A/HRC/35/23/Add.1 by requisitioning work records of staff on duty at a given time or by making weapons inventories of private security companies. 9 32. The State has the primary responsibility to protect individuals from the depravation of life by non-State actors and to bring perpetrators to justice. While private security agents are not public officials, they are still bound by domestic regulations and are obliged to respect the rights of citizens. V. Violations of the right to life of affected groups 33. The persons targeted with violence and intimidation by State and criminal actors in retaliation for their work include human rights defenders; indigenous, peasant and Afrodescendent leaders involved in land disputes; lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender activists; justice operators; and journalists. 34. From 2006 to 2015, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights granted 49 precautionary measures for persons at imminent risk in Honduras. Beneficiaries between 2009 and 2015 included 34 per cent of peasants, 17 per cent of journalists, 14 per cent of indigenous persons, 7 per cent of environmental rights defenders and 6 per cent of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender persons. According to a study conducted in 2016 by civil society organizations, 99 per cent of beneficiaries considered that those measures had not granted them security because the protection mechanisms offered by the government had been inadequate or ineffectively implemented. 35. The Special Rapporteur is deeply concerned at the failure of the authorities to effectively implement the precautionary measures of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights and to provide protection to members of these targeted groups. A. Human rights defenders 36. Human rights defenders are attacked by sectors opposed to their work and by those they have exposed for human rights violations. From 2010 to 2015, there were 22 murders, 2 disappearances and 15 kidnappings of human rights defenders. In total, 14 human rights defenders benefiting from the precautionary measures of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights were killed.10 37. During his visit, the Special Rapporteur received many reports about the lack of investigation into killings, threats and violence against human rights defenders. Civil society organizations have also reported the ineffectiveness of the Public Prosecutor’s Office and the Honduran judiciary in responding to these attacks. 11 More than 90 per cent of cases remain unpunished.12 38. Violence against human rights defenders is also underreported. Reports have included estimates that, of the more than 109 cases of human and environmental rights defenders killed between 2010 and 2015, only 8 were reported publicly. 13 39. A case brought to the attention of the Special Rapporteur was the killing two months before his visit of world-renowned indigenous and land rights defender, and beneficiary of precautionary measures, Berta Cáceres. An investigation by the Public Prosecutor’s Office led to the detention of eight persons, including an active mayor of the armed forces, a 9 10 11 12 13 8 See www.hrw.org/report/2014/02/12/there-are-no-investigations-here/impunity-killings-and-otherabuses-bajo-aguan. See Situation of Human Rights in Honduras, pp. 28-29. See www.omct.org/files/2016/05/23748/honduras_030516_eng.pdf; and Amnesty International report No. AMR37/2193/2015, available in Spanish from www.amnesty.org/en/documents/amr37/2193/2015/es/. See Global Witness, “¿Cuántos más?” (2015), available from www.globalwitness.org/en/campaigns/environmental-activists/cuantos-mas, p. 16. See www.devp.org/en/blog/honduras-impunity-murders-human-and-land-rights-defenders.