Title: Affirming the importance of the survival of Garífuna culture and identity, condemning the violent and illegal appropriation of Garífuna territory and calling on the Government of Honduras, the Department of State and multilateral development banks to fully comply with the resolutions of multilateral human rights bodies which mandate the return of Garífuna land rights, and for other purposes.
Policy area: International Affairs

Summary:
This resolution condemns violence against Garifuna communities (Afro-Indigenous people of Honduras) and calls for various efforts to protect the land rights and other rights of those communities.

[Congressional Bills 117th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Res. 1521 Introduced in House (IH)]

<DOC>






117th CONGRESS
  2d Session
H. RES. 1521

   Affirming the importance of the survival of Garifuna culture and 
identity, condemning the violent and illegal appropriation of Garifuna 
territory and calling on the Government of Honduras, the Department of 
   State and multilateral development banks to fully comply with the 
   resolutions of multilateral human rights bodies which mandate the 
        return of Garifuna land rights, and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                           December 14, 2022

    Ms. Bush (for herself, Ms. Omar, Ms. Schakowsky, Mr. Garcia of 
Illinois, and Mr. Bowman) submitted the following resolution; which was 
 referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs, and in addition to the 
   Committee on Financial Services, for a period to be subsequently 
   determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such 
 provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned

_______________________________________________________________________

                               RESOLUTION


 
   Affirming the importance of the survival of Garifuna culture and 
identity, condemning the violent and illegal appropriation of Garifuna 
territory and calling on the Government of Honduras, the Department of 
   State and multilateral development banks to fully comply with the 
   resolutions of multilateral human rights bodies which mandate the 
        return of Garifuna land rights, and for other purposes.

