URGENT ACTION

LAND DEFENDERS AT RISK 

On 30 April and 1 May 2019, Rosalina Dominguez, her four sons and two members of the community of Río Blanco, Intibucá, in Honduras were threatened. The community members are afraid that this might be the beginning of a new wave of attacks against them after previous threats for protesting the Agua Zarca Dam together with the Civic Council of Popular Indigenous Organizations of Honduras (COPINH). We urge the Minister of Human Rights to immediately guarantee the safety of Rosalina Domínguez, her family, members of Río Blanco and COPINH and to investigate any attacks against them.

TAKE ACTION: WRITE AN APPEAL IN YOUR OWN WORDS OR USE THIS MODEL LETTER

Karla Eugenia Cueva Aguilar
Ministerio de Derechos Humanos
Contiguo Edificio Rojo y Complejo 
Hotelero Plaza San Martín, 
Avenida República de Panamá, 
Tegucigalpa, Honduras
Email: karlacueva144@gmail.com 

Dear Minister Cueva,

I write to express my concern about the recent threats against Rosalina Domínguez, finance coordinator for the Indigenous Council of Río Blanco, her four sons (aged between 16 and 30), and two other members of her community. They faced verbal death threats on 30 April and 1 May 2019 on their way to work by a group of at least seven people, one of them armed. 

Given the history of attacks against this community that led to the murder of Berta Cáceres, Rosalina, the Indigenous Council, and COPINH are calling on the Honduran government to investigate these threats and guarantee their safety.

I urge you to launch an immediate investigation on these attacks to bring those responsible to justice, and guarantee the safety of Rosalina Domínguez, her four children, and the two other members of the community of Río Blanco, in agreement with them. 

Yours sincerely,

Additional information

The Lenca Indigenous communities of Rio Blanco, Santa Barbara, western Honduras, have been demonstrating against a hydro-electric power project on the land they have been living on for centuries, alleging lack of free, prior and informed consultation. The communities belong to the Civic Council of the Indigenous and Popular Organizations of Honduras (Consejo Cívico de Organizaciones Populares e Indígenas de Honduras – COPINH)

COPINH has been fighting for over 20 years for better standards of living of its community in Río Blanco, north-western Honduras. Since 2011, COPINH members have been campaigning for their right to free, prior and informed consent in relation to a proposal for a hydroelectric plant that might force them out of their ancestral lands. Its members have been targeted with threats and harassment for years in connection with their work.

Berta Cáceres, leader and co-founder of COPINH, was shot dead on 3 March in her home in the town of La Esperanza, in the province of Intibucá, west Honduras. On 7 March 2016 the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights issued a new precautionary measure of protection in favour of all COPINH members and Berta Caceres' family on the grounds of the risks posed by their work defending human rights, environment and natural resources and their increased vulnerability situation after Berta Caceres' killing.

Over the last three years Amnesty International has alerted on numerous death and other types of threats, intimidation, harassment and the killings of activists in Honduras which is one of the deadliest countries in the world to be a human rights defender. 

PREFERRED LANGUAGE TO ADDRESS TARGET: Spanish
You can also write in your own language.

PLEASE TAKE ACTION AS SOON AS POSSIBLE UNTIL: 13 June 2019
Please check with the Amnesty office in your country if you wish to send appeals after the deadline.

NAME AND PREFFERED PRONOUN: Rosalina Domínguez AND the Community of Río Blanco AND the Civic Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras (COPINH) (she/her they/them it/its)

Additional TARGETS

Also send copies to diplomatic representatives accredited to your country. HIS EXCELLENCY MR IVAN ROMERO-MARTINEZ, Embassy of Honduras, 4th Floor 136 Baker Street W1U 6UD, 020 7486 4880, Fax 020 7486 4550, hondurasuk@lineone.net www.hondurasembassyuk.co.uk Please check with your section before sending appeals after the above date.