A/HRC/44/47/Add.2 authority and crimes against the form of government for the modifications they allegedly introduced into the text of the Organic Law on the Budget following its approval by the National Congress on 18 January 2018. Those modifications included provisions different from those approved by the plenary session and made it impossible to initiate investigations against officials who had handled public funds before the conclusion of administrative proceedings before the Superior Audit Court. Following several public denunciations, the National Congress issued an errata explaining that the modifications were the product of a good-faith error and not a premeditated act. Following those modifications, however, the Supreme Court ordered the administrative closure of the case. The “Impunity Pact” case is currently stalled in the Supreme Court. 81. The so-called “Pandora’s box” case concerns an alleged misappropriation of public funds and other offences. It involves a former Minister of Agriculture and Livestock and 37 other officials and individuals accused of designing a scheme to embezzle and divert funds of the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock and the Ministry of Finance intended for social programmes and use them to finance their political campaigns in 2013 and for other personal expenses. Of the 38 accused, 3 are still in prison, 3 have been definitively acquitted, 3 are fugitives and 29 have been convicted and sentenced under measures alternative to imprisonment. Appeals filed by the defence and the Office of the ProsecutorGeneral have been pending since July 2018, and the process in the Supreme Court appears to be paralyzed. 82. The limited progress made in those cases demonstrates the urgent need to design and put into place independent and efficient institutional mechanisms for the investigation and prosecution of high-ranking State authorities that, in the present context, enjoy de facto impunity for the crimes they have allegedly committed. V. Conclusions 83. The Special Rapporteur welcomes the efforts made by Honduras in recent years to address the structural problems that continue to affect the country. Extreme poverty, discrimination and inequality, violence and insecurity, widespread corruption and a high level of impunity remain major challenges for Honduras, but some progress has been made, in particular with regard to the reduction in the homicide rate, which decreased in the period from 2014 to 2018, according to government sources. In general terms however, the inability of State authorities to adequately address those challenges has generated deep discontent and lack of trust in the political class and State institutions, which also affects the judiciary and, to a lesser extent, the public prosecution service. 84. The efforts made to strengthen the independence and effectiveness of the justice system have not yet had a significant result in strengthening access to justice and fighting impunity. Underfunding, poorly trained staff and ineffectiveness result in lengthy judicial proceedings and a backlog of cases, while political influence and other forms of interference and pressure from non-State actors, along with low salaries, are at the root of the high level of judicial corruption, with bribes and irregular payments often being exchanged for favourable court decisions. Violence and impunity continue to be widespread, with more than 90 per cent of crimes remaining unpunished, despite the measures adopted to increase the human, financial and technical resources of the public prosecution service. 85. The legal and institutional framework on the judiciary presents serious gaps and is not sufficient, as it stands, to protect and promote the independence of the judiciary from other branches of Government and the independence of individual judges to adjudicate the cases before them impartially and autonomously. The dissolution of the Council of the Judiciary following a decision of the Supreme Court has deprived the judiciary of an institution which should have been essential to safeguarding judicial independence and has resulted in the transfer of the administrative functions previously exercised by the Council to the Supreme Court. 86. Honduran judges continue to be exposed to various forms of interference or pressure from other sources, including not only other State institutions, such as the legislative and executive branches of power, but also the judicial hierarchy. Such 13