Scuba Certification; Private Scuba Lessons; Scuba Refresher for Certified Divers; Try Scuba Diving; Enriched Air Diver (Nitrox) Employers rarely paid the minimum wage in the agricultural sector and paid it inconsistently in other sectors. According to the Center for the Investigation and Promotion of Human Rights, on March 24, police arbitrarily detained Evelyn Johana Castillo, sub-coordinator of the Womens Network of Ojojona and member of the National Network of Defenders of Human Rights. Honduras 2020 OSAC Crime & Safety Report Since 2010, there have been approximately 60 murders of U.S. citizens reported in Honduras. CONAPREV conducted more than 84 visits to adult prisons as of the end of August. The emergency decree instituted the Interinstitutional Force as an auditing commission for the penitentiary system. If a victims physical injuries do not reach the severity required to categorize the violence as a criminal act, the legal penalty for a first offense is a sentence of one to three months of community service. HND41066.E - Whether there is a law in Honduras that criminalizes the wearing of tattoos; reports of state agents arresting, detaining, mistreating or murdering people with tattoos that do not belong to gangs (2001 to March 2003) - March 2003 Non-Government Organization Reports Human Rights Watch The Honduran National Police maintain internal security and report to the Secretariat of Security. Persons with HIV and AIDS continued to be targets of discrimination, and they suffered disproportionately from gender-based violence. The Association for a Better Life and the Cattrachas Lesbian Network both reported 16 violent deaths of LGBTI persons as of September. But the movement gained momentum during the pandemic and a partnership of more than 40 organizations hopes to capitalize The law also imposes prison sentences of three to five years for child labor violations that endanger the life or morality of a child. The law allows persons charged with some felonies to avail themselves of bail and gives prisoners the right of prompt access to family members. COFADEH reported police beat and smeared a tear gas-covered cloth on the face of an individual detained for violating the national curfew in April in El Paraiso. The law mandates that the Supreme Auditing Tribunal monitor and verify disclosures. By law all minors between the ages of 14 and 18 in most industries must receive special permission from the STSS to work, and the STSS must perform a home study to verify that there is an economic need for the child to work and that the child not work outside the country or in hazardous conditions, including in offshore fishing. Many inspectors asked workers to provide them with transportation so that they could conduct inspections, since the STSS could not pay for travel to worksites. The long-term history of gangs in Honduras can be traced all the way back to the fall of the Spanish Empire in the mid 1800s. The law requires individuals and companies that employ more than 20 school-age children at their facilities to provide a location for a school. The accused has the right to an initial hearing before a judge, to ask for bail, consult with legal counsel in a timely manner, have a lawyer provided by the state if necessary, and request an appeal. Download Historical Data The government continued to prosecute some officials who committed abuses, but a weak judicial system and corruption were major obstacles to gaining convictions. Children often worked on melon, coffee, okra, and sugarcane plantations as well as in other agricultural production; scavenged at garbage dumps; worked in the forestry, hunting, and fishing sectors; worked as domestic servants; peddled goods such as fruit; begged; washed cars; hauled goods; and labored in limestone quarrying and lime production. Regulations for implementing the law remained under development as of September. The law does not permit active members of the military or civilian security forces to vote. CHICAGO (AP) Four years ago, Paul Vallas finished toward the bottom of the pack in a crowded race for Chicago mayor. The Jewish community numbered approximately 275 members. The government did not effectively enforce the law. In Honduras, the types of danger include, but are not limited to, violent gang activity, trafficking, rape, street crime and armed robbery. The law provides citizens the right to choose their government in free and fair periodic elections held by secret ballot and based on nearly universal and equal suffrage. On August 5, an appeals court dismissed charges against 22 defendants indicted in the so-called Pandora case, a 2013 scheme that allegedly funneled 289.4 million lempiras ($12 million) in government agricultural funds to political campaigns. It also provides for paid national holidays and annual leave. Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot lost her bid for a second term Tuesday, failing to make a top-two runoff in the latest demonstration of growing concerns about crime in one of the nation's largest . Penalties for facilitating child sex trafficking are 10 to 15 years in prison, with substantial fines. The Secretariat of Human Rights provided training to security forces to increase respect for human rights. International Child Abductions: The country is a party to the 1980 Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction. Honduras remains one of the poorest and most unequal countries in the Western Hemisphere. Recent Elections: In December 2017 Juan Orlando Hernandez of the National Party was declared the winner in the November elections. According to the secretariat, the system had a designed capacity for approximately 10,600 inmates. Under the national emergency and corresponding curfew, the government suspended the constitutional right to peaceful assembly. These conditions contributed to an unstable, dangerous environment in the penitentiary system. Since 2020, the number of Hondurans in need of humanitarian assistance has more than doubled, while food insecurity has increased due to consecutive climate shocks, rising food prices and the economic impacts of COVID-19. Homicide Rates in the Northern. Some larger cities have police forces that operate independently of the national police and report to municipal