The All-Party Parliamentary Human Rights Group (PHRG), together with Peace Brigades International (PBI) UK, met with Donald Hernandez, a human rights and environmental lawyer who represents and assists indigenous groups in the country impacted by mining and agribusiness.

The main points/issues Hernandez raised during the meeting were:

• Lack of proper consultation of local indigenous groups by mineral extraction companies, which often causes local resistance.
• Indigenous people who resist such projects are often criminalised, including charged with trespass, illegal occupation of land, terrorism and/or crimes against the state.
• Honduras’ courts tend to favour the Government or corporations over indigenous people.
• Indigenous people have inhabited many of these areas for centuries, but their legal rights to land are weakly protected and land registration processes deficient.
• These problems are exacerbated by the current Honduran Government’s prioritisation of economic development plans, including resource extraction.
• Opportunities for these issues to be raised, including by the UK Government, include Honduras’ upcoming Universal Periodic Review (UPR) at the UN Human Rights Council in April 2015.
• The UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) is unable to establish a permanent presence in the country due to a lack of funding. The UK Government could raise this matter with the UN.

The PHRG will continue to highlight human rights concerns in Honduras with relevant interlocutors and to monitor related issues.