A/HRC/41/33/Add.1 targets of political violence. Moreover, women politicians generally have less financial resources to fund campaigns. The Working Group calls on the Government to take further measures to support women’s participation and address violence in politics. Women human rights defenders 31. Although Honduras has made efforts to establish a mechanism for the protection of human rights defenders, there still seems to be little understanding of the specificities and needs of women human rights defenders and the hurdles that they face. All the women human rights defenders met during the visit – who were working in areas of violence against women, including trafficking, discrimination, gender equality and sexuality education, reproductive rights, environmental and land rights, labour rights, rights of lesbian, bisexual, transgender, queer and intersex women and the rights of women engaged in sex work/prostitution – stated that they were not able to operate in a safe and enabling environment. They told the experts that they faced numerous attacks and threats, as well as the criminalization of their activities and lack of access to justice. 32. Several interlocutors, including family members, expressed great dissatisfaction with the trial for the murder of Berta Cáceres, a Lenca feminist leader. The experts were informed that the family had been denied access to reports and evidence during the investigation phase, which had lasted more than two years and was marred by numerous irregularities, and that the lawyers representing the family had been excluded from the trial without a legitimate reason. The Working Group welcomes the ruling by the trial court in Tegucigalpa in November 2018, which resulted in the conviction of seven men, but remains concerned that those masterminding and funding the crime have still not been sanctioned. Any irregularities reflect poorly on the judiciary as a whole, which is already mistrusted for its lack of accountability. 33. The mistrust in the judiciary is further fuelled by the practice of criminalizing human rights defenders. Not only does this have a disproportionate effect on women human rights defenders, who often do not have enough resources to pay for legal defence or travel to judicial or police stations, but it further erodes women’s already fragile trust in the judiciary or police. During the visit, representatives of women’s organizations from La Paz, La Esperanza, El Progreso, Bajo Aguán, San Pedro Sula, Tegucigalpa, Tela, La Ceiba and Santa Bárbara informed the experts about arrests, prosecutions and legal proceedings initiated against women human rights defenders as a means of intimidating them and hindering their work. 34. Stigmatization of women human rights defenders by officials, and also by their own organizations, families, communities and the media, not only disempowers them but also exposes them to heightened risks. They face smear campaigns aimed at discrediting their work, and are often accused of being opposed to the development of Honduras, of being “unnatural” mothers and wives or even of being criminals. One defender shared her painful experience of not only being criminalized and attacked by members of her own community, but also being constantly harassed and insulted by members of her family, who accused her of being a bad mother, while she explained that she had been defending her land precisely to secure her children’s future. 35. In most cases, women defending the environment and land rights face criminal charges, including coercion, trespassing and unlawful seizure, and land encroachment. The experts are concerned that the incorporation in January 2018 of the crime of illegal trespassing and appropriation of land into the list of crimes that may be committed by organized criminal groups, along with offences such as money laundering and terrorism, may generate a stigmatizing effect on women land defenders. For some, criminalization also entails prison. Even alternative measures given in response to criminal proceedings have apparently been abused as a tool of control and humiliation. For example, some defenders have been required to report regularly and for an extended period of time to the police or the courts to sign a document, which is seen by defenders as the form of judicial harassment. One woman revealed that she had been raped on her way to report to the police, which she was required to do weekly. 8