Honduras Has Much to Explain in Human Rights Exam

[Judi Lynn]

Source: IPS News

Honduras Has Much to Explain in Human Rights Exam
By Thelma Mejía

TEGUCIGALPA, Nov 2, 2010 (IPS) - Honduras must answer to the United Nations Human Rights Council this week with respect to the numerous complaints of human rights violations committed before, during and after the Jun. 28, 2009 coup d'état that overthrew President Manuel Zelaya.

"The human rights debt that is owed is enormous, in particular since the events of Jun. 28," Sandra Ponce, the prosecutor who heads the human rights unit in the Attorney General's Office, told IPS. "We feel there has been a regression, and we have to work to keep it from ever happening again."

Ponce forms part of the delegation that will represent Honduras on Nov. 4 in its first Universal Periodic Review (UPR) in the 47-member U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva, Switzerland.

Although the Honduran delegation, headed by Vice President María Antonieta Bográn, has expressed moderate optimism, it is aware that "there are many things to be resolved…We have started out on a path and that is what we are going to explain," Bográn said.

Read more: http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=53441

[ThomCat]

1. When does the US get dragged in front of an Attorney General

for a Civil Rights Review?

After all the tortures
Civilian deaths
2 unnecessary wars and all the war crimes we have committed
Tribunals and other ongoing violations of the Geneva conventions
The renewal of the poppy trade in Afghanistan because of us and the corruption/death it will cause

I'm sure once the US got in front of a court the world would start finding a whole lot of other charges to add to the list.

Hell, just from Reagan's term alone if they're allowed to go that far back, the docket would get filled up for years from crimes the US committed in Central and South America.

Isn't it about time the US had to answer some hard questions about our civil rights record to the world?

[L.Torsalo]

2. We have started out on a path and that is what we are going to explain," Bográn said.

in other words, they have only just begun to kill and oppress.

[Joe Chi Minh]

3. A bit too late for the victims, though.