IACHR Issues Follow-Up Resolution on Precautionary Measures Granted in Favor of Tolupan Indigenous Persons in Honduras

January 2, 2024

Washington, D.C. – The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) adopted on December 27, 2023, Follow-Up, Extension, and Partial Lift Resolution 83/2023. This resolution concerns precautionary measure 416-13, which had been granted in favor of Tolupan indigenous persons who are members of the Broad Movement for Justice and Dignity (MADJ) in Honduras.

The IACHR assessed the impact of these precautionary measures and decided to extend them in favor of 61 further identified members of the MADJ who live in the San Francisco Locomapa tribe, given the serious risks faced by defenders of the environment and of land and territory in Honduras.

When assessing these precautionary measures, the Commission found that the beneficiaries had suffered intimidation, that their homes and crops had been set ablaze, and that they had received death threats, among other acts of violence committed against them over the years because they oppose the exploitation of natural resources by third parties. The IACHR stressed that the risk had increased since 2021. The Commission noted that the allegations were serious and included incidents against the female proposed beneficiaries for being women. The Commission further noted that 11 members of the MADJ had been murdered since precautionary measures were granted in 2013, including two beneficiaries of these precautionary measures.

The IACHR praised concerted efforts to implement these precautionary measures, including the creation of an interinstitutional platform that brought together various State institutions and the State's proposal to address the causes of conflict within the San Francisco Locomapa tribe. However, the Commission found that the measures that had been taken by the authorities had proved ineffective to mitigate the situational and contextual risks that had originally given rise to the adoption of these precautionary measures.

The Commission found delays in efforts to address emergency situations that had been adequately reported and in the implementation of adequate protection measures, despite the risk assessment conducted in October 2023 by the National Protection Mechanism, which confirmed the risks faced by the beneficiaries. After a year, the Technical Committee had not been summoned to establish what measures were required to protect them.

The Commission therefore decided to take the following measures: a) continue to monitor these precautionary measures as required in Article 25 of the IACHR's Rules of Procedure; b) lift the precautionary measures that had been granted in favor of Santos Matute and José Salomón Matute; c) extend the precautionary measures that had been granted in favor of 61 members of the MADJ who live in the San Francisco Locomapa tribe, requesting their protection as stated in Resolution 12/2013; and d) implement these precautionary measures with the relevant ethnic and gender perspectives, where appropriate.

A principal, autonomous body of the Organization of American States (OAS), the IACHR derives its mandate from the OAS Charter and the American Convention on Human Rights. The Inter-American Commission has a mandate to promote respect for and to defend human rights in the region and acts as a consultative body to the OAS in this area. The Commission is composed of seven independent members who are elected in an individual capacity by the OAS General Assembly and who do not represent their countries of origin or residence.

No. 005/24

6:10 PM