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News > Latin America

'Red Alert' Issued Over Femicides in Honduras After 140 Women Killed So Far in 2017

  • Women in Honduras took part in a protest against femicide in the capital city of Tegucigalpa in March

    Women in Honduras took part in a protest against femicide in the capital city of Tegucigalpa in March | Photo: EFE

Published 5 July 2017
Opinion

Statistics show that every 14 hours a woman is killed in the Central American nation.

Social organizations in Honduras working to protect women have declared a "red alert" due to femicides in the country, a situation the United Nations described as worrying.

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Fifty women from 20 non-governmental organizations in Honduras organized a protest outside the Public Ministry in the capital city of Tegucigalpa on Tuesday to denounce gender violence and impunity.

The Women's Movement for Peace said that every 14 hours a woman is killed in a violent manner and 96 percent of those cases continue with impunity. The group says so far 140 women have been killed in Honduras in 2017.

"We declare that the state security strategy does not serve women, it is a failed strategy," the movement said in a press release.

The women demanded authorities protect girls and women and said that in the past ten days, 18 women were killed in the country. The organizations also denounced that the majority of the femicide cases are of extreme violence, including dismemberment and decapitation.

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The U.N. recently urged the Honduran state to do more to curb violence against women.

Last year, 463 women were killed yet only 15 cases were investigated by authorities. According to the U.N. Honduras has the highest rates of femicides for a country that is not currently at war.

Honduras' femicide rate is 14.6 per 100,000 people, according to the Violence Observatory of the National Autonomous University of Honduras 

This year human rights organizations in the country took part in the regional campaign in Latin America under the #NiUnaMenos or "Not One Less" to protest femicides and gender violence.

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