Defending the Defenders: A Freedom House Project

The project's main activities during the reporting period, January 1, 2017 to March 30, 2017, included establishing the project's physical and organizational infrastructure in Tegucigalpa, connecting with stakeholders, and conducting outreach to government officials, civil society organizations, and other relevant actors. Key personnel were hired for the project, including a Country Project Director, a Finance Manager, and a Program and M&E Officer. The Country Project Director, Karla Cueva, is responsible for overseeing project implementation, providing technical assistance, and managing finances. The Finance Manager ensures compliance with financial regulations and manages the grant from USAID and sub-grants. The Program and M&E Officer assists the team in strategic planning, leads monitoring and evaluation, communicates with stakeholders, and creates new partnerships. The project's context analysis highlights the high levels of violence and impunity in Honduras, which threaten the general public and human rights defenders. The Inter-American Human Rights Commission reported that violence and insecurity in Honduras disproportionately affect human rights defenders, indigenous populations, women, youth, the LGBTI community, immigrants, rural communities, journalists, social communicators, lawyers, and lawyers' justice operators. Honduras is ranked as one of the most corrupt countries in Latin America, with a low score in the World Justice Project's Rule of Law Index. The project's objectives include improving the protection mechanism, fostering public policy discussions, and advocating for long-term government commitment to protect at-risk human rights defenders, journalists, social communicators, and lawyers. The project's activities are funded under USAID's Human Rights Support Mechanism and contribute to the HRSM's Objective 1: Improved environments for human rights defenders. Several incidents have taken place during this period, including a lack of strategic planning by the Protection Mechanism, which has led some groups to declare they will abandon the Council if the situation does not change. Low numbers of investigations and prosecutions of human rights violations against human rights defenders weaken the credibility of institutions within the Government of Honduras and contribute to a lack of trust between civil society organizations and the government. Despite these challenges, the project has observed that many civil society organizations have high expectations for the Defending the Defenders project. Several organizations, including C-Libre, Grupo Sociedad Civil, Arcoiris, Colegio de Periodistas, and Asociación de Prensa de Honduras, have decided to work with the project. The project's relevance is highlighted by current events, such as the declaration by Global Witness that Honduras is the most dangerous country for environmental activists, and the death of environmental rights activist Josue Santos Sevilla in the indigenous region of Olupan. The project's administrative progress includes the recruitment and setup of the FH Honduras field office team. The team is responsible for implementing the project's objectives, providing technical assistance, and managing finances. The project's financial management is ensured by the Finance Manager, who is responsible for compliance with financial regulations and managing the grant from USAID and sub-grants.