Whereas the United States and the Republic of Honduras share an important 
        relationship, which includes deep and long-standing economic, social, 
        and cultural ties;
Whereas the Afro-Indigenous Garifuna people, descendants of the Arawak Indians 
        of St. Vincent Island and of African castaways destined to be sold into 
        slavery in the Americas, are one of nine Indigenous peoples of Honduras;
Whereas the Garifuna territory that has stretched along the Caribbean coast of 
        Honduras since before the nation was declared independent from Spain on 
        September 15, 1821, is the ancestral home of the majority of the world's 
        Garifuna, and as such is essential to the cultural survival and well-
        being of the Garifuna people;
Whereas the presence of vibrant Garifuna immigrant communities in the United 
        States has been recorded by oral history and scholarly research since 
        the early 20th century and has long contributed to the cultural 
        diversity that we, as a Nation, so deeply cherish;
Whereas the Government of Honduras ratified the Inter-American Convention on 
        Human Rights on September 5, 1977, and the Constitution of Honduras 
        establishes that the human rights treaties to which Honduras is a party 
        are considered to hold the same legal effect as the Constitution, and 
        therefore the judgments of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights are 
        binding on the Government of Honduras;
Whereas, on May 18, 2001, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and 
        Cultural Organization (UNESCO) issued a proclamation declaring the 
        Garifuna language and culture a ``Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible 
        Heritage of Humanity,'' the first proclamation of its kind in 
        furtherance of the United Nations Convention Concerning the Protection 
        of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage and the Universal Declaration 
        of Human Rights, and on October 17, 2003, the General Conference of 
        UNESCO adopted the Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible 
        Cultural Heritage;
Whereas, on March 7, 2003, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights 
        determined in its Merit Report that the rights to personal liberty, to a 
        fair trial and to judicial protections, to freedom of thought and 
        expression and to personal integrity of the then-president of the Land 
        Defense Committee of the Garifuna community of Triunfo de la Cruz and 
        vice president of the Black Fraternal Organization of Honduras (OFRANEH) 
        had been violated by his arbitrary imprisonment for a period of six 
        years and four months, a conclusion confirmed by the judgment of the 
        Inter-American Court of Human Rights on February 1, 2006;
Whereas, on June 12, 2007, in response to a complaint from OFRANEH describing 
        the potential and already consummated illegal disenfranchisement of 
        Garifuna land rights facilitated by World Bank-supported projects, the 
        World Bank Inspection Panel found that the safeguards provided for the 
        project were not adequate to protect Garifuna rights to their ethnic 
        lands, while observing that the Garifuna communities did not have a 
        meaningful option to opt out of the project;
Whereas, on December 8, 2008, the Board of Directors of the International 
        Finance Corporation (IFC) approved a $30 million loan to the Dinant 
        Corporation, whose supply chain includes palm oil from plantations in 
        areas claimed by Garifuna communities, including Punta Piedra, despite 
        publicly available information implicating the company in violent land 
        disputes, illegal appropriation of Garifuna land, and reports of drug 
        trafficking on land controlled by the Dinant Corporation;
Whereas, on June 28, 2009, President Barack Obama characterized Roberto 
        Micheletti's assumption of the presidency of Honduras as illegal, the 
        Department of State subsequently determined that the events constituted 
        a coup d'etat, and the Organization of American States (OAS) suspended 
        Honduras' right to participate in the multinational treaty body on July 
        5, 2009, the first time Article 21 of the Inter-American Democratic 
        Charter was invoked, and did not reinstate Honduras's status in the OAS 
        until June 1, 2011;
Whereas Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) staff conducted a mission from 
        October 18 to 22, 2010, to advance planning for a $60 million loan to 
        the Honduran Ministry of Security and oversee the implementation of 
        ongoing security-related loans, signed a $60 million loan agreement on 
        June 21, 2012, with Security Minister Julian Pacheco, and signed a 
        second loan agreement on March 25, 2020;
Whereas the loans financed, among other Honduran security forces activities, the 
        creation of the new Direccion Policial de Investigaciones (DPI) of the 
        Honduran National Police;
Whereas in January 2011, the then-president of the Legislative Assembly of 
        Honduras, Juan Orlando Hernandez, visited Puerto Castilla to announce 
        that the coastal areas of Colon would be designated as special 
        development zones (ZEDE), describing these areas, which largely consist 
        of Garifuna communities and territory, as unpopulated;
Whereas in May 2011, the IFC's Board of Directors approved an equity and 
        subordinated debt investment in Banco Ficohsa, which acted as a 
        financial intermediary of the IFC to provide further financing to the 
        Dinant Corporation following international outcry over the involvement 
        of that company's security forces in violence stemming from land rights 
        disputes, and whose supply chain includes palm oil from plantations in 
