Honduras: Submission to the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights

We write in advance of the 76th session of the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and its adoption of a list of issues to inform its review of Honduras’ compliance with the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR). This submission is an update to our August 2022 pre-sessional submission and includes updated information on judicial and prosecutorial independence, corruption, and access to abortion and contraception.[1]

This update comes amid challenges to realizing economic, social and cultural rights in Honduras that are reflected in the high level of poverty and inequality as well as lack of access to public services. According to official government data, in 2023, 64 percent of the population lived below the poverty line (down from 73.6 percent in 2021, during the Covid-19 pandemic), and about 41.5 percent lived in extreme poverty (down from 53.7 percent in 2021).[2] Honduras faces one of the highest levels of income inequality in Latin America, with a Gini index of 0.52 in 2023.[3]

Honduras has made progress in developing infrastructure needed to ensure universal access to services such as water, electricity, and sanitation, but still faces significant gaps. National data indicate that while a high percentage of the population has access to piped water (87.5 percent) and public electricity (89 percent), which have slightly improved from 2019, less than half of the people in Honduras have sewer-connected toilets (40 percent) or public garbage collection (47 percent).[4]

Right to Education (articles 13 and 14)

According to UNESCO, Honduras provides three years of free pre-primary education, one year of which is compulsory, and 11 years of free primary and secondary education. UNESCO says that in 2022, the adjusted net enrollment rate in organized learning one year before the official primary education school entry age was 64 percent; with 92 percent of children completing primary education; but only 50 percent completing secondary education.

In 2023, according to government data, working-age Hondurans completed just an average of 7.5 years of schooling, significantly lower than the Latin American average of 10.1.[5]  Government expenditure on education in 2023 as a percentage of GDP was 4.44 percent, which is at the lower level of the international target of 4 to 6 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) spent on education.

Illiteracy is a significant problem in Honduras. 13.7 percent of people over 15 years old could not read or write in 2023. The data indicate that the illiteracy rate continues to be higher in the rural population.[6]

In July 2024, Honduras co-sponsored, along with 48 other states, a proposal advanced by Luxembourg, the Dominican Republic, and Sierra Leone at the UN Human Rights Council to establish a working group of countries to consider and draft a new optional protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child explicitly recognizing every child’s right to early childhood education, free public preprimary education, and free public secondary education. The UN Human Rights Council approved the proposal in July.6

Human Rights Watch encourages the Committee to:

• Congratulate and thank Honduras for their support of proposals to strengthen the right to free education from pre-primary through secondary under the Convention on the Rights of the Child, as a reflection of their obligations under article 2(1) of the Covenant.
• Ask the representatives from Honduras why expenditure on education as a percentage of GDP declined between 2019 and 2023, and what activities the government is undertaking to prevent school dropouts.

Right to the Highest Attainable Standard of Health (article 12) 
Recent analysis of data from the World Health Organization (WHO) conducted by Human Rights Watch found that more than fifty cents of every dollar spent on health care in the country in 2021 came from out-of-pocket fees levied against individuals and families. The burden of out-of-pocket healthcare spending can create discriminatory barriers to accessing health care based on income and impede the enjoyment of the right to the highest attainable standard of health. But our research suggests that increasing public spending appears to have a strong effect on lowering healthcare systems’ reliance on these kinds of regressive and rights-harming user fees.[7]

Honduras spent the equivalent of 3.44 percent of its gross domestic product (GDP) on health care through public means in 2021, the most recent year for which data is available. While the government of Honduras' public healthcare spending as a percent of GDP increased by nearly one-fifth from pre-pandemic levels in 2019, it still fell short of the 5-percent-of-GDP public healthcare spending indicator that the WHO uses to assess governments’ funding of public health care, and which is associated with greater achievement towards universal health coverage and related healthcare goals fundamental to the realization of the right to health.[8]

Among 53 lower-middle-income countries included in the WHO’s Sustainable Development Goal 3.8.1 index on coverage of essential health services, Honduras ranked 18th, indicating an opportunity for improvement alongside increased commitment to funding health care. This is similarly reflected in the government of Honduras’ national budget for the year 2021, which allocated roughly 12 percent of spending towards the health sector, placing it among the highest-spending lower-middle-income countries, but still falling short of the 15-percent-of-national-budget benchmark embraced by the African system of human rights.[9]

Human Rights Watch recommends that the Committee call on the government of Honduras to:

• Set a goal to spend through domestically generated public funds the equivalent of at least 5 percent of GDP or 15 percent of general government expenditures on health care, or an amount that otherwise ensures the dedication of the maximum available resources for the realization of rights, including the right to health.
• Seek to increase public revenues for allocation to public health care through progressive taxes and changes to policy and enforcement to reduce tax abuses.

Judicial and Prosecutorial Independence (article 2)

Honduras’ justice system has suffered political interference for years, and the lack of judicial independence has significant implications for the realization of economic and social rights under the ICESCR.

