Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  Thank you.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  Mr. Trejo, who was killed in September 2012, worked for a peasant farmer movement called MARCA. I just visited MARCA on its plantations about a month ago when I was in Honduras. Mr. Trejo was the first lawyer to be successful in carrying out a legal case against the three large w

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  I'm not entirely familiar with that case because I haven't worked in that region as extensively as I have in the Aguán Valley. I'm not entirely sure if there have been investigations started, but once again I would be more likely to say that I would question whether that investig

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  The charter city project was something the current government approved. Basically, they want to create nations within Honduran territory. They have allocated three different locations within Honduras that could potentially be the location of model cities or charter cities. Actua

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  I am not sure.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  I imagine it's quite high, yes.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  I'm not entirely sure of the data, but it's a significant amount.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  Of course I think all humans need employment; they need some sort of income to feed their family. I think the problem that arises is the poor working conditions, and that they're sacrificing their life and their health to make ends meet. I don't think that's helping an impoverish

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  Talking about jobs and employment and working conditions in Canada, to me there's a big difference in how complaints from employees are handled. I think that's fundamentally the biggest issue for me, that if there are concerns of labour issues there's a functioning justice system

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  My previous work in Honduras has been working with human rights organizations throughout the country in grassroots social movements, but now I'll be returning in May where I will stay for the rest of the year to carry out my thesis research.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  It's an oversimplification but if I had to say approximately how many, I'd say there are about 10 families who own probably roughly 90% of the country's wealth, and they're heavily represented in the congress, in the legal system, and in all parts of Honduran society. I think tha

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  There are courts and there are institutions, but they are not responsive to people who are denouncing these violations. In the case of the Aguán valley in Honduras, thousands of peasant farmer families are contesting the land owned by three wealthy individuals. One of them is pro

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  No, they're doing it by occupying the land. There have been lawyers who have taken cases to the courts. There's one lawyer who was killed in September last year. His name was Antonio Trejo. He was a lawyer who represented the peasant farmer movement. He was successful in pushing

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  What do you mean by uprising?

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  I think the people who have been left out of this process have been rising up or protesting publicly a lot since the coup. Immediately after the coup, this group of people, a significant number of the Honduran population, were in the streets protesting for over 150 days. So in a