        areas claimed by Garifuna communities, including Punta Piedra and 
        Triunfo de la Cruz;
Whereas, on October 18, 2012, the Constitutional Court of Honduras annulled a 
        February 12, 2011, constitutional amendment adopted by the Honduran 
        legislature that would allow the nation to cede governance of areas of 
        the national territory to foreign governments or private corporations as 
        ZEDEs;
Whereas, on December 13, 2012, the International Commission of Jurists condemned 
        the dismissal of four of the five judges of the Constitutional Court of 
        Honduras by the nation's legislature, under the leadership of then-
        President of Congress Juan Orlando Hernandez, explaining that the 
        legislature had no authority to carry out this action, which seriously 
        affected judicial independence;
Whereas the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) on November 7, 
        2012, issued Merits Report 76/12 regarding the Garifuna community of 
        Triunfo de la Cruz, and on May 21, 2013, issued Merits Report 30/13 
        regarding the Garifuna community of Punta Piedra, reports in which the 
        IACHR found that the rights of both communities and their members had 
        been violated, including the rights to property and judicial protection, 
        and that the government had failed to investigate and prosecute the 
        violence against the communities and their members;
Whereas the U.S. Overseas Private Investment Corporation, whose holdings have 
        been transferred to the United States International Development Finance 
        Corporation, approved on March 17, 2014, the financing of the Jaremar 
        palm oil corporation, whose supply chain includes palm oil from 
        plantations in areas claimed by Garifuna communities, including Triunfo 
        de la Cruz;
Whereas, on October 8, 2015, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights ruled on 
        the complaints filed by the communities of Triunfo de la Cruz and Punta 
        Piedra that, despite the titles granted by the Government of Honduras to 
        the Garifuna communities of Triunfo de la Cruz and Punta Piedra, the 
        Government of Honduras had violated the rights of these communities, 
        including the right to consultation, the right to property, the 
        obligation of non-discrimination and the right to a fair trial and 
        judicial protection, and had failed to investigate acts of violence 
        against the community, including four violent deaths in the case of 
        Triunfo de la Cruz and one death in the case of Punta Piedra, ordering 
        the restitution of land rights to Triunfo de la Cruz and Punta Piedra 
        and the effective investigation of the murder of community members of 
        Triunfo de la Cruz and Punta Piedra;
Whereas Garifuna territory along the northern coast of Honduras is located 
        within one of the principal transit corridors for illegal narcotics 
        traveling through Honduras to meet consumer demand in the United States, 
        as described by the Department of State's Bureau of International 
        Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs in its 2015 International 
        Narcotics Control Strategy Report, which stated, ``Eighty to ninety 
        percent of cocaine that transits through Honduras arrives via maritime 
        shipment. In 2014, the U.S. government estimated that sixty percent of 
        cocaine smuggling flights that departed from South America first landed 
        in Honduras - a decline from 75 percent of such flights in 2013. The 
        Caribbean coastal region of Honduras remained the primary landing zone 
        for drug-carrying flights and illicit maritime traffic. The region is 
        vulnerable to narcotics trafficking due to its remoteness, limited 
        infrastructure, lack of government presence, and weak law enforcement 
        institutions.'';
Whereas the Government of Honduras and its judiciary have engaged in a pattern 
        of falsely accusing the Indigenous people of the North Coast of engaging 
        in drug trans-shipment as justification for violating their fundamental 
        rights, including the right to life and liberty, and the Honduran 
        military forces have engaged in a pattern of deadly use of force against 
        Garifuna and other Indigenous peoples of the Caribbean Coast with 
        similar justifications;
Whereas, on March 30, 2016, the brother of then-President of Honduras Juan 
        Orlando Hernandez and on May 16, 2016, the son of his predecessor 
        Porfirio Lobo Sosa, were convicted by Federal courts in the Southern 
        District of New York of drug trafficking-related charges stemming from 
        actions they carried out on the North Coast of Honduras, and in the 
        course of these and other trials, testimony was given implicating then-
        Security Minister Julian Pacheco and then-President Hernandez in direct 
        involvement in drug trafficking;
Whereas in October 2016, in response to a complaint from OFRANEH, the Compliance 
        Advisor Ombudsman of the IFC initiated a compliance review of a tourism 
        complex developed with land and resources from the territory of the 
        Garifuna communities of Barra Vieja, Tornabe, San Juan Tela and Triunfo 
        de la Cruz, a project that attracted, and continued to seek, investment 
        from corporations in the United States;
Whereas, on November 5, 2019, in a statement to a local Honduran publication, 
        OFRANEH condemned the death of 16 Garifuna, including six women, 
        highlighting the murder of Mirna Suazo Martinez, president of the board 
        of the Garifuna Community of Masca, who was leading the defense of 
        Masca's rivers and territory in opposition to the construction of a 
        hydroelectric plant, and who had made public statements describing 
