Honduran Platform for Human Rights opposes proposed Truth Commission
Tue, 03/16/2010 - 12:50pm | 
On Feb. 19th, the “Platform for Human Rights” – a coalition that includes each of Honduras’ key human rights organizations – issued a statement strongly criticizing the Truth Commission jointly proposed by the Lobo government and U.S. Administration. The Honduran Human Rights Platform states that “the conditions for such a commission do not exist” given that, among other reasons:
Tags: COFADEH releases statement regarding first 30 days of Porfirio Lobo
The respected Honduran human rights organization, COFADEH, released a statement this week on the "First Thirty Days of the Porfirio Lobo Government" which describes
a continued state policy of social control and repression against political opposition in the country. COFADEH states that 160 cases of violations of human rights have been documented during the first 30 days of the Lobo government. The full statement is the attachment in the blue box.
Press Release from Initiative for a New Haiti
Since the January 12, 2010 earthquake in Haiti the Quixote Center has been working closely with the newly formed Haiti Response Coalition. Within days the HRC was able to get supplies and medical teams in Jacmel ahead of much larger NGOs and developed a distribution system in Port-au-Prince (PAP) to deliver food and supplies to 19 camps in the area.
Below is a press release from a two-day meeting in PAP where over 100 Haitian leaders developed a plan known as "Initiative for a New Haiti".
Check back at quixote.org as more reports from this important meeting are available.
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After the great and incomparable earthquake hit the country of Haiti, on January 12, 2010, more than three hundred thousand (300,000) people, from all areas and of all ages, died. State infrastructure and all its institutions have been destroyed. Many have been wounded or have become handicapped. Many are hopeless. People have lost family members, their possessions, money, and work.
COFADEH list of murders since the coup in Honduras
Call-in Solidarity with Victims of State Terror in Honduras
Since the November elections in Honduras which resulted in the installation of Porfilio Lobo as President on January 27, 2010, the human rights situation in Honduras has continued to deteriorate. According to human rights organizations, there is a marked increase in selective targeting of people and communities active in the resistance movement. Despite a public discourse of reconciliation on the part of Lobo, partners in Honduras are experiencing increased levels of state terror.
Union Leader murdered in Honduras
On February 3, Vanessa Zepeda, a 29 year old nurse and SITRAIHASS union leader (Honduran Social Security Institute) left her home at 2pm. At approximately 6:30 pm, her lifeless body was dumped out of a vehicle in Loarque, a neighborhood well known for resistance movement activities. Vanessa had received repeated death threats linked to her activism in the resistance movement which had been registered by human rights organizations. She was the mother of three children; the youngest is 4 months old.
Haiti's Excluded
Note: Ruth, an organizer with the Haiti Response Coalition, a group of progressive NGOs including Quixote, Konpay, Beyond Borders and others, is profiled in this piece.
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By Reed Lindsay
This article appeared in the March 29, 2010 edition of The Nation.
March 11, 2010, Port-au-Prince, Haiti
Ruth Derilus had seen her share of tragedy. A 33-year-old iron-willed social worker trained by Haiti's Papay Peasant Movement, she twice helped organize relief efforts when massive floods devastated the city of Gonaïves and the surrounding countryside. In September 2004 she worked with women's and youth groups after Tropical Storm Jeanne killed more than 3,000 people. Four years later, she lost her home when a second deluge, unleashed by Tropical Storm Hanna and augmented by Hurricane Ike, once again brought the city to its knees. Ruth kept on going, working to organize rice farmers whose crops had been destroyed.
Dear Colleague letter to Sec. Clinton re. Honduras released today
This is a very strong letter, expressing serious concern regarding the deteriorating human rights situation in Honduras under the recently installed Lobo.
III Situational Report from COFADEH in Honduras (Spanish version only)
Honduran Human Rights violations: January – Feb. 2010
Death Threats against COFADEH Personnel
The Committee of the Families of the Detained and Disappeared in Honduras (COFADEH) are denouncing that today, Sunday, February 7 at 8 am, Caniel Martinez, who was in the offices of our organization received a phone call from the number 222-71-44 in which a woman told him, “Be careful there will be an attack against you, especially those of you who are in the street”. Martinez states that when he asked the women who was calling she hung up the telephone.
