Femicide in Honduras

Femicide in Honduras is a concept referring to murders committed against women (i.e., femicide) in Honduras since 1990. According to the Penal Code in force until 2018, the crime of femicide is defined as a man or men killing a woman for reasons of gender, with hatred and contempt for her condition as a woman. Between 2002 and 2013, 3,923 women were murdered in Honduras.^[1][2] The number of femicides makes up 9.6% of the total number of homicides in the country.^[3] In 2013, 53 women were killed every month, and more than 90% of those cases (like murders generally in Honduras) went unpunished.^[4][5] More recent data reports that the level of impunity for femicides continues to be high, as it reached 95% for the 338 cases that occurred during 2017 through early 2018.^[6]

In 2015, the Honduran government allocated 30 million Honduran lempiras to the creation of a special unit in the 2016 budget for femicide investigation. Efforts to further combat the high rate of femicide in Honduras were seen in 2018 with the creation of the Inter-Agency Commission to Monitor Investigations into Violent Deaths of Women and Femicide, which was created following the country’s establishment of the Ministry of Human Rights in 2017.^[7]

In February 2013, the National Congress of Honduras approved a reform in the national civil code which classified femicide as a serious felony, permitting sentences of up to 40 years in prison when under the following circumstances:

1. When the perpetrator of the crime maintains or has maintained a partner relationship, either matrimonial, domestic partnership, cohabitation or any other relation in between, including those in which an emotional relationship is or has been sustained;
2. When the crime is preceded with acts of domestic violence, whether or not previously reported;
3. When the crime is preceded with sexual violence, assault, harassment, or persecution of any nature;
4. When the crime is committed with unjustifiable malice or cruelty, or if the wounds inflicted are shameful, degrading, or mutilating before or after the taking of life.^[1]

In 2017, during the discussion of the new Civil Codes, there was a proposal to maintain the crime of femicide but reduce the punishment to 20 to 30 years in prison.^[8]

Notable femicide victims in Honduras include:

• Riccy Mabel Martínez Sevilla^[9]
• Blanca Jeannette Kawas^[10][11]
• María José Alvarado^[12][13][14]
• Berta Cáceres^[15][16]

• Crime in Honduras
• Gender inequality in Honduras
• Female Homicides In Juárez City