Impunity happens in the absence of the Rule of Law. As a result of impunity, those suspected of criminal acts are not prosecuted or punished and victims are left without effective remedy or compensation for their injuries or loss. At the same time, they – and society – are denied access to the truth about the violations suffered.
In the first four months of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s term, which began on December 1, 2018, at least seventeen human rights defenders and journalists were murdered, an increase over last year’s rate. If killings continue at this rate, fifty-two defenders and journalists will be dead by the end of 2019.
Attacks on human rights defenders, journalists, and others exercising their right to free speech in Honduras have increased in the first months of 2019. Below are some selected incidents illustrating a trend toward a continued closing of space for dissent.
April 11, 2019
April 5, 2019
“Our lives are confined, we cannot leave, the illegal armed actors are disputing our lands, and those who speak out or try to speak out become military objectives.”
Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador took office after campaigning on a platform focused heavily on combating corruption and insecurity and bringing peace and reconciliation to the Mexican people.
A new report from the Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA and PBI) focuses on how the new government can approach an important aspect of this endeavor: creating a safer and more enabling environment for journalists and human rights defenders to carry out their important work.
March 4, 2019
The following is a joint press release of the World Organization Against Torture (OMCT) and Union for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders in Guatemala (UDEFEGUA), released in Spanish and translated into English by PBI-USA.
February 25, 2019
Despite multiple alerts, illegal armed actors continue to fight for control of the territory in the Jiguamiandó and Curbaradó river basin areas (in the region of Urabá in northwest Colombia), resulting in ongoing violence and killings, placing the Afro-Colombian, mixed-ethnicity and indigenous communities in the region at serious risk and affecting their physical and emotional security and integrity.
February 20, 2019
On February 12th, between 07:00 and 07:40 am, human rights defender Obtilia Eugenio Manuel and her companion Hilario Cornelio Castro disappeared. They were last seen in the town of Tierra Colorada in Guerrero, Mexico. Obtilia works for the Organization of Me Phaa Indigenous People and in years past has received accompaniment from PBI. She is a beneficiary of provisional measures granted by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, but the measures were not being adequately implemented.