Subcommittee on International Human Rights Committee on March 7th, 2013

[The Chair, Conservative, Scott Reid]

Welcome to the 71^st meeting of the Subcommittee on International Human Rights of the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Development.

Today, March 7, 2013, we are continuing our study of the human rights situation in Honduras.

We have with us today from London, Esther Major, who is a researcher for the Americas Programme with Amnesty International.

Ms. Major, welcome to the committee. We're glad to have you, and I invite you to begin your testimony.

[Esther Major, Researcher, Americas Programme, Amnesty International]

Thank you very much.

I'm delighted to be presenting today. We're really delighted that you're interested in the situation in Honduras, which has been a situation of human rights concern for Amnesty International for many years. Perhaps it would be good to start there and recognize that we've been concerned about the situation in Honduras for many years. The situation of impunity, certainly, has been a very big concern to us since prior to the coup d'état. I want to just set that out from the start.

That notwithstanding, the coup d'état certainly undermined already weak institutions, and has exacerbated the situation of impunity a great deal, leaving it very precarious and a very difficult context in which human rights defenders and those attempting to uphold the rule of law have to operate.

What I'd mainly like to focus on today is the situation of impunity, and the situation of human rights defenders in Honduras.

Just to give you an idea, last year we issued at least 11 urgent actions. As you know, urgent actions are what Amnesty International issues when we have a human rights defender or someone who is receiving death threats, or has been attacked as a result of carrying out their work. We issued 11 last year. We issued another one this year.

The fact that the government is not responding to the grave situation in relation to human rights defenders is of serious concern to us. One of the things I'd like to highlight there is the disparity between the verbal commitments that we've seen from the Lobo government, for example, the universal periodic review at the United Nations, where they stated a commitment to protecting human rights defenders, to ensuring that there's an improvement in the levels of impunity, and to ensuring that there is an improvement in the police force in terms of reducing the levels of corruption. We just haven't seen that play out in real changes in the daily lives of human rights defenders, who are risking so much every day in their work.

We've talked so many times, for example, to women human rights defenders who, as they go into a police station to accompany women who are reporting domestic violence, are themselves confronted with threats. We've even had reports of physical attacks against women human rights defenders who've gone in to accompany victims of domestic violence reporting crimes to police officers.

There you can see the state institution that is meant to help women and girls who have suffered domestic violence responding with the very same discrimination and attitudes against women, as these women seek redress and assistance at that very important moment after violence.

I'd like to give a few examples of cases that we've dealt with recently, because I think they give a good illustration of some of the particular situations in Honduras that give us concern.

We can't talk about the situation of human rights in Honduras without mentioning Bajo Aguán, which is the lower Aguán valley in the northeast of Honduras. We have had to issue various urgent actions on behalf of human rights defenders operating in that area.

Interestingly, the UN Special Rapporteur on human rights defenders visited the country last year, and issued a very good report on the situation of human rights defenders. She herself could not visit the Aguán region because of the concerns around security. That just gives you an indication of the levels of insecurity that exist in the country, but particularly in the Aguán region.

Some of the cases that we've had in the Aguán region.... For example, a young woman journalist, in September and October last year, received death threats to her mobile phone. She is basically someone who goes and films forced evictions, follows people who have been arrested to the police station. She started receiving death threats on her mobile phone, and then in October last year she was kidnapped and physically assaulted, whilst they interrogated her about the different leaders in her campesino community group.

We also saw the killing of Antonio Trejo in September of last year. Antonio Trejo was a very well-known human rights lawyer who was working to secure legal tenure for campesino communities in the Aguán. He was murdered as he came out of a wedding.

We were shocked to see that the Lobo government didn't respond in the way we expected it to. We expected Lobo himself to come out and express total dismay at the killing and reiterate his support for human rights defenders and establish that it's a government that will have zero tolerance for attacks against human rights defenders. We haven't seen that. They responded with silence. That was really concerning to Amnesty International at the time, and I am conveying that to you now.

Actually, this year has been very sad as we've also seen the killing of Antonio Trejo's brother, just a few days after he visited Tegucigalpa to garner more attention and to try to ensure that his brother's death did not remain an impunity. We don't know the perpetrators of his killing, but we have called on the government to ensure a proper investigation.

This is just to let you know that as yet, no one has been held to account for either the attacks against the young journalist I just mentioned or Antonio Trejo's killing.

We even saw last year that two international accompaniers, two Europeans who were accompanying human rights defenders in Honduras, also received death threats on their mobile phones. This just shows you the extent of the threats and how people get access to the mobile phones of even those who are accompanying them and will send them death threats. They still haven't been investigated.

