Several Honduran women said that if these burdens had been freely chosen rather than thrust on them, they might feel more empowered. Notably, more research needs to be done on the topic of the political impacts on women after the men migrate from Honduras. In the 2008 Global Gender Gap Index, Honduras was ranked 21st out of 74 countries on their general index value. Pulled from the same data but for the economic participation, in the opportunity sub-index they were ranked 47th. That is a change of 26 spots when talking about general-well being versus economic inclusion. This is yet another indicator that gender inequality is lower in economic dimensions of society.
- Historically, governments have responded to organized crime with iron-fist security strategies.
- When she appeared to win a major policy victory in April, for instance, when the Honduran congress voted unanimously to abolish the law authorizing ZEDEs, two U.S. senators responded by pressuring the State Department to take action against her government.
- According to Gladys Lanza, a trade union activist, women were extremely active in the 1954 national banana workers strike.
- I have learned, during almost eight months at HKS, that the implementation of any public policy is hard because it is contextual.
- The average age of first contact with gangs is 13 years old, a 2020 UN Development Programme report found.
- Additionally, the increase of work for women does not also lead to an increase of political or social power and influence.
Individual shipments of cocaine usually carried hundreds of, and sometimes more than a thousand, kilograms of cocaine. After receiving a shipment of cocaine, Los Montes worked with other drug traffickers to transport the cocaine inland through Honduras into Guatemala and, eventually, Mexico, where the cocaine would then be imported into, and distributed within, the United States. One year after the historic election of Honduras’ first female president, there are signs of progress. • Almost all (93%) women aged 15–19 believe that if a woman’s husband has an STI, she is justified in asking him to use a condom.
That learning, put into practice, changed my leadership completely because I focused on building stronger ties with my team, which resulted in their commitment to our work. I developed more empathy, affection, and appreciation towards people and learned to be more open. These are skills that have helped me not only in my work, but in my personal life.
Typically, the men who migrate must stay away and work for several years in order to make enough money to adequately provide for the survival of their family members remaining in Honduras. This long term separation and the worry it gives rise to can be incredibly taxing. Interviews with Honduran women revealed that they typically feel much less safe than their male family members. One Honduran woman had been robbed since the criminals knew her husband had migrated and thus targeted her house. Furthermore, this emotional burden and anxiety manifests itself into physical illnesses. The act was inspired by the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, as well as other international organizations in support of women’s rights, and had a main goal of reducing violence towards women in Honduras.
Honduras Should Commit to Protecting Women’s and Girls’ Rights
Similarly, in urban areas the fact that most wage jobs are held by men may discourage women from seeking employment. The problem of lower female participation in the labor market begins with early school dropout.
Meanwhile, activists report that despite the legislative victory, the ZEDEs continue to operate and expand on the ground. In these zones and elsewhere in the country, private actors still threaten the lives and safety of people defending land rights, as UUSC and other organizations have documented. For all President Castro’s promises of change, therefore, her administration has not eliminated the dangers that Honduran human rights defenders face throughout the country. • The Honduran government signed the Ministerial Declaration of Preventing through Education in 2010 and, thereby, committed itself to work toward ensuring the sexual and reproductive health and rights of all young people. One of the declaration’s goals is to reduce the number of schools that do not provide comprehensive sexuality education by 75%. In Honduras, the rate of femicide, is rated in 6th out of 111 countries according to a study done in 2011. During the autopsies, it is often discovered that rape has occurred before the victim’s death.
Just a few days before she was set to leave for the competition, Alvarado and her sister, 23-year-old http://www.ofuro-no-jikan.com/blog/18979/ Sofia Trinidad, were brutally murdered. Their bodies were hidden in shallow graves in a riverbank in Santa Barbara, Honduras, discovered after a week-long manhunt that made international headlines. Their joint funeral was broadcast around the world and attended by thousands. In 2014, a 19-year-old small town girl named Maria Jose Alvarado catapulted onto the world stage when her brilliant smile and sweet personality won her the Miss Honduras crown. With a freshly minted passport, she was set to compete for the prestigious Miss World title in London, a trip which would be the first plane ride of her life.
History of women’s rights
Judges face interference—including political pressure, threats, and harassment—from the executive branch, private actors with connections to government, and gangs. The Supreme Court, particularly its president, exerts excessive control over the appointment and removal of judges, and career instability limits judges’ independence. In its 2016 review of Honduras, the CEDAW Committee urged the government to decriminalize abortion, noting that the ban caused women and girls to seek unsafe abortions and increased maternal mortality.
Gender inequality in Honduras has seen improvements in some areas regarding gender inequality, while others have regressed towards further inequality since in 1980s. Comparing numbers from the 2011 and 2019 United Nations Human Development Reports helps to understand how gender inequality has been trending in Honduras. In the 2011 Human Development Report rankings for the Gender Inequality Index, Honduras ranked 121st out of 187 countries. In the 2019 Human Development Report Honduras dropped to 132nd out of 189 countries in the rankings. As the country’s overall ranking dropped, it indicates that progress towards gender equality is not being made on the same level as other countries around the world. If young women think staying at school will not bring them better job opportunities, there is a risk that they will drop out of secondary education. In rural areas, women looking for jobs may be discouraged because they see that half of the jobs are in agriculture and these are mostly taken by men.
Gender-specific indicators
From January to September 2021, 31,894 Hondurans requested asylum in Mexico, the Mexican Commission for Refugee Aid reported—filing more than 35 percent of Mexico’s total asylum petitions. From January to July, 7,007 accompanied and 676 unaccompanied Honduran children requested asylum. In a 2020 survey by UNHCR and UNICEF, half of Hondurans interviewed in Mexico named violence as the main reason for their leaving. In February, journalist https://priyobari.com/2023/01/31/innovation-in-agriculture-the-role-of-women-in-latin-america-inter-american-institute-for-cooperation-on-agriculture/ Henry Fiallos and his family received anonymous death threats after he covered a femicide in which police officers were implicated. In August, he reported having been brutally beaten by police officers while doing his job. Since MACCIH left, the Attorney General’s Office has harassed and intimidated the head of its own anti-corruption criminal enterprise office, Prosecutor Luis Javier Santos, and members of his team.
Yet when the “Nightline” team went to visit, there were only a handful of women there asking for help. According to the Women’s District Attorney Maria Mercedes Bustelo, “What these women feel is impotence.
The Los Montes Cartel was a vicious drug trafficking organization that poisoned our citizens and engaged in violence to profit from drug trafficking. Our message to criminal organizations’ leadership is clear, we will not waver until drug distribution and it’s related violence is eradicated,” said Jarod Forget, Special Agent in Charge, DEA Washington Division. As we noted at this time a year ago, no one government or elected official https://latindate.org/central-american-women/honduran-women/ can fully protect human rights, and every government—no matter who helms it—must be held accountable to the same high standard of promoting human rights. After a year in office, Castro has not fully addressed the multiple challenges that Honduran people face, and structural barriers remain to her ability to make change. These forms of violence are compounded at the institutional level by policies that deny women access to reproductive rights and health care. Unlike many countries in Latin America, Honduras criminalizes abortion without exception and also places severe limitations on women’s access to emergency contraception.