In a briefing paper sent to President Xiomara Castro and the United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres, Human Rights Watch has called upon Honduras to take urgent measures to fight corruption, citing it as a structural problem that undermines human rights throughout the country. According to the June 9, 2023 report, the negotiations underway in Honduras to create a UN-backed commission – the Comisión Internacional contra la Corrupción e Impunidad en Honduras (CICIH, or International Commission against Corruption and Impunity in Honduras) – provide a unique opportunity to learn from past experience and make lasting progress.
Systemic Corruption in Honduras
The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights reported in 2019 that cases of corruption had “proliferated” to “an extremely concerning degree” in Latin America and the Caribbean. Honduras ranked 157th out of 180 nations in the 2022 Corruption Perception Index released by Transparency International, positioning it below every other country in Latin America and the Caribbean, except for Nicaragua (167), Haiti (171), and Venezuela (177). Systematic corruption can deprive the government of money to invest in health, education, clean water, housing, and other rights. It dangerously undermines essential government functions, distorts public accountability, and often leads to attacks on judicial independence and freedom of expression to prevent or undermine investigations by the justice system and news media.
Impact of Corruption on Human Rights
Human Rights Watch reviewed the judicial files of 14 corruption investigations in Honduras and found strong links to human rights abuses in 12 of them. The corruption documented by prosecutors undermined the rights to food, health, and education, as well as Indigenous peoples’ right to free, prior, and informed consent regarding measures that may affect them, among other adverse consequences. Human Rights Watch also documented another case in which officials were implicated in corruption in the purchase of mobile hospitals.
Legal Reforms
Honduras’ legal framework includes laws that hinder the fight against corruption and reduce transparency and accountability, making it more difficult to prosecute corruption, as shown in some high-profile cases Human Rights Watch details in the briefing paper. A Congressional decree passed in 2021, for example, narrowed the criminal definition of money laundering, leading to the dismissal of many cases. In Honduras, political parties have often interfered with the judicial system to further their own interests. Appointments of Supreme Court justices and the attorney general were negotiated behind closed doors, not based on merit but on political affinity. An important step forward was a 2022 congressional reform of the selection process for Supreme Court justices that enabled transparency in the February 2023 selection of 15 new justices.
UN-Backed Commission and Legal Reforms
President Castro was elected on a human rights platform, with a strong focus on fighting systemic corruption. Her administration signed a memorandum in December 2022 with the United Nations Secretary-General to create the commission. The briefing paper acknowledged that the ongoing negotiations to create the UN-backed commission provide a unique opportunity to learn from past experience and make lasting progress. Human Rights Watch emphasized the importance of designing the international commission to serve as a vehicle to strengthen local institutions. The commission’s work will be critical, but it should also help to build a strong, resilient Honduran anti-corruption and justice system capable of deterring, prosecuting, and punishing corruption in the long term. The Castro administration should empower it to propose legislative reforms to strengthen the rule of law and the fight against corruption, and the president should commit to working with Congress to carry out these reforms.
Advice to Honduras
Human Rights Watch believes that for the commission to succeed, it needs to be autonomous and independent, with a broad mandate to investigate and prosecute individual corruption cases and the authority to protect its Honduran and international staff from retaliation. “If Honduras sets it up for success, the international commission could provide a regional model for fighting a scourge that undermines people’s rights and their ability to lead their daily lives in dignity throughout Latin America and the Caribbean,” said Juanita Goebertus, the Americas director at Human Rights Watch. The president and secretary-general, with the support of the international community, have an opportunity to show that democracy and the rule of law can deliver. The future of judicial independence in Honduras also depends on the quality of the process for selecting the next attorney general, after Attorney General Óscar Chinchilla’s five-year term expires on August 31. The process should be transparent and based on merit and clear criteria.
Editorial
One of the pillars of democracy is the rule of law, and there can be no democracy without it. However, corruption is a persistent threat to the rule of law, particularly in countries with fragile democracies. In Honduras, the widespread corruption has undermined essential government functions, jeopardized public accountability and human rights, and eroded the confidence of the citizens in their leaders and institutions. While the CICIH provides a unique opportunity for Honduras to tackle corruption, it is crucial to design it as an independent and autonomous entity with a broad mandate to investigate, prosecute and deter corruption. Moreover, it should propose legislative reforms to strengthen the rule of law and the fight against corruption that the president and Congress undertake. In conclusion, to make lasting progress in the fight against corruption, Honduras must pursue legal reforms, strengthen local institutions, and empower the CICIH to combat corruption in the long term.
<< photo by Ana Lanza >>