I want to highlight the situation of impunity, particularly post-coup d'état. I actually visited the country after the coup d'état and accessed police stations while I was there. I interviewed many people who had been beaten by the police. There were mass arrests. There is no doubt there were hundreds of human rights violations committed, particularly in those weeks post-coup d'état. We have not seen the police or the security forces that were involved in those held to account, which exacerbates that situation of impunity and is of great concern to Amnesty International.

We also haven't seen the reform of the police force. Human rights defenders often have to place a complaint against the very same people who perhaps threatened them as they've carried out their work. We would like to see the reform of the police force in terms of ensuring that there are criminal investigations carried out against police officers who have been accused of human rights violations, and proper disciplinary procedures as well.

We've had long-standing concerns about the institutions in Honduras and how weak they are, but particularly post-coup d'état.

The independence of the judiciary is of serious concern to us, as are some of the judgments we've seen particularly in the last year. We've also had concerns about the capacity of the judiciary to ensure and uphold women's rights, and there are many areas of concern there as well.

I don't know how much time I have, but is it okay if I keep on going? I just want to check in.

[The Chair, Conservative, Scott Reid]

Yes, please do go on.

[Esther Major]

Thank you. I just don't want to go over my time. I could talk about Honduras for hours. I am aware of that, and I don't want to go over.

We've had serious concerns about the protection systems for human rights defenders for many years, but this was exacerbated post-coup d'état, when we have seen journalists such as Nahúm Palacios actually killed. He had protection measures, orders, basically, from the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, and so the states had been required to provide him protection, and yet just weeks later he was murdered.

We also had a case very recently, of Dina Meza, who is a very famous journalist and human rights activist. She received multiple threats. She also has the same protection measures and orders from the inter-American system. They have required the government to take action to protect Dina Meza, and those protection measures have not been implemented thus far.

We've seen human rights defenders receive a phone number to call in emergencies. When they have tried to call, it's either dead or there is no one there to respond. There are also concerns about the police officers who are assigned to them. They sometimes don't even know who they are protecting, or what times they are meant to be there, or they just simply don't turn up.

There are particular concerns around women human rights defenders. We've seen women human rights defenders receive particularly targeted and gendered threats of sexual violence, and those again go uninvestigated. Clearly, what we'd like to see is the government take a really strong stand, and we're not seeing that. Again, it's the disparity between their verbal commitments before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights or before the UN and the actual reality on the ground which is not changing and in fact is deteriorating for human rights defenders.

Of course, when you have a situation this precarious for human rights defenders, you can only imagine what it's like for those ordinary people who are trying to access the justice system even without the assistance of human rights defenders. For those who seek redress, if they have had a human rights violation occur against them or even a situation of common crime, there just isn't that faith in the justice system. In fact, in many cases we've seen people express fear of going into a police station to report a crime.

One of the things we were excited about when we realized that you were interested in hearing from us is that Canada obviously has a very particular and important role in Honduras, and a particular ability to influence and to have an impact in relation to human rights. That is one reason we wanted to encourage you to consider pushing for the Honduran government to take a strong stance on human rights defenders and to start making sure that there are the right funds and actual support across all ministries for the protection of human rights defenders and for the investigation of human rights violations committed against human rights defenders, and indeed for holding police and security forces to account for human rights violations that they are accused of.

Interestingly, we've had many reports, which we haven't documented yet, of private security guards being involved in human rights violations. These are very serious allegations that we have received. We've received reports that private security guards have been involved in sexual assaults, in rape, in threats, in harassment of campesino leaders. This is particularly in the Aguán region, but we have reports outside of that region as well of private security guards being involved in the harassment of human rights defenders and leaders of local communities, particularly in areas where there are disputes over the land.

We saw that the United Nations working group on the use of mercenaries recently went there. They issued an interesting statement in February, again expressing serious concern about the use of private security guards and their alleged involvement in human rights violations. I just wanted to highlight that.

It's not something we've documented from Amnesty International as yet, but we have received sufficient reports to just highlight it to you as a concern, particularly in a context where the police are obviously in need of huge reform and there is an increasing use of private security guards for civilian policing duties. We're sort of seeing that trend and wanting to highlight that to you now as something that is of concern, and there is this interesting statement now by the UN working group on the use of mercenaries.

We've asked on many occasions for public statement at the highest level from the Honduran authorities supporting human rights defenders, recognizing their valid role, recognizing the importance of their role in the protection of human rights in Honduras and their contribution to society, expressing zero tolerance for human rights violations against them and exercising due diligence in terms of the investigation of attacks and threats against human rights defenders.

