Case History: Hedme Castro

On 1 October 2015, the human rights organisation Asociación para una Ciudadanía Participativa - ACI Participa publicly denounced the hacking of their institutional email address, as well as the deletion of files and contacts, by unknown persons.

ACI Participa (Association for a Participative Citizenry) promotes citizen participation in decision-making of public interest, as well as the knowledge and exercise of their rights by citizens, through support to other organisations. It also urges governmental institutions to act under the principles of social equality and to transparently administer their resources. The director of the organisation, Ms Hedme Castro, participated in the Front Line Defenders platform for human rights defenders in Dublin in 2013.

On 22 September 2015, the institutional email address of ACI Participa was hacked and the culprits managed to obtain and delete all the contacts of the organisation, as well as its files, folders and records of emails sent and received.

In early 2012, the Law on the Intervention of Private Communications entered into force in Honduras, legalising the practice, carried out for years by police and military intelligence, of spying on correspondence and listening to telephone calls of social organisations and political opposition. Although the Penal Code calls for sufficient evidence of culpability before communications can be intercepted, this is commonly overlooked.

Front Line Defenders is concerned at the hacking of the email address of ACI Participa. Front Line Defenders is further concerned at the climate of vigilance and surveillance which affects the work of human rights defenders in Honduras, as it makes it difficult for them to carry out their peaceful and legitimate work in the defence of human rights in the country.