FIAN Honduras: La Isla Market vendors were violently attacked
voselsoberano.com | Friday May 21, 2010 10:03
(Food First Information & Action Network)
International Human Rights Organisation for the Right to Food
It is known that any person who is accused of a felony or misdemeanor is entitled to be treated with respect for the inherent dignity of human beings, therefore it is unjustifiable to apply cruel or degrading treatment to them. In addition, it is mandatory that prior to forfeiture or any action against them, both prosecutors and police officers, judicial processes take place.
Although it is true that the so-called "piracy" is an offense against copyright, this does not justify the police to enter by force, beat up, and commit all kinds of physical attacks against citizens who seek a living in a world where opportunities to gain income are very limited. What is most distressing is that people were injured, older women were panicking and some fainted when they heard gunfire between the narrow aisles of the market.
Several stalls were destroyed, the piracy material was seized as well as articles that have nothing to do with the crime for which they were attacked and assaulted.
Unprecedented events happened in the act of aggression. According to the newspaper La Prensa in its online edition on May19, " members of the Immigration and Custom Enforcement Police (ICE) and FBI anti-gang units participated in the operative, but as observers, confirmed the security minister Oscar Alvarez "but he didn't reveal the purpose.
For several years FIAN Honduras and members of the Executive Secretary of FIAN International visited the mayors of Tegucigalpa to prevent evictions and, alternatively find a decent solution for peddlers of the "pedestrian"(street) always reminding them that the State of Honduras has signed the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) which undertakes to take appropriate measures to ensure the enjoyment of these rights to citizens of Honduras.
Thanks to international cooperation a market built in La Isla, now occupied by vendors who plied their trade in the pedestrian street. This was an important step regarding hopes of securing a better future for them. The municipality is committed to undertake several projects to improve the market's infrastructure, to help vendors expand access to items for sale and others that seek to attract buyers to a place that is not so easy access to pedestrians if compared with the pedestrian street. But as vendors say, they have not kept any of the promises.
Among other observations this Covenant states that "States Parties in the present Covenant recognize the right to work, which includes the right of everyone to have the opportunity to earn a living by job freely chosen or accepted, and will take appropriate measures to ensure this right. "
In particular what should concern us is the fulfillment of the right to food, which is the right to access, individually or collectively, on a regular and permanent basis to a quantitatively and qualitatively adequate and sufficient nutrition, and the necessary means to produce it, so that it corresponds to the cultural traditions of each population and which ensures a physical and mental fulfilling and dignified life.
Tegucigalpa MDC, May 20, 2010
Gilberto Ríos
Executive Secretary
FIAN Honduras
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