COMMITTEE ON ECONOMIC, SOCIAL AND CULTURAL RIGHTS STARTS CONSIDERATION OF INITIAL REPORT OF HONDURAS

CESCR
25th session
25 April 2001
Afternoon




The Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights this afternoon started its consideration of an initial report of Honduras by hearing a Government delegation say that the country was in the process of recovering economically after the devastating effects of Hurricane Mitch.

Introducing the report, Roy Edmundo Medina, Attorney-General of Honduras, said that Honduras was fully committed to international treaties. The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights had been widely disseminated to the general public. In addition, a new law on gender equality had been enacted last year to provide equal opportunity for both men and women.

Committee members queried the delegation on a number of issues which included gender discrimination; lack of appropriate legislative acts protecting the rights of women; the impact of Hurricane Mitch; environmental pollution due to mining; and domestic violence.

Also included in the delegation of Honduras are Armando Euceda, Under-Secretary of State at the Department of Education; Olmeda Rivera Ramirez, Permanent Representative of Honduras to the United Nations Office at Geneva; Octavio Salomon Nunez, Director-General of Special Affairs in the Secretariat of External Relations; Mauricio R. Aguilar Robles, Director of Human Rights and Narcotics in the Secretariat of External Relations; and Teodolinda Pineda, Executive Director of the Honduran Institute of the Child and Family.

Also, Jorge Ponce Turcios, Special Assessor of the Department of Labour and Social Security; Sergio A. Carias, Director of the Planification and Evaluation of Management Unit in the Department of Health; Gracibel Bu Figueroa, Counsellor at the Permanent Mission of Honduras at Geneva; and Edna Ortegao, Technical Assistant for Social Intervention.


Honduras is among the 144 States parties to the Covenant and as such it is obligated to present periodic reports on how it is implementing the provisions of the treaty.

When the Committee reconvenes at 10 a.m on Thursday 26 April, it will continue its consideration of the report of Honduras.


Report of Honduras

The initial report of Honduras (document E/1990/5/Add.40) enumerates the various measures undertaken by the State in order to comply with the provisions of the Covenant. It says that Honduras holds that the right to self-determination is a fundamental human right recognized as such in the Covenant. The State of Honduras takes adequate measures to achieve the gradual development of the people's economic rights. However, it was witnessing a worrying deterioration in the effectiveness of these rights marked by their regression.

In addition, the successive structural adjustment of the economy had inflicted damage on the economic rights of the people. It had a serious impact on purchasing power, especially of the less-advantaged economic groups. In addition, the poor management of the public finances was having its adverse effects on the most vulnerable people -- a situation which the State of Honduras was trying to correct by modernizing its public institutions.

The report notes that the Constitution provided for the equality of women and men before the law and for the same rights and duties; however, most of the country's legislation did not take the gender concept into account, treating women as if they did not exist; this is due to the low level of participation by women in the enactment of legislation in Honduras. Laws are enacted with a strong unilateral input by men drawn from their view of society as a whole.

Further, the report says that Honduras experiences difficulties in securing full employment owing to the restriction of the job market resulting from the current critical economic situation. However, efforts are being made to overcome these difficulties, for example the adoption of the "maquiladora" incentives legislation as a means of generating jobs, and the governmental programme known as the Honduran Social Investment Fund, which creates jobs at the community level by means of infrastructure works.

The report says that there has been considerable but insufficient progress in reducing illiteracy in the country, which fell from 42 to 32 per cent between 1974 and 1988. About 60 per cent of the economically active population has less than three years of schooling. The effectiveness of the efforts to increase the quality of education has been undermined by the high rates of drop-out, repeated years and truancy at the various levels.


Presentation of Report

OLMEDA RIVERA RAMIREZ, Permanent Representative of Honduras to the United Nations Office at Geneva, introduced the delegation, and said that after the passage of Hurricane Mitch had damaged development achievements, but the Government had attempted to rebuild the country anew. The international community assisted the people in rebuilding their nation.

ROY EDMUNDO MEDINA, Attorney-General of Honduras, briefly said that his country was fully committed to international treaties. The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights had been widely made known to the general public. In addition, a new law on gender equality had been enacted last year to provide equal opportunity for both men and women. The country was recovering after the passage of Hurricane Mitch, which had devastated the economy of Honduras.


