Letters, Op-Eds, and Presentations, Honduras

WHAT ARE THE LEGAL CLAIMS/REMEDIES BEING SOUGHT BY VICTIMS OF DEVELOPMENT PROJECTS?

One of the major problems for victims of development projects is the use of local remedies for dealing with environmental and human rights abuses. From my experience in Honduras the local remedies are almost non existent due to ineffective courts, corruption and lack of knowledge and experience in dealing with mining issues as well as lack of jurisdiction. Local remedies can be good for bringing attention/pressure to bear eg placing complaints/denunciations at the Environmental Ombudsman.

This presentation was made to CESCR in connection with the fact-finding mission to Honduras investigating the gold mining industry.

In this presentation I will talk about how a human rights analysis and specifically an economic, social and cultural rights analysis can benefit the issue of mining and campaigns around mining. I will describe the work that the Center for Economic and Social Rights (CESR) has been doing in Central America and internationally and give some thoughts on challenges and the possibilities for further work. Finally I will talk about whether a rights analysis benefits community members.