The consequences of the pandemic and hurricanes have “increased pre-existing socioeconomic and structural inequalities.”
The COVID-19 pandemic and hurricanes Eta and Iota further amplified vulnerability, inequality and discrimination in Honduras, where poverty rose to 70% in 2020, according to a study published Wednesday by the Danish Institute for Human Rights. .
The study “Towards a sustainable recovery from COVID-19 in Honduras” indicates that the confinement measures to stop the spread of the coronavirus and the effects of Eta and Iota caused an increase in poverty levels in Honduras, one of the countries most unequal and most affected by the crisis, with 700,000 new poor in 2020.
“COVID-19, Eta and Iota have revealed and amplified existing patterns of vulnerability, inequality and discrimination,” said Birgitte Fejring, director of the Sustainable Development department at the Danish Institute for Human Rights, presenting the results of the document in a virtual event.
The study highlights the importance of Honduras increasing its “efforts in the fight against poverty, especially extreme poverty” through the adoption of a “national plan of action” that integrates a human rights approach, has sufficient resources for its implementation and pay due attention to existing gaps.
The country also has to adopt “measures to combat inequality, taking into account the needs of the most disadvantaged and marginalized social sectors, particularly low-income groups, indigenous and Afro-Honduran peoples, and the people who live in those areas. rural zones”.
Honduras must incorporate informal employment into social protection and security regimes, and access to financial resources, as well as build a national economy.
Human rights crisis
The pandemic and hurricanes Eta and Iota, which hit Central America last November, have had a “perverse effect,” said Isabel Albaladejo, representative of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) in Tegucigalpa.
COVID-19 has “magnified the pre-existing patterns of vulnerability, inequality and discrimination in the country with greater emphasis on the most vulnerable groups, causing a significant regression in the enjoyment and enjoyment of various economic rights,” the diplomat stressed.
The health and humanitarian crisis has had “a strong impact and has been translated into a human rights crisis,” said Albaladejo, who urged the authorities to “set their sights and state efforts” on the guarantee of economic and social rights. and cultural, to advance in the fulfillment of the international obligations in the matter of human rights.
The consequences of the pandemic and hurricanes have “increased pre-existing socioeconomic and structural inequalities and affecting people in vulnerability, especially women, indigenous people, LGBTI people, disabilities,” he emphasized.
Devastating effects
The head of the National Commissioner for Human Rights, Blanca Izaguirre, said that the COVID-19 pandemic in Honduras has had “a devastating effect” on different groups of the population.
The pandemic has also revealed “the existence of systematic and progressive patterns such as discrimination, inequality, which are consequences of the neglect that the State, as guarantor of human rights, is obliged to comply,” he stressed.
Izaguirre indicated that the coronavirus “altered and continues to significantly alter all social areas and spheres of individual life, but also in society, its effects have aggravated and deepened a context that was evident and very critical of the national reality, which has characterized by protracted crises ”.
The pandemic and the effects of tropical storms Eta and Iota “leave us in a more vulnerable situation” in the face of climate change, “with an agri-food crisis and a progressive weakening of the rule of law.” (I)
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