TEGUCIGALPA RESPONSE TO UN DRIP FOLLOW-UP AND OAS

UNCLAS TEGUCIGALPA 000477

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: OAS PGOV PREL
SUBJECT: TEGUCIGALPA RESPONSE TO UN DRIP FOLLOW-UP AND OAS
STATE OF PLAY

REF: SECSTATE 4241


1. (SBU) Summary. The Government of Honduras voted in favor
of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People
(DRIP) but does not appear to be doing anything to implement
the provisions of the declaration. Post is unaware of any
indigenous groups taking any action under the declaration,
although the Garifuna are pursuing land rights claims against
Honduras in the InterAmerican Court on Human Rights. The
Departments of State, Defense and USAID all support
activities supporting indigenous people of Honduras. End
Summary.

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NO DRIP ACTION IN HONDURAS
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2. (SBU) The GOH voted in favor of the UN DRIP, but has not
responded to Post's repeated requests about whether they have
done anything to support the Declaration. (Note: The Foreign
Affairs Ministry continues to answer our requests for
information by talking about the ethnic identity office at
the Interior Ministry, whose work preceded the DRIP. This
suggests that nothing new is being done.) Post will report
any future response by the GOH.


3. (U) According to the 2007 Human Rights Country Report for
Honduras, there are approximately 621,000 persons that are
members of indigenous or other ethnic groups in Honduras.
These groups include the Miskitos Tawahkas, Pech, Tolupans,
Lencas, Chortis, Nahual, Islanders, and Garifunas, who live
in 362 communities and generally have little or no political
power to make decisions affecting their lands, cultures,
traditions, and the allocation of natural resources.


4. (U) POLOFF met with Garifuna leaders in La Ceiba and Tela
on May 5 and 6. The Garifuna are perhaps the most organized
of the various ethnic groups and the most likely to pursue
action under the DRIP. They are pursuing four cases
regarding the illegal sale or use of Garifuna lands in the
InterAmerican Court on Human Rights, however, they had never
heard of the DRIP and are not planning any action under it at
this time.

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US DIPLOMATIC OUTREACH
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5. (U) Post pursues a wide range of outreach activities
directed towards the indigenous groups of Honduras.
Department of State Foreign Service Officers meet on a
regular basis with leaders of Garifuna and other groups. Two
indigenous leaders have participated in the International
Visitor Leadership Program in the last 7 years. The Public
Affairs section has conducted a number of programs with
indigenous people over the last seven years, in particular
the Afro-Honduran Garifuna community. For instance, in 2007,
Post sponsored a US speaker to celebrate "Mes de la Historia
Africana en Honduras," and sent the President of the Garifuna
NGO, Organization for the Development of Ethnic Communities
(ODECO),to participate in the White House Conference on the
Americas. In April 2008, the Public Affairs section
co-sponsored a three-day speaker program with ODECO focused
on minority health issues, "Advances and Challenges in the
Fight Against Racism, Actions and Opportunities for the
Development of Afro-Descendent Communities."

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USG ASSISTANCE PROGRAMS
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6. (U) The USG provides substantial assistance to indigenous
groups through several USAID and DOD programs. The following
several paragraphs describe this assistance in detail.


7. (U) The USAID Integrated Watershed Resources Management
(MIRA, in Spanish) project provides the Garifuna community of
Rio Esteban (population: 4,000) with assistance in watershed
management, disaster preparedness, and tourism promotion. In
coordination with the U.S. Forest Service, MIRA also has
established an alliance with the NGO Green Wood to improve
the household income of approximately 100 Pech families by
teaching them how to utilize their natural resources more
efficiently, linking them to markets, and helping to
implement sustainable forest management plans.



8. (U) USAID has trained 37 Lencas and Chortis in trade
capacity building through its Trade, Environment and
Agriculture program.


9. (U) The USAID Rural Enterprise Development (RED) project
has assisted approximately 770 Lencas, 80 Chortis, and 20
Toulapans in strengthening and diversifying their
agricultural production by focusing on the production of
high-value crops and value-added products for export and
regional markets.


10. (U) The USAID health program provides assistance to the
GOH at the central and departmental levels to improve family
planning, maternal and child services in rural areas of
Honduras where most indigenous communities are located.
Through decentralization of health services provision, 17,196
indigenous people (Lencas and Chortis) have access to a
defined basic package of services.


11. (U) With an HIV prevalence rate of 4.5 percent, the
Garifuna population is one of the most affected in Honduras.
The USAID HIV program works with a local NGO on mass media
HIV prevention activities and voluntary HIV counseling and
testing.


12. (U) The USAID education program has given decentralized
technical assistance and teacher training, standards,
curriculum calendars and monthly standardized formative tests
for all Honduran children in primary school, including in
indigenous communities.


13. (U) The USAID Education for All program includes 7,387
indigenous participants in 640 centers located in ten of
Honduras's eighteen departments.


14. (U) The USAID Cooperative Association of States for
Scholarships (CASS) program included eighteen indigenous
participants who traveled to the United States for training
in 2007. They include seven Garifunas, two Miskitos, eight
Lencas, and one Chorti.


15. (U) Through the USAID Title II Food for Peace program, an
estimated 122,158 Lencas and Chortis have received assistance
through $1.55 million in food commodities to address the
multiple causes and effects of food insecurity by focusing on
maternal and child health, agricultural productivity, and
local capacities development and strengthening.


16. (U) Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) centers
developed through USAID's Rule of Law program are providing
conciliation services to Garifuna and Lenca communities.
These ADR centers are contributing to building a culture of
peace in many communities by resolving conflicts that
otherwise could lead to violence.


17. (U) In the last few years, USAID has constructed water
systems for several Garifuna communities, as well as a health
center in a Garifuna community near La Ceiba.


18. (U) During the last four years, USAID has been using
local currency funds to support infrastructure activities in
several indigenous communities, including funding a rural
electrification system in a Lenca community, and $1.6 million
of activities in La Mosquitia. The investment plan in La
Mosquitia consists of health centers, schools, an
electrification system, a water system and the construction
and repair of several bridges.


19. (U) The Department of Defense (DOD) provides
approximately $4 million in Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of
Staff funds to support fifteen medical brigades in La Paz,
Comayagua and the Gracias a Dios departments. La Paz and
Comayagua areas are home to many Lenca people and Gracias a
Dios is predominantly Moskito. The funds also support five
schools and one medical clinic in Las Paz and Comayagua.


20. (U) DOD provided over $2 million in Humanitarian
Assistance Program Funds in Gracias a Dios, building two
schools, potable water systems, upgrading an orphanage, and
building a hyperbaric chamber for injured lobster divers.


21. (U) DOD also provides $1 million in Humanitarian and
Civic Assistance funds to support twelve medical brigades
working in impoverished areas of Tegucigalpa, La Ceiba, and

San Pedro Sula, serving a number of indigenous and ethnic
groups that live in and around those areas.
Williard