        several threats against her a few days before her murder;
Whereas, on July 18, 2020, four Garifuna men from Triunfo de la Cruz, including 
        the President of the Community Development Committee who had led the 
        community's recent efforts to stop the illegal appropriation of Garifuna 
        land and demand that the Honduran Government implement the 2015 Inter-
        American Court ruling, were abducted at gunpoint by men wearing uniforms 
        bearing the logo of the DPI National Police unit and have not been 
        located since, an action that the Working Group on Enforced 
        Disappearances of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for 
        Human Rights qualified on July 20, 2020, as an enforced disappearance;
Whereas, on November 11, 2020, the families of the disappeared and the Garifuna 
        communities, outraged by the lack of investigation into the whereabouts 
        of the victims of the July 18, 2020, forced disappearances, created the 
        Comite Garifuna de Investigacion y Busqueda de los Desaparecidos de 
        Triunfo de la Cruz (SUNLA), an independent commission to investigate and 
        bring about the prosecution of the crime;
Whereas the United States military conducts training of Honduran military units 
        on the northern coast of Honduras, including at bases such as the 15th 
        Battalion and 4th Naval Base that have been implicated in serious human 
        rights abuses and corruption associated with organized criminal 
        activity;
Whereas the United States controls 15.72 percent of the Board of Directors of 
        the World Bank and 30 percent of the Board of Directors of the Inter-
        American Development Bank (IDB), and uses its voice to exert a 
        significant degree of influence on the decisions of these institutions;
Whereas, on March 3, 2021, sisters Marianela and Jennifer Mejia Solorzano were 
        arrested along with 30 other Garifuna rights defenders who are facing 
        criminal proceedings arising from two sets of charges filed by the 
        Public Prosecutor's Office for allegedly committing the crimes of 
        damages, threats, theft and usurpation in their lands owned by the 
        Garifuna communities of Cristales and Rio Negro;
Whereas, on July 27, 2021, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner 
        for Human Rights in Honduras and the IACHR called on the Government of 
        Honduras ``to adopt measures to prevent the criminalization of Garifuna 
        human rights defenders, particularly those who defend land, territory, 
        and natural resources'' and to ``guarantee a hostility-free environment 
        for those defending human rights and to increase measures to respect and 
        protect the rights of the Garifuna people over their lands, territories, 
        and natural resources,'' citing the need to protect the communities from 
        potential violations alleged in petitions pending rulings from the 
        Inter-American Court of Human Rights;
Whereas, on November 28, 2021, Xiomara Castro was elected President of Honduras 
        in a historic election and sworn in as the first woman President of 
        Honduras on January 27, 2022, and as part of her platform she proposed 
        respect for the land rights, language and culture of Indigenous peoples, 
        including the promotion and restoration of land titles of Indigenous 
        communities and the promotion of public policies to stop invasions of 
        Indigenous lands; and
Whereas in a recent communique, OFRANEH stated that on August 9, 2022, the 
        organization was visited by the Public Prosecutor's Office and demanded 
        progress in the investigation of the July 18, 2020, forced 
        disappearances from Triunfo de la Cruz, but instead of reporting on the 
        investigation and prosecution of those responsible for the forced 
        disappearances, the Attorney General's office, in another episode of 
        persecution, harassment, and criminalization, instructed the 
        Prosecutor's Office Against Common Crimes and the Technical Agency for 
        Criminal Investigation (ATIC) to initiate criminal proceedings against 
        OFRANEH's General Coordinator Miriam Miranda, OFRANEH member Luther 
        Castillo, and OFRANEH lawyer Edy Tabora: Now, therefore, be it
    Resolved, That the House of Representatives--
            (1) condemns the violence against Garifuna communities that 
        is directed especially against land rights defenders and 
        Indigenous authorities;
            (2) calls for the Comite Garifuna de Investigacion y 
        Busqueda de los Desaparecidos de Triunfo de la Cruz's (SUNLA) 
        full participation in the investigation into the whereabouts of 
        Sneider Centeno, Milton Joel Martinez, Suami Aparicio, and 
        Gerardo Trochez, and the prosecution of those responsible for 
        their disappearance;
            (3) calls for the creation of an effective and independent 
        office for a Special Prosecutor for Enforced Disappearances in 
        Honduras;
            (4) condemns the illegal separation of Garifuna communities 
        from their legitimate land rights;
            (5) calls for the swift and full implementation of the 
        October 8, 2015, ruling of the Inter-American Court of Human 
        Rights that obliges the Government of Honduras to restore land 
        rights to the communities of Triunfo de la Cruz and Punta 
        Piedra, and to investigate the murder of five members of both 
        communities;
            (6) strongly disapproves of the decisions of multilateral 
        development banks that finance projects that contribute to the 
        extinction of the legitimate land rights of Garifuna 
        communities and finance security forces involved in serious 
        human rights violations;
            (7) is concerned that United States bilateral assistance to 
