Gladys Lanza Ochoa
Con rabia e impotencia “Las Chonas” reciben absolución de Gladys Lanza
Honduran human rights defender and prominent feminist Gladys Lanza Ochoa passed away at the age of 74 on 20 September 2016 due to health problems. At the time of her passing she was still fighting against her imprisonment for the simple act of defending the rights of women in the country.
Gladys Lanza Ochoa was Coordinator of the Movimiento de Mujeres por la Paz Visitación Padilla (Honduran Women's Committee for Peace "Visitación Padilla"), a collective of women human rights defenders from across Honduras who work on issues such as gender violence and women's participation in public life, in addition to advocating for democracy and human rights in Honduras.
In May, 2017, the Supreme Court of Justice (CSJ) definitively suspended the judicial proceedings against Gladys Lanza for the crime of slander. The pardon took place after she passed away in September 2016, which elicited feelings of rage and helplessness in the Movimiento de Mujeres por la Paz Visitación Padilla, "Las Chonas" feminist group. Gladys Lanza was accused by Juan Carlos Reyes, director of the Foundation for Development of Social, Urban, and Rural Housing in Honduras (FUNDEVI), and convicted in March 2015 to eighteen months in prison, in response to her declarations in support of a woman who claimed to have been sexually assaulted by Reyes.
Human rights defenders suffer extrajudicial executions, enforced disappearances, torture and ill-treatment as well as judicial harassment, threats and stigmatisation. Journalists, lawyers, prosecutors, those defending the rights of women, children, the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) community, indigenous and Afro-Honduran communities, and those working on environmental and land rights issues are particularly at risk.
