{"id":3736,"date":"2012-02-24T23:20:04","date_gmt":"2012-02-24T23:20:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cejil.z.actotal.net\/2012\/02\/24\/honduras-has-failed-in-its-obligation-to-protect-human-rights-defender-gladys-lanza\/"},"modified":"2024-10-23T17:17:00","modified_gmt":"2024-10-23T21:17:00","slug":"honduras-has-failed-in-its-obligation-to-protect-human-rights-defender-gladys-lanza","status":"publish","type":"comunicado-de-prensa","link":"https:\/\/cejil.org\/en\/press-releases\/honduras-has-failed-in-its-obligation-to-protect-human-rights-defender-gladys-lanza\/","title":{"rendered":"Honduras has failed in its obligation to protect human rights defender Gladys Lanza"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/strong><\/p>\n

San Jos\u00e9 and Washington D.C, February 24th, 2012-<\/strong> The State of Honduras has not implemented\u00a0the protective measures that were ordered by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights<\/a> in favor of human rights defender Gladys Lanza Ochoa, on September 3rd<\/sup>, 2010. The defender herself made this statement before the Court at a public hearing monitoring the compliance with\u00a0provisional protective measures, held\u00a0during the\u00a094th period of\u00a0ordinary\u00a0sessions. The Committee of Relatives of the Disappeared in Honduras<\/em> (COFADEH<\/a>) and the Center for Justice and International Law<\/em> (CEJIL), the victim\u00b4s representatives, also took part in the hearing.<\/p>\n

Gladys Lanza is the coordinator of the Visitacion Padilla Women\u00b4s Movement for Peace (Movimiento de Mujeres por la Paz Visitaci\u00f3n Padilla)<\/em>, a Honduran organization with over 28 years\u00b4 experience in defending women\u2019s rights. After the 2009 coup d\u2019\u00e9tat in Honduras, her organization \u2013 along with many human rights defenders \u2013 condemned the perpetrators of the coup as well as the country\u00b4s military\u00a0leadership. Since then, she has been\u00a0subjected to threats\u00a0and harassment, including\u00a0intimidating phone calls\u00a0and\u00a0e-mails, she has also been followed and her actions monitored by unknown suspects\u00a0at her home and\u00a0workplace.<\/p>\n

To date, the State has failed to diligently investigate these acts and those responsible\u00a0remain unpunished. In addition, the protective measures have not been properly implemented by the State.\u00a0 As a result, Ms Lanza told the Court how she has had to take extreme precautions to ensure her own safety.<\/p>\n

Since April 2011, Gladys Lanza has been the object of five incidents that have kept her on alert. On one occasion a tear gas bomb landed in the courtyard of her home. On two separate occasions, her NGO\u00b4s offices have been under surveillance and broken in to.<\/p>\n

This is not an isolated case. The United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders, Margaret Sekaggya<\/a>, visited Honduras from February 7-14, 2012. After her visit she referred to the lack of protection facing human rights defenders, even though many of them are beneficiaries of protective measures, granted by the Inter-American Court or Commission of Human Rights.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a crucial measure to overcome the distrust of authorities among human rights defenders, an adequately resourced protection program for human rights defenders should be established and implemented as a matter of urgency and an inter-institutional framework developed to assume responsibility for its coordination and regular and transparent review\u201d, the Rapporteur recommended.<\/p>\n

At the end of her statement before the Court, Lanza said: \u201cI want to get my life back, my safety but, overall, my family\u201d. She concluded that the State must investigate the incidents that she has suffered and prosecute those responsible to ensure her full protection.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Contact in Costa Rica:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Dar\u00edo Chinchilla<\/p>\n

dchinchilla@twi.btq.mybluehost.me<\/a><\/p>\n

+(506) 2281-3280<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Contact in Washington D.C<\/strong><\/p>\n

Milli Legrain<\/p>\n

mlegrain@twi.btq.mybluehost.me<\/a><\/p>\n

+1-202-319-3000<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"template":"","categories":[],"class_list":["post-3736","comunicado-de-prensa","type-comunicado-de-prensa","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cejil.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comunicado-de-prensa\/3736","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cejil.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comunicado-de-prensa"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cejil.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/comunicado-de-prensa"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cejil.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3736"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cejil.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3736"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}