Case History: René Martínez

On Friday 3 June 2016, the body of LGBTI rights defenders René Martínez was found in San Pedro Sula in Honduras. Rene had been missing since 1 June; the body bore signs of a brutal murder. René Martínez had just arrived home from work when assailants seized him and forced him into a car. Family members immediately alerted police, but it took 48 hours to find his body in another neighbourhood.

René was a city employee working in anti-violence outreach programmes. He was president of Comunidad Gay Sampredrana, a San Pedro Sula-based LGBT advocacy group that works throughout northern Honduras. He also ran an outreach centre in Chamelecón through Youth Alliance Honduras, an organisation that is part of an anti-violence programme.

EU Special Representative on Human Rights Stavros Lambrinids was on a mission to Honduras when the killing took place. During a visit of condolence to the offices of leading LGBTI rights organisation Arcoiris, he stated “The EU is not asking for any special rights for LGBTI people. What it is asking for is that all human rights apply to LGBTI people equally – and today they do not. In Honduras there is a tremendous amount of violence and killing which goes mostly unpunished for years. This has to change. We hope that with our presence here and our encouragement to the government this impunity will end and LGBTI people will feel that they have a hospitable place in Honduras, as they deserve, and which they have a right to expect under international law”.

In a March 2016 statement, the Inter American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) “condemned the killings of human rights defenders of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and trans persons (LGBT) which had taken place in recent months in Honduras. The IACHR urged Honduras to adopt specific measures to effectively address the patterns of violence that exist against human rights defenders of LGBT persons”. In April, the European Parliament “expressed its deep concern at the climate of extreme violence against LGBTI people and activists and called for measures to address the situation”. The EU statement noted that “The pattern of violence has significantly worsened after the 2009 coup d’état. Since then, 222 LGBTI people have been killed, amongst whom many rights defenders”.

Between June 2015 and January 2016, six members of Arcoiris were killed, with several more subjected to physical assault, intimidation and threats.

In response to this latest killing of a HRD in Honduras Front Line Defenders Protection Coordinator for the Americas, Ivi Oliveira stated, “Following the international outcry over the assassination of Berta Caceres, Nelson Garcia and Paola Barraza between February and May 2016, we had hoped that the government of Honduras would finally be pressurised into taking action to tackle the climate of impunity which makes Honduras one of the most dangerous countries in the world in which to be a human rights defender. Instead, while the government talks a lot and does little, the situation continues to deteriorate and members of the LGBTI community remain one of the primary targets of this relentless violence. The government of Honduras must take urgent action to stem the tide of violence, to bring the perpetrators to justice but above all to take meaningful action to protect the lives of human rights defenders”.