The following special report by the Honduran digital newspaper has been translated for The Violence of Development website by Jill Powis who spent a year accompanying Garífuna leaders on the Caribbean coast of Honduras. We are very grateful for her efforts for the website. The original Spanish is also included in the August 2025 additions to the website. We are also grateful to Proceso Digital for their work and information – https://proceso.hn .
By: Especiales Proceso Digital
26 May 2025
Key words: Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR); human rights; northern Honduras; impunity; environment and land defenders; Bajo Aguán; Garífuna.
Tegucigalpa (Especial Proceso Digital) – The announcement by the OHCHR (Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights) is no cause for celebration; it is a sad indication of the levels of social conflict and impunity in Honduras’ Atlantic region which have reached such extremes that a field office is needed to investigate and document the human rights situation on the ground. It is the second such office to be opened in Latin America, after Colombia.
September 2024 saw the murder of environmentalist and religious leader Juan López who, before his death, said that if anything happened to him, pro-government politicians would be responsible.
‘Today is not just any day; with the opening of this office in La Ceiba, Honduras becomes only the second country on the continent, after Colombia, to have a field presence of the High Commissioner’, said Bardia Jebeli, Deputy Representative and Officer in Charge of the OHCHR in Honduras, on 16 May, when he officially opened the office in a region where social conflict, for a variety of reasons, is spiralling out of control.
Violence and lack of security, coupled with land claims, are some of the factors that make this area of the Honduran Atlantic coast one of the most dangerous in the country, with organised crime, paramilitary groups and other criminal networks all active in the region, keeping the population in a state of fear, as state authority and institutions seem to be impotent in the face of these groups.
[LEER] El Aguán, una violencia diferenciada con muchas aristas
The OHCHR has been documenting these flashpoints of conflict and violence in its reports, alerting the government and the Honduran state to the seriousness of the situation in this region, which is on such a scale that it is becoming one of the worst in the country for the forced displacement of people and families.
Before the field office was set up, OHCHR officials raised awareness of the initiative among various local organisations and institutions, reaffirming the UN High Commissioner’s commitment to supporting the Honduran government in meeting its international human rights commitments and obligations.
After a long hiatus, the OHCHR in Honduras has come to the fore with specific proposals on the protection of human rights defenders, the defence of freedom of expression, the need to reform both the Protection Mechanism which is still totally inadequate a full 10 years after its inception, the abolition of the state of emergency due to the human rights violations committed under it, support for Garifuna communities, and a demand for an end to impunity for the murder of Juan López, the environmental and land defender, in the Tocoa region.
[LEER] Asesinan a líder ambientalista y regidor de Tocoa, Colón, Juan López
The murder of environmentalist Juan López in Bajo Aguán was a crime that shook Honduras in 2024.
The role of a Field Office
A field office has been set up in La Ceiba so that human rights abuses and violations can be better documented and followed up. Honduras, according to the OHCHR and other UN agencies, as well as the Organisation of American States (OAS), is one of the deadliest countries for human rights defenders, in particular for those who defend the environment and land.
“The authorities enthusiastically welcomed the news that this office was opening and stressed their willingness to work collaboratively on the challenges facing the north of the country. We hope that this collaboration will translate into concrete results for human rights,” said Bardia Jebeli.
Honduras is only the second country in Latin America to host a regional office to monitor human rights after Colombia, a country with a high level of social conflict since the signing of the Peace Accords.
The role of field offices is to be closer to communities and human rights situations on the ground. They contribute to strengthening local and national capacities by supporting state institutions, civil society and other organisations to promote and protect human rights effectively.
It also provides technical assistance and advice to the government on the implementation of human rights policies and programmes. The field office monitors the human rights situation in the region and reports to the UN Human Rights Council, stated the OHCHR when explaining its scope.
It also focuses on working with civil society organisations, state institutions, regional and international organisations to achieve the OHCHR’s aims, while contributing to the promotion of transitional justice and of truth and reparation for victims, as well as working on the protection of human rights defenders, seeking to prevent the threats and attacks against them.
The Atlantic region is, according to human rights organisations, one of the most conflict-ridden in Honduras, marked by violence due to its strategic connections with organised crime operations, especially drug trafficking, as well as its vast tracts of agricultural, livestock and mining land, along with ancestral cultural riches. Access to land is one of the most obvious problems, and it is becoming increasingly complex due to the presence of “parallel power groups” (illegal groups presenting a direct challenge to the power of the state).
One region of the Honduran Atlantic which is a flashpoint for conflict and violence is the Bajo Aguán, where many campesinos have been murdered due to land disputes. Impunity is the common denominator in these cases and governments have failed to find solutions to the conflict, despite signing agreements. Justice has yet to reach this agricultural region.
Similarly, Garífuna and indigenous peoples’ groups are protesting in view of the Honduran state’s failure to comply with international judgments issued by the Inter-American Court of Justice regarding the protection of their territories.
[LEER] Misquitos y garífunas, los indígenas con mayor desplazamiento forzado en Honduras
The OHCHR field office should monitor implementation of the 15-point agreement between President Xiomara Castro’s government and organisations in the Bajo Aguán, signed in 2022. The commitments in the agreement include the presence, in the areas subject to land disputes, of the National Human Rights Commissioner, the Secretariat of the Presidency, the Supreme Court of Justice, the Human Rights Secretariat and the Human Rights Prosecutor’s Office. These have a mandate to investigate human rights violations, propose reparations for victims, and determine the factors that gave rise to the human rights violations and abuses in the Bajo Aguán region over the last 30 years.
The agreement also provides for a mechanism to be established to investigate, follow-up and provide reparations for the violation of the human rights of the victims of the land conflict in Bajo Aguán. The mechanism’s structure would be agreed by the members of the tripartite commission.
There is also the commitment to investigate the actions of the state security forces and private security companies, their links to illegal groups and their role in acts of violence against campesinos in Bajo Aguán. If their participation in criminal acts were proven, the lawsuits arising from these investigations would be brought before the courts. In addition, compliance with the precautionary measures granted by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights for the human rights defenders of Bajo Aguán must be ensured.
Bajo Aguán is a centre of conflict due to multiple factors that converge there.
None of these commitments has been fully met, but this means that at least the new OHCHR office already has a route mapped out for monitoring compliance with them and for helping to reduce polarisation and conflict in the area.
In early 2025, over 65 organisations working in the area issued an urgent statement to draw attention to the situation there. Almost six months later, the OHCHR has announced that it is opening its first regional field office in Honduras to address the issues, receive reports of human rights violations, monitor implementation of the commitments under the Agreement, issue early warning alerts and protect human rights.
The opening of this regional field office as well as the arrival of the OHCHR in the country several years ago, far from being a cause of celebration for a state, is a stark indication that the human rights situation is not at its best and is deteriorating, state institutions are becoming increasingly fragile, and the state is incapable of providing its citizens with the minimum guarantees for the respect of their rights and freedoms in countries such as Honduras which are in a democratic coma.