This image shows the peaceful rally resisting a hydroelectric project where Tomas Gomez got shot.
Friday, September 20, 2013
Human Rights and Honduras
Here is an interesting article on the stance of human rights in Honduras. The article talks about how leaders such as Bertha Cáceres and Tomás Gómez fighting for the rights of the indigenous people, are dealing with unfair punishment due to the government's lack of involvement in Human Rights. People fighting for human rights in Honduras are being treated unfair to the point where some fighting leaders are being severely harassed or even shot to death, and barely anything is being done about it.
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ReplyDeleteI think it is ironic that in fighting for human rights, these advocates are having their own rights encroached upon. This seems like an extremely difficult situation to fix due to the fact that defending human rights has become a life-threatening activity. I myself can’t think of a way to help halt this violence but I agree with the point at the end of the article that authorities should not silence the human rights activists, and should instead attempt to “recognize their legitimate and fundamental work” and try to improve the horrific situation as a whole.
I completely agree with Sean. Additionally, I am wondering what authorities are gaining by silencing these people. Do they believe that the rights of the individuals in the indigenous community do not matter, since these people are living separately from the majority of society (or, perhaps, in a completely different society)? Or are their violent retaliations just a sign that they are operating for purposes other than to protect the rights and wellbeing of civilians? The question can also be raised of whether or not authorities (and the rest of the public) count indigenous peoples as legitimate civilians (since they practice a different culture). Does this mean that they do not count them as human beings?
ReplyDeleteAlso, this article made me think about the effectiveness of activism. Is activism enough to change the attitudes of a society, which are ultimately reflected in the actions of their authorities? Or do people need to learn about the way their government works and then change it from the inside out? Or should people use media, art, literature, and other forms of expression that surround and therefore influence the public every day to normalize ideas of change so that the public with eventually accept them?
The web address below is a link to some basic information about the Honduras government from the U.S. Library of Congress...
ReplyDeletehttp://countrystudies.us/honduras/83.htm
Some information in the document that may help us better understand the article is that "[t]he Honduran military has been a powerful force in domestic politics since the 1950s" (which may explain how/why violent force is used to silence activists); the fact that many human rights organizations existed in the 1980's and 1990's (which implies that people have felt it necessary to stand up for their rights for over thirty years in Honduras, indicating that authorities have been exploiting those rights for that long); and that the government had "intervened" in the work of labor unions and civilian organizations by creating its own labor unions that offered "little worker support" (again, authorities seem to be acting on behalf of priorities other than the rights of civilians).