Foreign Affairs committee  Good day, and thank you for this opportunity. It is a pleasure to be here before your committee to discuss the serious human rights situation in our country. Work done by our organization in 2010 gives us evidence that the Honduran state is now broken. Since the June 28 coup d'é

Foreign Affairs committee  What we thought when the human rights advocacy groups.... What we were told was that there was going to be some information provided to the Honduran people and not the commission. I should point out that it's not a parallel commission; it's simply a truth commission that aims at

Foreign Affairs committee  We believe that given the seriousness of the situation and the urgency of the human rights situation in Honduras today, the idea of voting in favour of readmitting Honduras to the OAS would in fact be signing a blank cheque to allow for more rapes of women and assassinations of m

Foreign Affairs committee  We believe that the teachers are being targeted because they're a very well-organized group and are unionized also. It can be said that teachers have a bit of a leveraging effect, if you will. They're in the schools and it's bit of a mission, in a way. It's not surprising to us a

International Trade committee  Thank you very much for giving me 10 minutes to speak. I will try to make the best possible use of those 10 minutes. I will tell you what we are concerned about as human rights defenders and about my organization, COFADEH. I'd like to give you a bit of context about the situati

International Trade committee  Thank you. We would like to state something categorically. First, poverty is something that we don't understand, insofar as it is so severe in our country. When we hear Peter talking about all that is good, there are a number of serious violations of labour rights. We are workin

International Trade committee  The farce of the truth and reconciliation commission, which was also supported by the Government of Canada.... We had to create a truth commission, an alternate commission, and the report is here. But your question is a concrete question and I will answer you concretely as well

International Trade committee  Well, that's one of our concerns. We have gone back to that horrible time when COFADEH originated. COFADEH was created because of human rights violations by the state. When there is no tolerance, and that political intolerance leads to a military presence throughout the country,

International Trade committee  We are not proposing isolation for Honduras. We don't want that. We don't want Honduras to be isolated from Canada or from the world. What we are saying is that we want the governments of the world and the Government of Canada to monitor the situation more regularly—and not only

International Trade committee  No. What I am saying is that businesses cannot be placed above development and the protection and advocacy for human rights and respect for human rights. Things cannot be that way. There cannot just be economic progress if at the same time there is a violation of human rights. W

International Trade committee  I repeat that regulations have to be created with the full respect of human rights. Those regulations have to be implemented, and that's what is not happening. I'm not here because I am angry at anyone. I am here to present the testimonies of people who have been affected by a s

International Trade committee  We feel that first the idea is to debate and arrive at agreements, but not between local businessmen and international businessmen, and not between governments. The debate and the agreements should really take place among the various social groups, among the people. Here we have

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  Thank you very much for allowing me to be here with you to talk about the human rights situation in my country, Honduras. My name is Bertha Oliva, and I represent the committee of family members of the detained and disappeared, COFADEH, which is an organization that has been arou

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  Those women were murdered in the last four years.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  With regard to the 45 teachers who have been murdered, the denunciations are presented to public safety, which is a department in charge of conducting the investigations, and the denunciations are then presented to the public prosecutor. The result is a bogging down in red tape o