Human Rights

The head of CODEH, a Honduran human rights group, said a bill that would expand self-defense law to allow lethal force against home intruders risks being abused and could give citizens a "blank check" to kill in a society already beset by violence and crime.

The UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights warned that Honduras's newly approved agroindustrial law could harm indigenous and rural communities' land and territorial rights and deepen social conflict, urging Congress to align it with international standards.

Twenty judges, magistrates, and court staff from eight Honduran cities completed a UN-backed trainer program on gender and intersectionality, now mandatory in the Judicial School curriculum, aimed at aligning the justice system with international human-rights standards.

The Asfura government dissolved the Dipampco police anti-gang unit and created a new Anti-Extortion Division led by Commissioner Jorge Daniel Molina Gálvez, who faces two prior prosecutorial charges for illegal detention and abuse of authority, drawing concern from human-rights groups.

Dozens of human-rights activists began a seven-day, 75-mile walk from Tucson to the Sasabe border crossing to raise awareness about the more than 8,000 migrants estimated to have died on the U.S.-Mexico border since the late 1990s, many in Arizona's desert heat.

Congress approved penal code changes on May 18 that formally classify gangs and drug-trafficking networks as terrorist associations, but legal experts and human-rights groups warn the expanded, vague wording could be used against protesters and social movements.

An investigation found that Honduras's Armed Forces disbursed over L4.1 billion through 51 direct procurement contracts during the pandemic while a military-linked firm with a history of price-gouging received medicine orders and a general was appointed to oversee a corruption-plagued pandemic fund.