Femicide in Honduras

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:

  1. 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;
  2. When the crime is preceded with acts of domestic violence, whether or not previously reported;
  3. When the crime is preceded with sexual violence, assault, harassment, or persecution of any nature;
  4. 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:

See also

References
  1. "Cerca de 4.000 mujeres fueron asesinadas en Honduras entre 2002 y 2013". Elmundo.es.
  2. "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)
  3. Gibbons, Jonathan (2013). "Global Study on Homicide" (PDF). Unodc.org. United National Office of Drugs and Crime (Vienna).
  4. "Los asesinatos de mujeres aumentan un 65 por ciento en Honduras". Laprensa.hn.
  5. "Una interminable "epidemia" muerte de mujeres en Honduras". Laprensa.hn. Archived from the original on 2016-08-09. Retrieved 2016-06-13.
  6. Honduras Stakeholder Report for the United Nations Universal Periodic Review. Minneapolis: The Advocates for Human Rights. 2019. p. 2.
  7. 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.
  8. 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.
  9. Refugees, United Nations High Commissioner for. "Honduras: Death of Riccy Mabel, July 1993". Refworld.org.
  10. Controlador. "Mártires de la lucha ambiental". Archived from the original on 2013-09-21.
  11. "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)
  12. "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.
  13. "Asesinato de reina; shock para violenta Honduras". Huffingtpnpost.com.
  14. "Dictan prisión para Plutarco Ruiz por el asesinato de Miss Honduras Mundo y su hermana". Canalntn24.com.
  15. "Threats, attacks and intimidation against Berta Cáceres Flores". BertaCaceres.org. Archived from the original on 2019-10-24.
  16. "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.
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