authorities. In addition the law prohibits strikes in a wide range of economic activities that the government has designated as essential services or that it considers would affect the rights of individuals in the larger community to security, health, education, and economic and social well-being. Indigenous communities continued to report threats and acts of violence against them and against community and environmental activists. Some judges, however, ruled that such suspects may be released on the condition that they continue to report periodically to authorities. Sexual Exploitation of Children: The commercial sexual exploitation of children, especially in sex trafficking, remained a problem. During the year the National Anticorruption Council reported numerous irregularities in the purchase of emergency medical supplies during the pandemic. COFADEH reported an increase of complaints regarding the use of excessive and disproportionate force by security forces under the national curfew. Birth Registration: Children derive citizenship by birth in the country, from the citizenship of their parents, or by naturalization. The Public Ministrys Office of the Special Prosecutor for Human Rights handled cases involving charges of human rights abuses by government officials. On November 15, 2017, the State of Honduras invited the IACHR to visit Honduras to analyze the human rights situation in the country. The constitution provides for the freedoms of peaceful assembly and association. The legal process against Roberto David Castillo Mejia, one of the alleged intellectual authors of the killing, continued slowly due to motions and appeals by the defense, and Castillo remained incarcerated. By law the STSS may fine companies that violate the right to freedom of association. A federal grand jury on Friday indicted the man accused of shooting two Jewish men in February with hate crime and firearm offenses, the US Attorney's Office for the Central An IACHR report noted there were insufficient hospital beds and inadequate supplies at the only hospital that services Gracias a Dios Department, home to the majority of the Miskito community. Castillo was returning from the market at 3:30 p.m. when a police officer arrested her for violating the curfew, even though the curfew did not start until 7:00 p.m. Castillo said the arrest was a reprisal for an encounter a few days previously, when Castillo confronted the officer who was attempting to expel a vendor from a park. Media reported prison riots and violent confrontations between gang members in prisons throughout the year. Local police and emergency services lack sufficient resources to respond effectively to serious crime. Christian James Morrow. By law workers may remove themselves from situations that endanger their health or safety without jeopardizing continued employment. Five other cases were under investigation. Some employers either refused to engage in collective bargaining or made it very difficult to do so. Anticorruption efforts remained an area of concern, as did the governments ability to protect justice sector officials, such as prosecutors and judges. U.S. citizens have been the victims of a wide range of crimes, including murder, kidnapping, rape, assault, and property crimes. The Secretariat of Human Rights noted an exponential increase in gender-based violence and domestic violence during the national curfew. As of December 2020, internally displaced people in Honduras represented almost 80 percent of the internally displaced population in Central America and Mexico. Authorities did not generally segregate those with tuberculosis or other infectious diseases from the general prison population; as of September the INP reported 153 prisoners were being treated for tuberculosis. The STSS has the power to declare a work stoppage illegal, and employers may discipline employees consistent with their internal regulations, including by firing strikers, if the STSS rules that a work stoppage is illegal. The Organization of American States (OAS) and EU observer teams agreed the margin of victory separating incumbent president Hernandez from challenger Salvador Nasralla was extremely narrow. Discrimination: Although the law accords women and men the same legal rights and status, including property rights in divorce cases, many women did not fully enjoy such rights. You have questions. As of September no new trial date had been set. Credible allegations of corruption in the Secretariat of Labor continued. World Bank statistics put net enrollment for primary school above 90 percent, but the National Center for Social Sector Information stated that 43 percent of persons with disabilities received no formal education. In these sectors employers frequently paid workers for the standard 44-hour workweek no matter how many additional hours they worked. Prison conditions were harsh and sometimes life-threatening due to pervasive gang-related violence and the governments failure to control criminal activity within the prisons. Respect for Civil Liberties, Including: a. The legal framework for granting international protection fails to establish long-term safeguards for recognized refugees, since they are issued the same residence permit as other migration categories. This force is composed of active members of the army and national police. This helps keep everyone in poverty. Organized-crime groups, including local and transnational gangs and narcotics traffickers, were significant perpetrators of violent crimes and committed acts of homicide, torture, kidnapping, extortion, human trafficking, intimidation, and other threats and violence directed against human rights defenders, judicial authorities, lawyers, business community members, journalists, bloggers, women, and other vulnerable populations. | Learn more about Daniel Jackson's work experience, education, connections & more by visiting their profile on LinkedIn The Office of the Inspector General of the Armed Forces and the Humanitarian Law Directorate investigated abuses by the military. David Pecker tried to blackmail Bezos in February 2019 with dick pics and so on stolen from his hacked phone and Bezos called him out. Some nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) expressed concern about weak implementation