On January 25, 2021, the HRREC Human Rights Clinic, in association with the International Human Rights Law Clinic of the University of Virginia Law School, the Due Process Law Foundation (DPLF), the International Commission of Jurists and the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Foundation, among others, filed an amicus brief to the Honduras Court of Appeals related to the arbitrary detention of 8 environmental defenders in Honduras.
For more than 500 days, environmental defenders of the Guapinol river have been illegally held in pre-trial detention for opposing a mining project in Guapinol, Honduras. Courts have the obligation to assure that environmental defenders are not criminalized for protecting the rivers and opposing mining projects.
For more information on the case, The Guardian published a note on the situation of Guapinol in October, entitled “How Honduras became one of the most dangerous countries to defend natural resources”.