A/HRC/43/3/Add.2 On 24 June, military forces entered the premises of the National Autonomous University of Honduras, shooting and injuring five students. The University presented a formal complaint to the Office of the Attorney General, which remained under investigation at the time the present report was finalized. 52. It is a basic principle that the commitment to uphold human rights involves the obligation to adopt the measures necessary to ensure that violations cease and are not repeated. Calls on Honduras to restrict the circumstances of the deployment of military forces to perform civil security duties40 and to ensure respect for the exercise of peaceful protests, aligning domestic law and protocols on the use of force in social protests with international standards, remain unmet (A/HRC/34/3/Add. 2, para. 12). B. Human rights defenders and journalists 53. Human rights defenders and journalists remain exposed to surveillance, threats, harassment, smear campaigns, acts of violence and criminalization of their legitimate activities. In the course of the year, four members of the indigenous Tolupanes of the Locomapa communities in San Francisco Morazán were killed while engaged in the protection of land and territory from commercial logging. The Office of the Attorney General reported on the start of the investigation to clarify the facts.41 54. The Office of the Specialized Prosecutor for the protection of human rights defenders, journalists, media workers and justice system actors reported that it had received over 100 complaints in 2019. No official information is, however, available on trends and patterns, nor on any charges brought. OHCHR appreciates the existence of a specialized inter-agency group for the elaboration of a protocol for the investigation of crimes against human rights defenders and encourages efforts to finalize such a protocol as soon as possible, as recommended by the inter-American human rights system.42 55. Between January and September, the National Mechanism for the protection of human rights defenders, journalists, media workers and justice system actors of the Ministry of Human Rights received 87 requests for protection measures, accepting 58 and dismissing 29. Thirty-seven of the requests accepted concerned human rights defenders, 13 media workers, 6 journalists, and 2 justice system actors. Nearly one third of the measures concerned defenders for the protection of the environment, the right to water and land. In 2019, the National Mechanism expanded the range of protection measures, adding emergency relocations, the provision of satellite phones, and reimbursement of medical expenses. It also began disaggregating all statistics by gender. As of September 2019, the National Mechanism had initiated the drafting of a protocol on gender and multiple discrimination and the development of a public policy on human rights defenders. 56. The abusive use of criminal law against human rights and land defenders continued. In August, nine human rights defenders were placed in pretrial detention, charged with unlawful association for their work in the defence of water in the area of the Botaderos National Park. 57. In the course of the year, organizations of journalists and media workers issued 117 alerts related to attacks or threats against individuals and media.43 OHCHR documented the killing of seven journalists and media workers, in the departments of Valle, Copán, Cortés, Gracias a Dios and Olancho. Two of the journalists had reported threats against them owing to the exercise of their profession and one of the media workers was the target of stigmatization and harassment owing to his gender identity. 58. Between January and September, 19 media workers and journalists were granted protection measures by the National Mechanism, some reporting surveillance and assaults, which they linked to their coverage of anti-government protests. Journalists of Radio 40 41 42 43 See also CCPR/C/HND/CO/2, paras. 20–21. See www.oas.org/es/cidh/decisiones/pdf/MC416-13-Resolucion-es.PDF (in Spanish). See, for example, http://corteidh.or.cr/docs/casos/escaleras/acuerdo.pdf (in Spanish). Data provided by the non-governmental organization (NGO) C-Libre. 11