of the law and limited resources available to operate the governments protection mechanism. The government investigated and prosecuted many of these crimes, particularly through the national polices Violent Crimes Task Force. The law prohibits night work and overtime for minors younger than 18, but the STSS may grant special permission for minors between the ages of 16 to 18 to work in the evening if such employment does not adversely affect their education. Mike DeWine and the Ohio Bureau of Workers Compensation (OBWC) Administrator John Logue announced today that the state's private employers will pay nearly $90 million less In response to the pervasive violence in the prison system, the government declared an emergency in the National Penitentiary System in December 2019. For years, street gangs have charged protection . Under the new inspection law, the STSS has the authority temporarily to shut down workplaces where there is an imminent danger of fatalities; however, there were not enough trained inspectors to deter violations sufficiently. About Us; Staff; Camps; Scuba. Internal displacement was generally caused by violence, national and transnational gang activity, and human trafficking. The law was not effectively enforced, and weak public institutional structures contributed to the inadequate enforcement. The director of Invest-H, Marco Antonio Bogran Corrales, resigned from his position in July and was indicted in October on two corruption charges for embezzling an estimated 1.3 million lempiras ($54,000) in public funds and funneling a contract for mobile hospitals to his uncle. The law permits fines, and while the monetary penalty is commensurate with those for other laws involving denials of civil rights, such as discrimination, the failure of the government to collect those fines facilitated continued labor law violations. Josue Alvarado was assigned to Task Force Maya Chorti. Women - Honduras has the fifth-highest rate of violence against women in the world. There were credible complaints that police occasionally failed to obtain the required authorization before entering private homes. There was no information available on any major industrial accidents. See the Department of States Annual Report on International Parental Child Abduction at https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/International-Parental-Child-Abduction/for-providers/legal-reports-and-data/reported-cases.html. Impunity for such crimes was a problem, as was the impunity rate for all types of crime. Penalties include prison sentences of up to five years and monetary fines. The National Migration Institute secretary general, responsible for final case determinations, had not resumed this function as of October. While there were cases where a worker was reinstated, such as the reinstatement of a union leader in Tegucigalpa following his unlawful dismissal, the reinstatement process in the courts was unduly long, lasting from six months to more than five years. The Public Ministry also has the Special Prosecutors Office for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, Journalists, Social Communicators, and Justice Officials. Below this are an appeals court, first instance trial courts for criminal and civil cases, and municipal and district-level justices of the peace. In the 2013 census, approximately 8.5 percent of the population identified themselves as members of indigenous communities, but other estimates were higher. Freedom of Association and the Right to Collective Bargaining, b. Rape and Domestic Violence: The law criminalizes all forms of rape of women or men, including spousal rape. On November 23, the court halted the presentation of evidence hearing after the defense filed an appeal. The law presumes an accused person is innocent. The law prohibits workers from legally striking until after they have attempted and failed to come to agreement with their employer, and it requires workers and employers to participate in a mediation and conciliation process. Unrelated to the curfew, there were areas where authorities could not assure freedom of movement because of criminal activity and a lack of significant government presence. The director of the national disaster management agency, Gabriel Rubi, was removed from his position in April. Improvements: Through August, CONAPREV trained 494 technical, administrative, and security personnel on topics including prison management and human rights. The council presented 11 reports in a series called, Corruption in the Times of COVID-19. The Human Rights Board condemned some of these arrests as arbitrary under the guise of curfew enforcement. According to UNICEF, 8 percent of children were married before age 15, and 34 percent before age 18. During April, the first full month of the curfew, COFADEH reported 11,471 complaints of arbitrary actions by security forces, mainly abusive detentions for curfew violators. (SOUTH DAKOTA NEWS WATCH) - South Dakota received nearly $14 billion in federal COVID-19 funding from March 2020 through January, according to an internal state fiscal report . Significant human rights issues included: unlawful or arbitrary killings, including extrajudicial killings; torture and cases of cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment; harsh and life-threatening prison conditions; arbitrary arrest or detention; killings of and threats to media members by criminal elements; criminalization of libel, although no cases were reported; serious acts of corruption including by high level officials; lack of investigation of and accountability for violence against women; and threats and violence against indigenous, Afro-descendant communities, and lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersex persons. October and February were the deadliest months, with 43 and 38 women murdered on account of their gender, respectively. The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) reported that authorities at times failed to enforce these requirements effectively. Litigants may sue a criminal defendant for damages if authorized by a criminal court. The appeals court would have to rule on the motion before the trial could move forward. The Public Ministry reported five such cases undergoing trial, with four cases in the