Every seven years, Congress selects all 15 members of the Supreme Court from a list of at least 45 candidates prepared by a nominating committee. Several sources shared that once the list gets to Congress, in practice, political parties have split the 15 vacancies among them, according to the proportion of seats they hold.[10] In addition, Human Rights Watch was told that when a case involving a political party arrives at the Supreme Court, the case is typically assigned to a justice sympathetic to that party.[11]

In July 2022, under intense domestic and international pressure, Congress adopted a law regulating the functioning of the nominating committee, laying out concrete criteria for the selection of justices and making the process more transparent.[12] In February 2023, Congress appointed 15 new justices selected from a list prepared by the committee, based on merit, but legislators split vacancies among political parties.[13]

Lack of transparency and clear criteria continues to plague the selection of lower-court judges and decisions over their careers. The Supreme Court president has ultimate power over selection, promotion, transfer, and discipline of lower-court judges. We received information on several cases in which candidates had obtained high scores in selection processes, but other candidates with lower scores were appointed instead. Authorities rarely explained the basis for those appointments.[14] The Inter-American Court of Human Rights and the UN special rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers have warned that the excessive concentration of power in the Supreme Court is troublesome and that the internal disciplinary system for judges in Honduras lacks independence.[15]

The mechanism to appoint the attorney general lacks transparency and is highly vulnerable to political interference. In November 2023, a Congressional commission, dominated by pro-government legislators, appointed an interim attorney general and deputy attorney general, without the constitutionally required majority vote. [16] Subsequently, in February 2024, following the established legal process, the Congress ratified the attorney general and named a new deputy.[17]

Human Rights Watch recommends that the Committee call on the government of Honduras to:

• Introduce a bill to improve the independence of the judiciary, in accordance with international standards,[18]including by:
  • Creating a judicial governance system that includes a fair, transparent, and independent mechanism for disciplinary actions for judges, administered by a body that is separate from the Supreme Court and independent of political and other outside pressures, and establishing that judges may only be suspended or removed for reasons of incapacity or behavior that renders them unfit to discharge their duties;
  • Establishing clear rules for the appointment, transfer, and promotion of judges, based on their qualifications and integrity, and with a commitment to increasing female representation on the Supreme Court;
• Ensuring the prompt appointment of tenured judges; and
  • Establishing clear rules for distribution of cases among judges, to prevent conflicts of interest and vulnerability to internal and external pressures.
• Seek legal changes, including through introduction of legislative proposals, to modify procedures for appointing the attorney general and other high officials to ensure their selection is transparent and based on clear criteria, including qualifications and evidence of integrity, and to prevent political interference.

Corruption (article 2)

Corruption is a structural problem in Honduras. The Mission to Support the Fight against Corruption and Impunity in Honduras (MACCIH), backed by the Organization of American States (OAS), resulted in several convictions in corruption cases against high-level officials, many involving the alleged embezzlement of funds that had been allocated to programs necessary to protect and fulfill human rights, such as the rights to health, water, and education, and to alleviate poverty. In 2020, the government of former President Juan Orlando Hernández refused to renew its mandate.

Local prosecutors who had worked for MACCIH were integrated into a new prosecutorial unit, Unidad Fiscal Especializada Contra Redes de Corrupción (UFERCO), but they did not receive the same resources and support that they had received for MACCIH and their capacity to investigate corruption plummeted.[19]

Some laws enacted before, during, and after MACCIH that have hindered the fight against corruption and reduced transparency and accountability include:

• Decree 418/2013: the so-called official secrets law, which authorities abused to classify, for up to 25 years, a wide array of documents and actions, including budgets and expenses that had nothing to do with national security;[20]
• Decree 117/2019: shielding legislators, barring any civil, administrative, and penal sanction against them, for actions that they take in the exercise of their duties as legislators, which has been interpreted broadly in at least one case to close an investigation into alleged forgery of official documents;[21]
• Decree 93/2021: weakening the criminal definition of money laundering, by making it harder to prove money laundering when the origin of assets is unknown, allowing dismissal of many cases under investigation;[22] and
• Decree 4/2022: granting amnesty to people who were public officials during President Manuel Zelaya’s term in office (2006-2009) and were charged or convicted for “actions related to the exercise of their public function” after the 2009 coup against Zelaya. This provision came as part of a broader amnesty, lauded by human rights organizations, for people charged or convicted “on political grounds” for protesting or defending land and other rights.[23]

President Xiomara Castro signed the repeal of the official secrets law in March 2022.[24] This may help to reinvigorate the Institute for Access to Public Information, which had been unable to provide much information due to the official secrets law.[25]

In December 2022, the Castro administration signed a memorandum of understanding with the United Nations to establish the International Commission against Corruption and Impunity in Honduras (CICIH). Between July and October 2023, UN experts conducted three visits to Honduras to assess the viability and legal framework of such a commission. In 2023, Congress abrogated and modified previous decrees – including 57-2020, 116-2019, and 93-2021 – to remove several obstacles which had hampered domestic anti-corruption efforts.[26] However, progress on establishing the CICIH remains slow.[27]

Human Rights Watch recommends that the Committee call on the government of Honduras to:

• Collaborate with corruption investigations by providing government information about contracts, spending, and other issues of interest to prosecutors.
• Ask Congress to abrogate or amend legislation that has unnecessarily hindered the fight against corruption, including decrees 117/2019, and 4/2022.
• Continue to work with UN agencies, donors, and other international actors to establish an anti-corruption commission with a broad mandate that includes: (i) investigation and prosecution of individual corruption cases; (ii) proposal of legislative reforms to strengthen the fight against corruption and the rule of law; (iii) training of Honduran prosecutors, judges, police, and others to fight corruption effectively; (iv) close collaboration with the Consejo Nacional Anticorrupción (CNA), an independent organization mandated by law to fight corruption, and civil society organizations to ensure government accountability for the use of public funds.

