Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  I would say the first thing is to look at results. There has been a lot of window dressing in Honduras in terms of human rights since the 2009 coup. In 2010-11, various human rights institutions were created and then they were failed to be given adequate resources to do anything

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  Absolutely. I'm just going to check my notes. I think the main organization is the Association of Judges for Democracy, which is a group that I believe pre-exists the coup and the very high levels of political polarization.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  It's a Honduran organization. It is. That's correct.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  Just to add to that, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights also makes comments to the same effect, perhaps based on information coming from this group in their recent preliminary findings.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  Well, no, absolutely. At this point, at this juncture, if you want to have sort of the best update of the human rights situation, I think these preliminary findings from the Inter-American Commission are really quite critical. I don't think there's anything else similar that's ou

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  That's correct. Certainly, there have been officials who have been dismissed because of failing to pass trustworthiness tests, but there have also been others who have been maintained. Again, it has been reported by human rights groups that some senior officials who have been r

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  Again, this mano dura, which involves more military on the streets of Honduras, which involves the creation of this new sort of hybrid military police force, and involves an increasing amount of extrajudicial killings, is seen as a big step backward. Certainly, these killings h

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  This is true. I've been looking at the last 12 months and this occurred in December of last year.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  I'm not sure that it is palatable to the general public. In terms of the justification, there is a section of the public, and certainly a good part of the conservative base of the National Party of Honduras, which saw in a positive light the creation of the new military police fo

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  I'm, again, not aware under the administration of President Orlando Hernandez of statements that have been made to this effect. If they have been made they have not been very well-publicized, and certainly human rights groups have not signalled to me or other partners in the U.S.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  I can also go back to my notes and my contacts and verify. I do believe, though, that the action plan, which I think was first discussed back in 2012, under the previous administration of Porfirio Lobo, is the one that was meant to translate into legislation. Perhaps it's a compo

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  No, not at all. In fact, there have been statements from government officials that go in the other direction, particularly in the wake of the publication of the preliminary findings of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. Following their visit at the beginning of Decemb

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  I'm not aware, I'm afraid, of what sort of security assistance Canada is providing.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  Thank you, sir. Regarding the reforms to the penal code, I think there's generally consensus within the human rights community, certainly in Honduras, that the changes are quite regressive in nature. Longer sentencing and harsher sentences aren't considered the best way of deali

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  There certainly has been dialogue. I'm not sure whether it's been focused on the human rights situation much, and that's certainly what I would encourage. Also, I think it's perhaps too late at this point—you'll know better than I do—but before opening up the floodgates of free t