A/HRC/35/23/Add.1 I. Introduction 1. At the invitation of the Government of Honduras, the Special Rapporteur conducted an official visit to the country from 23 to 27 May 2016. He thanks the Government for extending the invitation and for the extensive cooperation provided during the preparation and conduct of the visit. He appreciates the openness and willingness to engage that he encountered in his meetings. He would also like to thank the country office of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) for the valuable support received in the preparation and conduct of the visit. 2. The aim of the visit was to examine the level of protection of the right to life in Honduras, particularly the legal framework and measures in place to prevent attacks on the life, security and physical integrity of individuals, and to ensure justice and accountability for such violations. The Special Rapporteur viewed the visit as particularly important in view of the fact that Honduras had one of the highest homicide rates in the world. 3. During his visit, the Special Rapporteur visited Tegucigalpa and San Pedro Sula and met with numerous officials of the federal and state Governments. At the federal level, he met with authorities from the Office of the Presidency; Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Human Rights, Justice, Government and Decentralization; Ministry of Security; Ministry of Defence; Supreme Court of Justice; Public Prosecutor’s Office; National Congress, including the committees on justice and human rights and on citizen security; national police; armed forces; National Human Rights Commission and the national preventive mechanism. He also visited the National Penitentiary and the detention centre of the Second Tactical Infantry Battalion, both in Tegucigalpa. In San Pedro Sula, he held meetings with the Governor of the Department of Cortes and the Vice-Mayor of San Pedro Sula and visited the Returnee Migrant Care Centre. He also met with members of the United Nations country team, academia and civil society organizations. 4. The present report focuses on the situation as it was during the visit, although some specific references are made to subsequent developments. The report was sent to the Government for comments on 14 February 2017 and was completed on 28 March 2017. II. Background 5. In 1963, a military coup in Honduras led to a succession of military Governments that held power almost uninterruptedly until 1981. Democratic Governments ruled until June 2009, when an attempt to hold a ballot to reform the Honduran political process led to the ousting of the democratically elected President, Manuel Zelaya. The international community unanimously condemned the coup, but the Honduran Supreme Court ruled the proceedings to be legal. Reports of human rights abuses against supporters of the deposed President rocketed after the coup, when the de facto Government suspended civil liberties and security forces responded to anti-coup demonstrations with excessive force, causing several deaths and injuries and leading to thousands of arbitrary detentions. Elected President Porfirio Lobo established a truth and reconciliation commission in 2010 to examine the events that had occurred before and after the coup. The commission documented 20 cases of excessive use of force and killings by security forces and set out 84 recommendations. However, little progress has been made in prosecuting those abuses. 1 6. A series of corruption scandals involving the Government and political parties gave rise in 2015 to a massive anti-corruption movement known as “los indignados” (the outraged), whose supporters demanded the establishment of an international commission with investigatory and prosecutorial powers to address crimes and corruption by government officials. In response, the Government announced an initiative in conjunction with the Organization of American States to reform the justice system and strengthen the independence of the judicial branch, which began in April 2016. The announcement of the 1 See A/HRC/32/35 Add. 4. 3