We would also like to see proper consultations. I'm sure this is something that perhaps Canada can also encourage the Honduran authorities to do, to up the efforts to resolve the land disputes in the Aguán.I think we'd like to see those efforts redoubled. We'd also like to see proper consultations in relation to the use of land. Where there are companies that are interested in using particular tracts of land, we would like to see proper consultations in line with the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

For example, there are indigenous peoples throughout Honduras, and their concerns are often not taken into account. Where we could, we would encourage some prioritization of indigenous peoples' rights but also women's and girls' rights as well. We see that there's a deficit there.

Where there's a case like Antonio Trejo or the attacks against human rights defenders, it's also really valuable where the international community can also come out and show their leadership there in terms of supporting human rights defenders and saying that this sort of crime should not go unpunished, that it has to be investigated. Somebody has to be held to account for attacks like the attack against Antonio Trejo, his brother, and the 11 human rights defenders whom we issued urgent actions on in favour of last year.

The last urgent action we issued last year was in favour of an environmental activist who had just gone out on the radio. She had been on TV in the morning talking about opencast mining and the potential impacts and her concerns around some companies that had been operating in the area. She got home to find an e-mail death threat, basically saying for her to close her mouth and that her coffin wouldn't be big enough to contain her mouth. She has been a well-known environmental activist for years. You can see there that even just to speak out on an issue like environmental concerns can immediately result in a death threat against you, and the access that these individuals have to e-mail, to their mobile phone numbers, is quite incredible.

We would like to see better investigations and zero tolerance, really, on these sorts of crimes against human rights defenders.

[The Chair, Conservative, Scott Reid]

Thank you very much. That's fantastic testimony. You've covered a lot of ground, to say the least.

[Esther Major]

I'm sorry, I speak very fast.

[The Chair, Conservative, Scott Reid]

No, that's good. Actually it's been very fulsome. I was busy whispering to our analyst to take notes on certain points in particular as you were going through your testimony.

We're going to start with David Sweet.

For Mr. Sweet and all the members of the committee, I'm going to do something a little different time-wise. Instead of giving you rounded minutes, you're each going to get five minutes and 30 seconds. If we do that, we will have us out of here in time. As you can tell from the time I'm giving you, I'm going to be a little more ruthless than normal, because we all have to get back to the House of Commons at the end of this.

Mr. Sweet, your five minutes and 30 seconds begin now.

[David Sweet, Conservative, Ancaster—Dundas—Flamborough—Westdale, ON]

I can't find that ruthless would ever be in your nature, Mr. Chair. Thank you very much.

Ms. Major, thank you very much for your testimony. It's so fulsome, but where would you start? I'll try to be as efficient with my time as I can be.

The secretary general of the OAS praised the final report, and the final report is the Honduras truth and reconciliation commission's finding, stating that they hoped Honduran society would retake the active road toward facing serious problems of its population: poverty, crime, and the need for economic and social development.

I just say that to preface the question. I find it absolutely unnerving and almost unbelievable that President Lobo or one of his ministers hasn't made any statements regarding the notion that these human rights infractions are intolerable, that they won't be tolerated, and they'll take action.

Have there been no statements at all? If there haven't, what are they saying? There must be people, with as many people who have been murdered on the streets, asking for answers from this government.

[Esther Major]

There have been statements, particularly from the minister of justice and human rights, Ana Pineda. We have seen some statements from her expressing concern about the situation of human rights defenders. Last year we heard that there was a draft bill looking at the situation of human rights defenders and perhaps developing some protection systems for them. We don't know the status of that law at the moment, but we did hear that it was afoot.

We have seen that at some level, but with a situation like the case of Antonio Trejo, we would have expected at the highest level, the president to come out and say, “This will not be accepted. This country will not tolerate these attacks against human rights defenders, and from now on, this government is not going to accept it. We're going to take a strong stance.”

We didn't see that.

[David Sweet, Conservative, Ancaster—Dundas—Flamborough—Westdale, ON]

Two days later, my notes indicate that a public prosecutor was shot and killed. Was there any response to that, to this being a public prosecutor?

[Esther Major]

We still didn't see that at the highest level, with the president coming out and saying, “This will not be tolerated.”

Actually, that's brought up an interesting issue. It's not only journalists and human rights defenders from the civil society who are vulnerable to threats and attacks. It is indeed also justice workers who take up particular human rights cases who are vulnerable to threats as well.

[David Sweet, Conservative, Ancaster—Dundas—Flamborough—Westdale, ON]

Thank you. I note that, in all fairness, you said you hadn't begun to document it, but in any of the pieces of data that you've received regarding the private security companies, in these statements, has there been any idea, inference or allegation of who is hiring these private security companies?

