Femicide in Honduras

Aspect of domestic violence

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]

## National Civil Code reforms

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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]

## Noted cases

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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]

## See also

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

## References

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1. ^ a b "Cerca de 4.000 mujeres fueron asesinadas en Honduras entre 2002 y 2013". Elmundo.es.
2. ^ "Más de 3,600 mujeres fueron asesinadas en Honduras entre 2002 y junio de 2013". América Latina – ElNuevoHerald.com. 10 September 2014. Archived from the original on September 10, 2014.
3. ^ Gibbons, Jonathan (2013). "Global Study on Homicide" (PDF). Unodc.org. United National Office of Drugs and Crime (Vienna).
4. ^ "Los asesinatos de mujeres aumentan un 65 por ciento en Honduras". Laprensa.hn.
5. ^ "Una interminable "epidemia" muerte de mujeres en Honduras". Laprensa.hn. Archived from the original on 2016-08-09. Retrieved 2016-06-13.
6. ^ Honduras Stakeholder Report for the United Nations Universal Periodic Review. Minneapolis: The Advocates for Human Rights. 2019. p. 2.
7. ^ Visit to Honduras Report of the Working Group on the Issue of Discrimination Against Women in Law and in Practice. United Nations General Assembly. 2019. p. 5.
8. ^ Mujeres, Centro de Derechos de. "¿Cuál será el impacto del nuevo Código Penal en los derechos de las mujeres en Honduras? | Centro de Derechos de Mujeres" (in European Spanish). Retrieved 2019-02-07.[permanent dead link]
9. ^ Refugees, United Nations High Commissioner for. "Honduras: Death of Riccy Mabel, July 1993". Refworld.org.
10. ^ Controlador. "Mártires de la lucha ambiental". Archived from the original on 2013-09-21.
11. ^ "Honduras ante la corte interamericana por el asesinato de ambientalista". Honduras Laboral. 16 April 2015. Archived from the original on April 16, 2015.
12. ^ "Testigos identifican a Plutarco como el asesino de Miss Honduras y su hermana, en audiencia inicial". Archived from the original on 2015-02-12. Retrieved 2016-06-13.
13. ^ "Asesinato de reina; shock para violenta Honduras". Huffingtpnpost.com.
14. ^ "Dictan prisión para Plutarco Ruiz por el asesinato de Miss Honduras Mundo y su hermana". Canalntn24.com.
15. ^ "Threats, attacks and intimidation against Berta Cáceres Flores". BertaCaceres.org. Archived from the original on 2019-10-24.
16. ^ "Secretario de la OEA condena asesinato de Berta Cáceres". La Tribuna. 3 March 2016. Archived from the original on 2 April 2016. Retrieved 2016-03-04.

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Femicide in the Americas

Sovereign
states|

* Antigua and Barbuda
* Argentina
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* Barbados
* Belize
* Bolivia
* Brazil
* Canada
* Chile
* Colombia
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* Suriname
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* United States
* Uruguay
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Dependencies
and territories|

* Anguilla
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* British Virgin Islands
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* Curaçao
* Falkland Islands
* French Guiana
* Greenland
* Guadeloupe
* Martinique
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* Puerto Rico
* Saba
* Saint Barthélemy
* Saint Martin
* Saint Pierre and Miquelon
* Sint Eustatius
* Sint Maarten
* South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands
* Turks and Caicos Islands
* U.S. Virgin Islands

* North America
* Central America
* Caribbean
*   * Latin America
*   * South America

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