The board is made up by the Union of Beverage and Related Industry Workers, COFADEH, the Center for Women’s Rights, the Movement of Women for Peace Visitación Padilla and the Center of Women Studies of Honduras.

“We are able to tell the national and international community that Honduras is in a state of human rights emergency. We have analysed the situation with the organizations that make up this board, based on reports and discredit and hatred campaigns”, said Bertha Oliva, coordinator of COFADEH. She addressed reporters from different national and international media during a press conference held in the Honduran capital, Tegucigalpa on October 25.

Another problem pointed out by Oliva is the militarization, which has led to intimidation that amount to crime, so the organizations believe Honduras is undergoing a human rights emergency.

“The presidential elections will take place in 30 days and there is a serious context of militarization, followed by abuses against social activists. Our monitoring concludes that the worst victims so far have been the members of the LIBRE party. But of course there may be members of other parties whose rights have been violated”, said Oliva.

She claimed that the board was created to raise public awareness, so that people can make a conscienscious decision. It is also important to note there are international delegations that will come to observe the elections and will also be monitoring human rights violations.

The critical human rights situations in Honduras after the coup d’etat staged in June of 2009 will be key in the lead-up to the presidential elections, scheduled for November 24th.

In its recent Communications School, communicators of the Latin American Coordination of Countryside Organizations (CLOC-Via Campesina), together with allied organizations like Friends of the Earth International through Real World Radio, Solidarity Sweden-Latin America (SAL) and the Latin American Information Agency (ALAI) decided to cover the situation in Honduras during the national elections.

Meanwhile, Carlos H. Reyes of the Union of Beverage and other Related Industries said the Honduran oligarchy refuses to waive power after the coup d’etat: “we are saying that they want to keep the status quo implemented by the neoliberal model”, said the trade union leader of the National Front of Resistance and Reconstruction.

The board members also described different cases of people who were killed, received death threats and were victims of harassment and false accusations. The Honduran judiciary, together with the newly created Military Police, try to dismantle the political opposition in the country.