for-providers/legal-reports-and-data/reported-cases.html. 03 / Select Countries You can add more than one country or area. Credible observers noted problems in trial procedures, such as a lack of admissible evidence, judicial corruption, witness intimidation, and an ineffective witness protection program. However, More than 2 million tourists visited in 2017. The findings highlight the potential power these four manufacturers have to combat trafficking; if these four manufacturers took action on their own, the national impact could be substantial. 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