        Honduras may jeopardize or otherwise contribute to the 
        violation of the fundamental rights of Garifuna communities;
            (8) urges the Government of Honduras to--
                    (A) fully and immediately comply with the 2015 
                judgment of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights 
                restoring land rights to the communities of Triunfo de 
                la Cruz and Punta Piedra and investigating the murders 
                of five members of both communities;
                    (B) grant SUNLA formal status in the investigation 
                of the forced disappearance of Sneider Centeno and 
                three other Garifuna men from Triunfo de la Cruz; and
                    (C) establish a Special Prosecutor for Enforced 
                Disappearances within the Prosecutor's Office;
            (9) requests the institutions of the World Bank Group to--
                    (A) immediately suspend funding for any project 
                that may contribute to violence against Garifuna 
                communities or violations of their human rights and 
                consult with the affected communities on possible 
                corrective measures;
                    (B) identify measures that the institutions could 
                implement to promote compliance with the 2015 judgments 
                of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights ordering 
                Honduras to restore land rights to the communities of 
                Triunfo de la Cruz and Punta Piedra and to investigate 
                violence against those communities, acting on the 
                measures only after full consultation with and consent 
                of the legitimate authorities of the Garifuna 
                communities;
                    (C) undertake a comprehensive and independent 
                review of the projects that any such institution has 
                supported over the past 25 years that have an impact on 
                the land rights of Indigenous communities in Honduras, 
                and publish a report with their findings;
                    (D) carefully review their loan portfolios, and the 
                structure for on-the-ground implementation of those 
                projects, in order to identify funding that may benefit 
                agencies implicated in human rights violations and 
                violence directed against Indigenous communities in 
                Honduras; and
                    (E) demand that the executors of the projects 
                financed from any loan made by any such institution 
                comply with the process of free, prior, and informed 
                consultation with the communities, as established in 
                International Labour Organization (ILO) Convention 169;
            (10) calls on the Inter-American Development Bank to--
                    (A) undertake a thorough, independent, and public 
                review of the projects it has supported over the past 
                15 years that directly or indirectly benefit security 
                agencies in Honduras and other projects that may 
                potentially be implicated in human rights violations;
                    (B) carefully review its loan portfolio, and the 
                structure for on-the-ground implementation of those 
                projects, in order to identify funding that may benefit 
                government agencies or other actors that contribute to 
                or benefit from the dispossession of Indigenous 
                communities in Honduras;
                    (C) increase the review of projects prior to 
                financing to identify projects that could result in the 
                violation of human rights agreements to which Honduras 
                is a signatory and refrain from financing the projects; 
                and
                    (D) ensure compliance with the provisions of ILO 
                Convention 169 regarding prior consultation before the 
                approval of projects that affect the communities, and 
                the completion of the respective environmental impact 
                studies for each project; and
            (11) urges the Secretary of State, the Secretary of the 
        Treasury, and the Administrator of the United States Agency for 
        International Development, in coordination with the heads of 
        other relevant Federal departments and agencies, to--
                    (A) engage at the highest level with the Government 
                of Honduras, and maintain close coordination with 
                international allies and multilateral organizations 
                with influence in Honduras, to promote compliance with 
                the resolutions of the Inter-American Court of Human 
                Rights, in particular the 2015 judgments to restore the 
                rights of the Garifuna communities of Triunfo de la 
                Cruz and Punta Piedra;
                    (B) alert United States-based companies and other 
                investors in Honduras to the risks and potential 
                liabilities associated with investing in lands whose 
                rights may have been illegitimately severed from 
                Indigenous communities; and
                    (C) use its vote and voice within multilateral 
                development banks to oppose any loans or technical 
                assistance projects that may threaten the rights of 
                Garifuna communities, and to advocate for reparations 
                for communities affected by multilateral development 
                bank financing that have contributed to human rights 
                violations, in accordance with international standards 
                for reparations.
                                 <all>