Access to Abortion and Emergency Contraception (article 12)

Abortion remains illegal under all circumstances, including when the life of the woman, girl or pregnant person is in danger. People who have abortions, and those who provide them, face up to six years in prison. In 2019, Human Rights Watch documented how Honduras’ total ban on abortion and emergency contraception violates the rights of women and girls and puts their health and lives at risk.[28] In January 2021, Congress passed a constitutional amendment increasing the majority needed to amend the provision banning abortion from two-thirds to three-quarters, complicating future reform.[29] In March 2023, the Supreme Court ruled again that the abortion ban is constitutional, and, in July 2023, President Castro vetoed a law mandating comprehensive sexual education aimed at preventing teenage pregnancies.[30]

In December 2022, President Castro approved a protocol providing a guide for the attention of survivors of sexual violence in health centers which allowed access to emergency contraceptives for these cases.[31] Following this, in March 2023, President Castro signed an executive order that ended the country’s ban on the use and sale of emergency contraception.[32]

However, the Strategic Group on Emergency Contraception (Grupo Estratégico PAE), a coalition of various human rights and healthcare organizations, has reported that emergency contraception is still not available in the public health system, access is not free, nor has the protocol for survivors of sexual violence been implemented.[33] According to Doctors Without Borders, although distribution of kits for sexual assault cases, which contain emergency contraceptives, began after the approval of the protocol in December 2022, they are not being effectively implemented due to the lack of identified health centers and public awareness of where to seek medical assistance. In 2023, they reported 719 cases of sexual violence, but only 12 percent of victims sought help within 72 hours of the event, and emergency contraception was utilized in only 45 of these cases.[34]

The total abortion ban and barriers to accessing emergency contraception are particularly harmful given the country’s high rates of sexual violence, especially among adolescents.

In 2023, the Public Ministry received 2,641 complaints of sexual violence against women and girls. Based on this data, the most affected age groups include girls between the ages of 10-18 (representing 61.5 percent of cases), and women between the ages of 20-29 (21.7 percent).[35]

Honduras has the second highest rate of teenage pregnancies among Latin American countries.[36] In 2024, the adolescent birthrate was 97 per 1,000 girls aged 15-19,[37] higher than the regional average of 61, and more than double the world average.[38] In 2020, 23,180 girls between the ages of 10 and 19 gave birth.[39] While not all these pregnancies are unwanted, adolescents can have more to lose from an unplanned pregnancy – like missing out on school or being pressured to get married – and often have less access than adults to information, resources, and support to be able to safely end a pregnancy.

Abortion bans do not end the practice. Instead, they push women, girls and pregnant people, especially those living in poverty and rural areas, out of the national health system and into unregulated settings. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), lack of access to safe, affordable, timely and respectful abortion care, coupled with the stigma associated with abortion, poses risks to women’s physical and mental well-being throughout their lives.[40]

Fear of criminalization can push women, girls and pregnant people to not seek medical attention when they need it. This was indeed the result for a 22-year-old woman Human Rights Watch spoke to in 2019, who after going to the hospital to treat a miscarriage, was arrested after doctors called the police for a suspected abortion. She was placed under pretrial supervision and waited over two years for her court date.[41]

Human Rights Watch research worldwide shows that criminalizing abortion not only undermines the ability of women and girls to access essential reproductive health services, but it also exacerbates inequalities and discrimination.[42]

In April 2024, the Center for Reproductive Rights and Centro de Derechos de la Mujer lodged a case before the UN Human Rights Committee on behalf of Fausia, an indigenous Honduran woman who became pregnant after being raped in retaliation for her human and environmental rights work. Under Honduras’ total ban on abortion and, at the time, emergency contraception, she was forced to proceed with her pregnancy and faced threats and intimidation while seeking medical assistance.[43]

Human Rights Watch recommends that the Committee call on the government of Honduras to:

• Decriminalize abortion as a matter of urgency by removing all criminal penalties for abortion from the criminal code, and ensure all pregnant people have effective access to reproductive healthcare including safe and legal abortion.
• Ensure access to comprehensive sexual and reproductive health information, psychosocial support for women and girls in the event of unwanted pregnancies, and post-abortion care.
• Implement the protocol for the care of survivors of sexual violence and ensure that emergency contraception is accessible in public health services. 
• Propose a bill, or use its executive powers, to protect patient-doctor confidentiality. No criminal proceeding should be started based on information given while seeking health care.