[Esther Major]

At the moment we haven't documented those cases sufficiently to be able to speak to them. It would be very worth your while to have a look at the statement from the United Nations working group on the use of mercenaries. They'll be issuing a more thorough report later on.

The statement itself is quite interesting in relation to the use of private security guards. The location in which we've seen some of the reports is the Aguán, so obviously some of those security firms work in those areas on behalf of local landowners, but we have not documented those human rights violations sufficiently to speak to them. The ones we've heard about certainly stem from the Aguán.

[David Sweet, Conservative, Ancaster—Dundas—Flamborough—Westdale, ON]

Did you say they've also been seen basically performing regular police duties as well?

[Esther Major]

There have been allegations that they've been involved in forced evictions. Again, I can't speak to that. I haven't documented those myself, so I wouldn't want to speak to them here. However, we have had those reports where, on occasion, private security guards have been seen with local police in the carrying out of forced evictions. Again, Amnesty International hasn't documented those themselves.

[David Sweet, Conservative, Ancaster—Dundas—Flamborough—Westdale, ON]

You mentioned the independence of the judiciary. Are you feeling that the judiciary is in the same situation as the media? They're actually censoring themselves in order to make sure they comply with some kind of governmental order.

I'll let you answer that.

[Esther Major]

I think there are various concerns around the independence of the judiciary. Just post-coup d’état we saw a particular group of judges targeted and removed from their positions. They all belong to Judges for Democracy, a particular group of judges who pertain to that association. They were removed from their positions as judges and they haven't been reinstated. That is something which Amnesty International called for.

Security of tenure is a clear issue in Honduras. Even in December of last year we saw the removal of four supreme court judges, so just from that point we have concerns about the independence of the judiciary. Aside from that, we also have concerns about some of the judgments that have been emanating from the supreme court and other courts in relation to, for example, gender and women's rights. We would like to see some training and capacity building for the judiciary in relation to the use of international instruments such as those pertaining to women's and girls' rights, but indeed human rights as a whole.

[The Chair, Conservative, Scott Reid]

Mr. Marston, go ahead, please.

[Wayne Marston, NDP, Hamilton East—Stoney Creek, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Ms. Major, I really find your testimony great because you answered two of my questions before I even got to ask them, which is a great start.

We had witnesses from DFAIT, our Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade, before us, and they pretty well described the president as a good guy in a bad situation. I don't know what your reaction to that would be, but I noticed in your testimony the fact that he wouldn't speak out. The disappointment was really pretty obvious. The question I would ask is, what's your assessment of the current ability in Honduras for them to effectively investigate? With the death threats and all that, even if you have good officers with the police or good prosecuting attorneys, what is the real on-the-ground feel for that?

[Esther Major]

The lack of faith among the general population in the justice system is so huge. You've got human rights defenders who are receiving threats but who are fearful of going to the police to report them—not even fearful, but thinking it's not going to come to anything, they will still go and report. It is of concern that there is that total disillusion with the police.

You saw the police accused of being involved in the killing of two university students some months ago. There are so many concerns around corruption in the police force. As I said, I actually visited police stations during and after the coup d’état when people were arrested en masse. I myself saw the injuries that people had as a result of being beaten by police officers, so I can speak to the fact that there are serious concerns around the police and the lack of accountability for human rights violations committed post-coup d’état but also ongoing. There has to be an improvement in the accountability mechanisms for police forces. Police have to be held to account, both in terms of disciplinary measures internally, but also where there is evidence found, a proper investigation, a criminal investigation should be carried out. We're not seeing that.

[Wayne Marston, NDP, Hamilton East—Stoney Creek, ON]

I would agree. One of the issues in many, many countries is impunity, and that's serious.

I'd like to change tracks for a second. A professor from New York University, Paul Romer, has been looking into charter cities. Of course, there's a situation unfolding there. Can you provide the subcommittee with any information relative to the charter cities in Honduras?

[Esther Major]

Amnesty International hasn't taken a position on this. We haven't really looked into the model cities, or even the draft legislation that's being mooted into them. We've had our time taken up by human rights defenders in Honduras at the moment, but no, it's not something we've taken a position on.

[Wayne Marston, NDP, Hamilton East—Stoney Creek, ON]

Do I have more time?

[The Chair, Conservative, Scott Reid]

You do. You have two minutes.

[Wayne Marston, NDP, Hamilton East—Stoney Creek, ON]

Oh, that works really well.

Lolita Chavez was with me yesterday. We had a gathering where we talked about the situation of Canadian mining companies in Guatemala. She made a statement that her people only know Canadians by the mining companies, and what they see isn't good. There were all kinds of concerns raised in Mexico, the Philippines, Honduras, and other places about the activities of Canadian mining companies.

Do you have any thoughts on what's going on in this country?