RIGHTS-HONDURAS: Parliament Limits Powers of Gov’t Commission

By Thelma Mejía Reprint | | Print |

Thelma Mejia

TEGUCIGALPA, Apr 21 1999 (IPS) - The Honduran parliament restricted the powers of the National Human Rights Commission, three weeks after the government body denounced corruption in the management of international aid for the survivors of hurricane Mitch.

The opposition Wednesday called the reform of the Commission the greatest “institutional” blow to democracy in the 17 years since democracy was restored in Honduras.

The governing Liberal Party, however, said the measure approved Tuesday night with the votes of a majority of ruling party legislators was a consequence of the Commission’s having “overstepped its functions,” by presenting, for example, a report “that did the country great damage.”

The Commission’s report denounced irregular management of funds sent from abroad to help the survivors of hurricane Mitch, which devastated much of Honduras – as well as Nicaragua, and other Central American countries to a lesser extent – in late October.

“Limits must be put on democracy,” said Liberal Party Deputy Marco Antonio Andino.

From now on, the Commission will operate under a four-year, instead of six-year, term. It will no longer be able to carry out “social audits” or exercise oversight, and is to limit itself to receiving reports of human rights violations.

Former president Rafael Callejas (1990-94), today an opposition National Party lawmaker, said Wednesday that parliament “has slapped democracy and the Central American peace accords signed in Esquipulas, where the concept of the Commission was given life.”

Callejas maintained that the move was a reprisal by the government, because the head of the Commission, Leo Valladares, had dared to carry out a “social audit” denouncing 17 cases of corruption in the handling of foreign assistance to the survivors of hurricane Mitch.

“The Human Rights Commission was the last redoubt of democratic institutionality left in this country,” said the former president.

Luz Ernestina Mejia, the vice-president of Congress, who opposed the reform in spite of her militancy in the Liberal Party, called the decision “the worst error that could be recorded in history.

“I really hope we don’t have to regret this one day. I am ashamed of what has happened,” she added.

Leo Valladares, meanwhile, said “democracy has been wounded.

“Everything indicates that we are in the presence of an intolerant democracy, which beats down what it built without measuring the consequences,” he charged. “If things go on like this, it will be difficult for the Commission to subsist in democracy.”

A first show of international repudiation of the parliamentary decision could come in Sweden next month, when the countries of Central America meet with donors to seek economic support for reconstruction work in the wake of hurricane Mitch, described as the worst Atlantic storm in 200 years.

“It was in Sweden where the concept of the Human Rights Commission or People’s Defender was born. We will go there in May to seek funds for democracy, and I don’t know how the Swedes will interpret what has happened here,” Valladares added.

The Commission was created in 1992 as part of the Central American peace agreements, and has been a staunch defender of human rights from the very start.

In 1994, it issued a report in which for the first time an official institution admitted the state’s responsibility for the forced disappearance, torture and murder of around 180 opponents – real or suspected – committed in the 1980s.

In 1998, Valladares was unanimously reelected by Congress.

“What has happened to the Commission could have been predicted,” said analyst Victor Meza.

“Here all the institutions that have worked to strengthen democracy and its institutionality have been destroyed, and if society fails to react in time, it will find itself on the threshold of an authoritarian civilian regime,” he warned.