- Delegation documents systematic human rights violations, including forced evictions, criminalisation, and violence against land defenders
- Criminal infrastructures linking government officials, organised crime, and business interests ensure impunity
- Honduras is failing to comply with rulings of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights in favour of the Garifuna people
- Institutional shortcomings and deficiencies in the land registry system facilitate the dispossession of Indigenous communities from their ancestral lands
- Decree 93-20211 removes key legal guarantees, allowing summary evictions without a court order
- The report calls for the immediate repeal of Decree 93-2021 and comprehensive agrarian reform
Today, at an event held at Doughty Street Chambers in London, an Independent Delegation of International Lawyers concluded that the violence, criminalisation, and forced evictions of Indigenous and campesino2 communities in Honduras are not isolated incidents, but rather components of a strategy that guarantees impunity for serious human rights violations. The report “Our Determination Outweighs Our Fear”: Agrarian conflict and the criminalisation of Indigenous and campesino communities, published today, details how agrarian conflicts have been exacerbated by a criminal infrastructure linking the interests of agro-industrial and extractive companies, corruption, organised crime, and the complicity or acquiescence of state security structures.
“Acts of violence, particularly the murders of Berta Cáceres and Juan López, reflect a systematic pattern of attacks against those who defend the land. The structures of power allow extractive and agro-industrial megaprojects to go ahead without taking the human cost into account.” —Camila Zapata Besso, a human rights barrister at Doughty Street Chambers and member of the delegation
The delegation travelled to Honduras in September 2025 in response to an invitation from Honduran Indigenous, campesino, and civil society organisations. The delegation received logistical support and accompaniment from the Justice for the Peoples Law Firm (Bufete Justicia para los Pueblos) and Peace Brigades International (PBI). During their visit, the lawyers gathered testimonies from the affected communities, met with state authorities and analysed statements from international organisations.
“Honduras is one of the few countries in the region that relies on criminal proceedings as the primary means of resolving land ownership disputes, without any judicial oversight of the validity of the land titles on which the eviction of Indigenous and campesino communities is based. This practice contradicts its international human rights obligations.” —Daniel Cerqueira, director of the Climate Justice and Human Rights programme at the Due Process of Law Foundation and member of the delegation
The report reveals3:
– Physical and psychological violence is constantly used to intimidate, displace, and undermine the defence of Indigenous territories and campesino lands.
– The criminal offence of ‘trespassing’ (usurpación) has been systematically weaponised against members of Indigenous and campesino communities, subjecting them to arbitrary criminal proceedings and prolonged restrictions on their freedom.
– Decree 93-2021 has removed fundamental legal safeguards, allowing the prosecution and the police to carry out summary evictions without a court order based solely on ‘circumstantial evidence’, and prioritising criminal proceedings over civil and agrarian procedures.
“Our collective strength is built every day at dawn, when each one of us starts work on the land that feeds us all. Our determination to create a future for our children, fuelled by our work and solidarity, outweighs our fear.” – Community members of the ‘17 de Junio’ campesino base, El Progreso, Yoro
The delegation’s report urgently calls on the Honduran State to4:
– Immediately repeal Decree 93-2021 and reform the Criminal Code and Code of Criminal Procedure to eliminate preventive evictions and prevent the arbitrary use of punitive power against Indigenous and campesino defenders
– Resolve inconsistencies in land registry records through a national land survey in accordance with Honduras’ international commitments
– Monitor and regulate business activities to prevent human rights violations and environmental harm
– Establish the Special Jurisdiction for Land and Territory, ensuring property disputes are resolved through agrarian or civil proceedings
The delegation also recommends that the international community and multilateral banks prioritise these issues in political and trade dialogues with Honduras, and establish a mandatory requirement for all companies with operations or supply chain links in Honduras to conduct human rights and environmental due diligence.
Notes to editors:
Full report available here.
Further information:
Delegation members are available for interview. Contact: advocacy@peacebrigades.org.uk or +353 86 2046916 via WhatsApp.
The delegation consisted of the following international lawyers:
– Omar Gómez Trejo, independent human rights and criminal law consultant (Mexico)
– Daniel Cerqueira, director of the Climate Justice and Human Rights programme at the Due Process of Law Foundation (Brazil)
– Camila Zapata Besso, human rights barrister at Doughty Street Chambers (UK and Colombia)
The following Honduran human rights defenders working on and directly affected by these issues are available for interview:
– Kenia Oliva: Human rights lawyer and co-founder of the Bufete Justicia para los Pueblos
– Dunia Sánchez: Indigenous Lenca defender and member of the Council of Popular and Indigenous Organisations of Honduras (Consejo Cívico de Organizaciones Populares e Indígenas de Honduras, COPINH)
1 Decree 93-2021 eliminates key procedural safeguards for communities, such as the requirement that “violence or intimidation” be used to constitute the crime of trespassing. It also created the concept of “preventive evictions,” allowing the Honduran authorities to carry out summary evictions without a court order, based solely on “circumstantial evidence.” It prioritises criminal proceedings to address disputes over land ownership, rather than civil or agrarian proceedings.
2 The UN defines a campesino or “peasant” as any person who engages or who seeks to engage alone, or in association with others or as a community, in small-scale agricultural production for subsistence and/or for the market, and who relies significantly, though not necessarily exclusively, on family or household labour and other non-monetised ways of organising labour, and who has a special dependency on and attachment to the land.
3 An extensive list of the Delegation’s findings can be found on page 39 of the report.
4 An extensive list of the Delegation’s recommendations can be found on page 40 of the report.
