I was deeply shocked to learn that Scarleth Cambell, a member of the LGTBI organisation Asociación Arcoíris, and Marvin Damian Castro Molina, a member of the human rights and environmental movement MASSvida, have been murdered. Our thoughts are with the families of the victims. I fully support the declarations of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) in Tegucigalpa and call on the Honduran authorities to do everything in their power to bring the perpetrators to justice.

I am no less shocked by the murder of two journalists, German Vallecillo and Jorge Posas, in La Ceíba in early July. It is horrific that people who are campaigning for tolerance and the rights of others, or who as journalists scrutinise political and social realities, are being abducted and killed – especially considering that now during the COVID-19 pandemic society should be taking a united stand. I therefore call on the Government of Honduras to effectively protect the right to life and physical integrity and to safeguard civil society’s scope for action. This applies equally to internet reporters like Milton Benítez, whose office was ransacked in early July. A vibrant democracy needs an active and critical civil society, as well as a free press.

I also call on the Honduran authorities to vigorously investigate the abduction of Alberth Sneider Centeno, an activist for the rights of the Garífuna people, and of three other socially engaged residents of Triunfo de la Cruz.