Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  Thank you very much. Thank you for inviting me to come. I'll talk a little about our organization, the Justice Education Society, and then talk a little about what we're trying to do. I know you're interested in Honduras and what's going on in Honduras. We're working in all thr

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  The independence is not only of the judiciary in those countries, but also a question of the work of the prosecutors in the context of those countries. In the case of the judiciary, one real and serious difficulty has been with the way judges are appointed. They are appointed f

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  I'm always reluctant to comment on those kinds of things, because I work in the country. We've worked with and been involved very directly in work with the attorney general. Obviously, two levels of dynamics are going on. From our point of view, there's the question of what they

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  Our approach is that you have to ask what the options are for countries such as these. These are countries that are really backed against a wall. Sometimes people talk of them as being potentially failed states. Sometimes you hear talk of their potentially being narco-states. T

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  Last year, as part of the International Society for the Reform of Criminal Law, we brought the three attorneys general to Ottawa as part of their conference. We had the three from Guatemala, El Salvador, and.... One of the discussion issues was that issue. Of course, Guatemala

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  No, not really. We get asked for help sometimes when they're doing the investigations, but we try not to get involved in the actual process because we're looking more at system building. I can give you an example of some of the dysfunction we're trying to address if that will hel

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  The experience in Honduras when I started this work was that, as I said, the percentage of convictions of people who were not found committing was 0%. That meant that every time they had to investigate, they weren't getting anybody convicted. You ask, why is that? Is there no wil

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  I guess it depends what happens. There are two dynamics that play out from our perspective. One is the internal politics of the country. There are a lot of issues going on around the different forces in the country and what their wishes are. Our experience working with the attorn

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  I don't know a single person in Guatemala who hasn't been assaulted. I know people who have been sitting on the seat and have had the person beside them killed when the gangs got on. The gangs are not extorting from the rich. They're extorting from the poor.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  There is the view of some that he hasn't done all that he could have done, and that obviously there is an alignment there politically, which is not helping things. I know the commission is concerned about the corruption within the prosecution services. I don't think it's nearly a

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  There are two things. One is, yes, I am. If you had asked me two years ago, I wouldn't be quite so positive. I would be wondering. I'll use the experience we have in Guatemala as an example. From my experience in this work, you don't just add a piece and all of sudden it impr

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  No. I haven't worked with them.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  Do you mean in terms of their cases?

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  Well, one of the things you have to realize is that they're not the only ones, right? There are journalists, a lot of journalists, being killed.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  Yes.