A/HRC/4/40/Add.4
page 2
Summary
The Working Group on Arbitrary Detention visited Honduras from 23 to 31 May 2006 at
the invitation of the Government. During the course of the visit, the Working Group met
with the relevant authorities in the executive and judicial branches and with representatives of
civil society and non-governmental organizations. It visited 10 detention facilities, including
police stations, prisons and young offender facilities and interviewed in private more than
200 detainees, a few of whom had been previously identified but most of whom were chosen at
random on the spot.
The Working Group observes that since the beginning of the 1990s the legal and
institutional framework governing deprivation of liberty in Honduras has profoundly changed.
The entry into force of a new Criminal Procedure Code in 2002 has expedited criminal
proceedings and significantly reduced the number of detainees held on remand as well as the
duration of detention without conviction. Previously, a separate juvenile justice system had been
established. These and other reforms described below have put Honduras in a much better
position to respect and ensure the rights of persons under its jurisdiction not to be arbitrarily
deprived of liberty.
However, the Working Group identified several areas in which the reality does not live
up to the high standards established by the Constitution and the laws of Honduras, giving rise to
the serious and widespread occurrence of the phenomenon of arbitrary detention. The first issue
of concern addressed in the report regards the ineffectiveness of the institutions mandated to
monitor the legality of detention. The Working Group also noted serious shortcomings within
the system of legal aid for indigent defendants and insufficient monitoring of the police during
the course of the criminal justice process, as well as a lack of checks and balances between the
police and the judiciary. The powers of the police in the criminal justice process are
insufficiently controlled and balanced. The Working Group identified two main reasons to
explain this situation. First, the public prosecution lacks independence from the police and,
secondly, the police rather than an independent penitentiary institution run the prisons, in which
both remand detainees and convicts are held.
The Working Group also expressed concern with regard to two specific categories of
detainees:
(a)
The more than 1,800 detainees who were already in pretrial custody when the
new Criminal Procedure Code entered into force four and a half years ago are still in detention,
either awaiting trial or awaiting release after their acquittal because the prosecutor has filed an
appeal; and
(b)
The members of violent youth gangs (maras) - a phenomenon that raises
considerable alarm in Honduras - whose treatment does not appear to be fully compatible with
Honduras’s obligations under international human rights law.