sentencing phase of trial. Penalties for forced labor under antitrafficking law range from 10 to 15 years imprisonment, commensurate with penalties for other analogous serious crimes, such as kidnapping, but authorities often did not enforce them. By comparison, the United States has a global safety ranking of 128. They practice "war taxing", which is essentially just demanding money from people. In 2019, Honduras saw its first rise in murders in seven years, though all three countries recorded declines in 2020 due to pandemic-related restrictions. Authorities launched an investigation and made one arrest in connection with the kidnappings in July and five more arrests in September. Forced labor occurred in street vending, domestic service, the transport of drugs and other illicit goods, other criminal activity, and the informal sector. The collapse of this empire left the territories of what we now understand to be Central America, to split off into separate regions. TRANSPORT & TAXIS RISK : HIGH Public transport is highly risky in Honduras. In the agricultural sector, companies frequently paid less than minimum wage to most workers, with fewer than 1 percent of agricultural workers receiving the minimum wage. The law mandates that authorities release detainees whose cases have not yet come to trial and whose time in pretrial detention already exceeds the maximum prison sentence for their alleged crime. Honduras: homicide rate 2014-2021. The IACHR expressed concern in 2019 regarding the "critical levels of. Persons from indigenous and Afro-descendant communities continued to experience discrimination in employment, education, housing, and health services. Freedom of Press and Media, Including Online Media: Independent media were active and expressed a wide variety of views without restriction. Although 74 percent of births were attended by skilled health care personnel, NGOs reported that there were significant gaps in obstetric care, especially in rural areas. Most women in the workforce engaged in lower-status and lower-paying informal occupations, such as domestic service, without the benefit of legal protections. Powerful special interests, including organized-crime groups, exercised influence on the outcomes of some court proceedings. The STSS approved 43 such authorizations through September. The Public Ministry reported five such cases undergoing trial, with four cases in the sentencing phase of trial. On January 9, 2018, the Honduran State confirmed the on-site visit to Honduras on the dates proposed by the IACHR. Indigenous groups included the Miskito, Tawahkas, Pech, Tolupans, Lencas, Maya-Chortis, Nahual, Bay Islanders, and Garifunas. The National Human Rights Commission of Honduras received complaints about human rights abuses and referred them to the Public Ministry for investigation. The police will make their situation more difficult. Such an order may be effective for up to six days, after which the judge must hold a pretrial hearing to examine whether there is probable cause to continue pretrial detention. The law requires an employer to begin collective bargaining once workers establish a union, and it specifies that if more than one union exists at a company, the employer must negotiate with the largest. The whereabouts of four Indigenous Garifuna members of the Black Fraternal Organization of Honduras (OFRANEH) forcibly disappeared in July 2020 remained unknown. Violence was often rooted in a broader context of conflict over land and natural resources, extensive corruption, lack of transparency and community consultation, other criminal activity, and limited state ability to protect the rights of vulnerable communities. The government allocated a budget of nearly 12.6 million lempiras ($526,000) for the continued operation of a protection mechanism that included provision of protection to journalists. The shutdown of government offices in response to the COVID-19 pandemic caused a substantial delay in the processing of asylum cases, with no cases fully adjudicated of 53 new applications received through August. Q: What happened to the original stars of "The Wild Wild West"? There were no credible reports of political prisoners or detainees. Displaced Children: Civil society organizations reported that common causes of forced displacement for youth included death threats for failure to pay extortion, attempted recruitment by gangs, witnessing criminal activity by gangs or organized-crime groups, domestic violence, attempted kidnappings, family members involvement in drug dealing, victimization by traffickers, rape including commercial sexual exploitation by gangs, discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity, sexual harassment, and discrimination for having a chronic medical condition. In all of 2019, the STSS levied fines of more than 38.1 million lempiras ($1.58 million) but collected only 755,000 lempiras ($31,300). ANDERSON An Indiana man suspected of setting fire to an Anderson residence in 2020 is charged with attempted murder and first-degree arson, according to court records. Coordinator for the Arctic Region, Deputy Secretary of State for Management and Resources, Office of Small and Disadvantaged Business Utilization, Under Secretary for Arms Control and International Security, Bureau of Arms Control, Verification and Compliance, Bureau of International Security and Nonproliferation, Under Secretary for Civilian Security, Democracy, and Human Rights, Bureau of Conflict and Stabilization Operations, Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs, Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration, Office of International Religious Freedom, Office of the Special Envoy To Monitor and Combat Antisemitism, Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons, Under Secretary for Economic Growth, Energy, and the Environment, Bureau of Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs, Office of the Science and Technology Adviser, Bureau of the Comptroller and Global Financial Services, Bureau of Information Resource Management, Office of Management Strategy and Solutions, Bureau of International Organization Affairs, Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs, Under Secretary for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs, U.S.