2020 Human Rights Ombudsperson issues public letter criticising criminal case against Guapinol defenders

Issued on 22 September 2020, the Honduran Human Rights Ombudsperson’s public letter directed at the judicial authorities made the case for the detained members of the Municipal Committee in Defence of Common and Public Goods (CMDBCP) as human rights activists engaged in legitimate protest activities. The letter also pointed to the failure of the judiciary to guarantee the right to presumption of innocence and called for the case to be handled by the ordinary courts not in the National Court jurisdiction, which is supposed to be limited to serious cases of organized crime. However, while the ombudsperson has the authority to monitor the case and issue recommendations in order for the Honduran State to uphold human rights law, the letter does not carry specific evidential legal weight within the judicial process against the unfairly accused environmental defenders.