April 2004
Advances in the Investigation into the Violent Deaths of Children and Adolescents
A report by Casa Alianza (Covenant House) Honduras
Tegucigalpa
September 2003
From
January 1998 to September 2003, Casa Alianza, through its legal support
program, registered 2,029 violent deaths of boys, girls, adolescents and
youth in the country. All this information has been published for the
benefit of the State, the President of the Republic, the Attorney General,
Government and Security officials, the European Embassies, and the national
and international community.
On the 7th of October, 2002, President Ricardo Maduro recognized the existence
of 744 executions of boys and girls under the age of eighteen in Honduras
and he stated that the Honduran government does not tolerate this type
of practice. The President´s findings coincide with the reports
about these violent deaths published by Casa Alianza, the National Commission
of Human Rights and the Public Ministry, as well as with the report from
the United Nations Special Commission for the Extrajudicial Incidence
issued in anticipation of the August 2001 visit to Honduras.
In May 27 of 2002, President Maduro created the Permanent Commision for
the Protection of the Physical and Moral Integrity of Children, in which
Casa Alianza participates together with other government institutions.
Due to the high level of requests from the commission, the Special Unit
for the Prevention and Investigation of the Deaths of Minors was created
on the second of September of 2002, for the purpose of investigating cases
of violent deaths of minors on a national level.
In response to Casa Alianza's petition, the Public Ministry named a Special
Public Prosecutor to pursue legal actions before a court competent to
hear the cases and to improve agility in the criminal proceedings against
those charged in extrajudicial assasinations.
THE
SPECIAL UNIT FOR THE INVESTIGATION & PREVENTION
OF THE DEATH OF MINORS
This unit was officially inaguerated on the 6th of September, 2002. The
unit is made up of 10 agents en Tegucigalpa, six agents in San Pedro Sula,
and two analysts. Casa Alianza Honduras took the opportunity to send 15
initial cases to this special investigations unit, asking that they be
given concrete answers in regards to the cases within 90 days. They also
asked that the Unit initiate a systematic process of investigation in
these deaths. Later, Casa Alianza sent in eight more cases to the unit,
making a total of 23 cases that awaited reply.
Of the 2,029 executions and violent deaths of girls, boys, adolescents
and youth documented between January 1998 and August 2003, only 103 cases
have been assigned to agents. This number represents only 5% of the total
of the cases. Of that 5%, only 23 of the cases have been resolved (1.15%
of the total). 80 cases (4%) are currently under investigation, leaving
1,899 cases in which the perpetrators continue to go unpunished.
Of the 23 cases the Unit has sent to the Public Ministry, the authorities
have prosecuted the suspects in only 14 of those cases. One case was overturned
and the accused walked; no charges have been presented in the other 8
cases and the parties believed responsible for the crimes have not been
sentenced.
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