Doing more with Honduras

The UK’s relations with Honduras are important, and a key part of this Embassy’s work is to build on the commitment to strengthen them. With this in mind, last week two members of our team spent three days in Tegucigalpa talking about issues important to both our countries: human rights, prosperity, security, consular, climate change, and the London 2012 Olympic Games. To tell you more, here’s a guest blog from one of them, Antonio Jumbo……

I’m on a temporary duty working in Guatemala at the Embassy for two months covering a gap whilst the team waits for the arrival of the new Ambassador in late June. This was my first visit to Honduras and I am really grateful for the opportunity to accompany my colleague, Lisa, who ordinarily covers Honduras in the Embassy. We met a load of great people from the government, NGOs, British businesses, other Diplomatic Missions, and the Honduran Olympic Committee.

In our discussions with the Honduran Government we were able to give updates on the UK’s priorities for Honduras, Central America and Latin America – what regular readers of the blog might recognise as the Canning House agenda. In a series of meetings with British companies, and groups of Human Rights NGOs we exchanged views on the challenges facing Honduras and the opportunities for progress. We agreed that there is scope for both countries to work together on, for example, tackling insecurity and poverty, through our role as a friend of SICA, and to increase commerce through the EU-Central America Association agreement, due to be signed in June, as well as bilaterally.

We also interviewed candidates for the position of Human Rights coordinator as part of our UK-EU bilateral project. We also had a bit of time for a good working lunch accompanied by tasty grilled Honduran prawns!

The UN considers Honduras (8m inhabitants) as the most violent country in the world (86 homicides per 100,000). It has about 90% impunity, high levels of corruption and crime; illiteracy is at 15% and poverty over 60%.

It was with interest, therefore, that I attended the official launch of the Centre for Investigation and Evaluation of the Police (DIECP), which will work with the newly created Commission for Reform of Public Security (CRSP) created to tackle some of these problems. The presentation was attended by the President of the Republic, and Ambassadors in Honduras. We will be watching to see how these commissions follow up their work with the National Police, Public Prosecutors and the Judiciary in Honduras.

We held a roundtable with NGOs (women, youth, rural communities, workers union and students) united from East to West, North to South and with a common enemiesy: impunity, human rights abuse, inequality, lack of opportunities and poverty. These meetings are an excellent opportunity for us to hear about the issues that concern civil society to inform our project work and our future meetings with government representatives.

In talks with various interlocutors, we heard that lawyers and journalists are also victims. Amnesty International rates Honduras as one of top three worst countries in the Americas for journalists. The 3rd of May was World Press Freedom Day to commemorate the fundamental principles of media freedom and the Foreign Secretary issued a statement to mark the day.

Another highlight of the visit was meeting the Honduran Olympic Committee and sharing our joint enthusiasm for London 2012. We are looking forward to the participation of the Honduran football team and individual athletes at the games this summer and wish them all the best!