Femicide in Honduras

Aspect of domestic violence

Femicide in Honduras is a concept referring to murders committed against women (i.e., femicide) in Honduras since 1990. According to the Penal Code in force until 2018, the crime of femicide is defined as a man or men killing a woman for reasons of gender, with hatred and contempt for her condition as a woman. Between 2002 and 2013, 3,923 women were murdered in Honduras.^[1]^[2] The number of femicides makes up 9.6% of the total number of homicides in the country.^[3] In 2013, 53 women were killed every month, and more than 90% of those cases (like murders generally in Honduras) went unpunished.^[4]^[5] More recent data reports that the level of impunity for femicides continues to be high, as it reached 95% for the 338 cases that occurred during 2017 through early 2018.^[6]

In 2015, the Honduran government allocated 30 million Honduran lempiras to the creation of a special unit in the 2016 budget for femicide investigation. Efforts to further combat the high rate of femicide in Honduras were seen in 2018 with the creation of the Inter-Agency Commission to Monitor Investigations into Violent Deaths of Women and Femicide, which was created following the country’s establishment of the Ministry of Human Rights in 2017.^[7]

National Civil Code reforms

In February 2013, the National Congress of Honduras approved a reform in the national civil code which classified femicide as a serious felony, permitting sentences of up to 40 years in prison when under the following circumstances:

When the perpetrator of the crime maintains or has maintained a partner relationship, either matrimonial, domestic partnership, cohabitation or any other relation in between, including those in which an emotional relationship is or has been sustained;
When the crime is preceded with acts of domestic violence, whether or not previously reported;
When the crime is preceded with sexual violence, assault, harassment, or persecution of any nature;
When the crime is committed with unjustifiable malice or cruelty, or if the wounds inflicted are shameful, degrading, or mutilating before or after the taking of life.^[1]

In 2017, during the discussion of the new Civil Codes, there was a proposal to maintain the crime of femicide but reduce the punishment to 20 to 30 years in prison.^[8]

Noted cases

Notable femicide victims in Honduras include:

Riccy Mabel Martínez Sevilla^[9]
Blanca Jeannette Kawas^[10]^[11]
María José Alvarado^[12]^[13]^[14]
Berta Cáceres^[15]^[16]

References

^ ^a ^b "Cerca de 4.000 mujeres fueron asesinadas en Honduras entre 2002 y 2013". Elmundo.es.
^ "Más de 3,600 mujeres fueron asesinadas en Honduras entre 2002 y junio de 2013". América Latina – ElNuevoHerald.com. 10 September 2014. Archived from the original on September 10, 2014.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
^ Gibbons, Jonathan (2013). "Global Study on Homicide" (PDF). Unodc.org. United National Office of Drugs and Crime (Vienna).
^ "Los asesinatos de mujeres aumentan un 65 por ciento en Honduras". Laprensa.hn.
^ "Una interminable "epidemia" muerte de mujeres en Honduras". Laprensa.hn. Archived from the original on 2016-08-09. Retrieved 2016-06-13.
^ Honduras Stakeholder Report for the United Nations Universal Periodic Review. Minneapolis: The Advocates for Human Rights. 2019. p. 2.
^ Visit to Honduras Report of the Working Group on the Issue of Discrimination Against Women in Law and in Practice. United Nations General Assembly. 2019. p. 5.
^ Mujeres, Centro de Derechos de. "¿Cuál será el impacto del nuevo Código Penal en los derechos de las mujeres en Honduras? | Centro de Derechos de Mujeres" (in European Spanish). Retrieved 2019-02-07.^{[permanent dead link]}
^ Refugees, United Nations High Commissioner for. "Honduras: Death of Riccy Mabel, July 1993". Refworld.org.
^ Controlador. "Mártires de la lucha ambiental". Archived from the original on 2013-09-21.
^ "Honduras ante la corte interamericana por el asesinato de ambientalista". Honduras Laboral. 16 April 2015. Archived from the original on April 16, 2015.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
^ "Testigos identifican a Plutarco como el asesino de Miss Honduras y su hermana, en audiencia inicial". Archived from the original on 2015-02-12. Retrieved 2016-06-13.
^ "Asesinato de reina; shock para violenta Honduras". Huffingtpnpost.com.
^ "Dictan prisión para Plutarco Ruiz por el asesinato de Miss Honduras Mundo y su hermana". Canalntn24.com.
^ "Threats, attacks and intimidation against Berta Cáceres Flores". BertaCaceres.org. Archived from the original on 2019-10-24.
^ "Secretario de la OEA condena asesinato de Berta Cáceres". La Tribuna. 3 March 2016. Archived from the original on 2 April 2016. Retrieved 2016-03-04.