Discussion

In response to written questions prepared by Committee members, the delegation said that once international treaties entered into force, they became part of domestic law and their provisions could be invoked in courts. The treaties were adopted by the national congress and they became part and parcel of the national law.

Asked about the impact of Hurricane Mitch, the delegation said that the damage done by the hurricane was immense. It had not only damaged the main infrastructure, but it had also devastated the productive sectors which were daily beneficial to the survival of the population.

Some non-governmental organizations had been invited to participate in the preparation of the current initial report, the delegation said. Those organizations also actively participated in different programmes involving the population.

Responding to a question on the role of the 128 "diputados propietarios", the delegation said that they were elected by the people and they served as deputies in the national congress. They were elected for a term of four years.

An Expert asked if Honduras belonged to the category of countries that followed the school of thought in which they said that economic, social and cultural rights should be first realized before civil and political rights. Did the Government feel that the deforestation problem in Honduras could be attributed to catastrophes such as Hurricane Mitch? Another Expert said that gold mining had been conceded to foreign companies, but besides its income generating effect to local employees, it had had a devastating effect on the environment and health. What influence was being exercised by the Government on the gold mining operations?

Honduras fell under the category of heavily-indebted countries, an Expert said. Did the delegation think that the Covenant was pertinent to the country's poverty eradication strategy? Did the delegation think that the Covenant played a role in the implementation of economic, social and cultural rights in the country? Another Committee member asked what major measures had been taken to implement the provisions of the Covenant in recent years. Were there court cases on the violation of rights enshrined in the Covenant?

The international aid Honduras had received was estimated to be equal to the amount of damaged incurred by Hurricane Mitch, an Expert noted. Another Expert said what the Honduran people wanted was not a modern Government but a humane one. How did it come that under the moral revolution of the previous President, the human aspect did not prevail? The cries of shame, cries of workers in the mines, cries of the women, indigenous people and others should have been rectified with the acceptance of the Covenant by Honduras. The "maquiladora" system of employment was intended to exploit women through discriminatory salaries.

In response to written questions, the delegation said that the labour law was not properly implemented, particularly in the rural areas, with regard to equal pay for equal work. The lack of knowledge about rights was one of the sources of injustice in the employment sector, which had disadvantaged women who received less salary for the same amount of work they performed like their male counterparts.

There was a special unit in the Ministry of Labour whose role was to promote the rights of women and to protect them from any form of discrimination. In addition, laws had been enacted to protect women in matters of salary and ill-treatment in their working place.

In follow-up queries, some Committee members said that in Honduras, women received half the salary as men for the same amount of work. The delegation was asked about the measures taken to protect women. An Expert said that women were subjected to violence and abuse. They were social neglected and were not respected. The State policy should be revised to offer equal salary for women and to reinstate their honour in the society. While foreign investment was good for the country, it was disadvantageous for women who received less salaries than men.

What had been done to protect women from domestic violence, an Expert asked. Following its ratification of the Covenant, the Government had been expected to implement legislation which would enable the implementation of the provisions of the Covenant. The fact that not much had been done to promote and protect the rights of Honduran women could be sited as an example of the Government’s reluctance to take measures.

In response to a number of queries put by Committee members, the delegation said that Honduras had many shortcomings in the implementation of economic, social and cultural rights. However the dialogue with the Committee could provoke thoughts to re-examine the country's situation as to where it was standing in the implementation of the provisions of the Covenant.

It was not only with the strengthening of the economic, social and cultural rights that civil and political rights would follow, the delegation said. All categories of rights were congruent and interdependent; and they should be implemented without any preconceived thought of providing priority to one and not to the other.

People had been arrested for corruption and were judged for their wrong-doings, the delegation said. The judges were doing their work and they should not be criticised for the judgment they passed against corrupt officials. The judiciary was playing its constitutional role by acting independently and impartially.

The problem of environmental pollution was due to mining operations, the delegation said. A ministerial unit had been studying the extent of the damage inflicted to the air and land which had affected people living in some areas. The Government had been taking preventive measures and penal actions were taken against those who had contaminated the environment.


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