Hedme Castro

Hedme Fátima Castro Vargas (born November 22, 1959 in Choluteca , Honduras ) is a Honduran human rights defender and coordinator of the human rights organization ACI Participa, which campaigns for human rights as well as civil and political rights in Honduras. She has been repeatedly attacked for her work as a human rights defender.

Life

At the age of 17 Castro became a primary school teacher. From then on, she was actively involved in the teachers' movement to defend high-quality public education, which among other things fought for legislation to codify the professional status of teachers (Estatuto del Docente). She has worked as a pedagogue at all levels of education. She worked at the National Pedagogical University of Honduras.

activism

Hedme Castro is General Coordinator of the Asociación para una Ciudadanía Participativa - ACI Participa, an organization that promotes citizen participation in decision-making and the knowledge and exercise of civil and political rights. ACI Participa also calls on state institutions to act according to the principles of social equality and to manage their resources transparently. ACI Participa has a unit for the protection of defenders and defenders of human rights, which works nationally in the 18 departments of Honduras and defends various human rights .

Castro was systematically persecuted for her political engagement in Honduras. On March 1, 2017, Castro was arrested at Toncontín International Airport in Tegucigalpa while attending an event and meeting with EU authorities in Brussels organized by the UN Human Rights Council. On April 7, 2017, Castro's car was sabotaged. On September 8, 2017, Castro and three other human rights defenders, Ariel Díaz, Carlos del Cid and Tommy Morales, were attacked and arrested by police officers while they were helping students studying at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de Honduras - UNAH (National Autonomous University of Honduras) were detained in Tegucigalpa.

Castro has suffered from asthma since childhood, which has probably worsened due to tear gas.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Hedme Castro on frontlinedefenders.org
2. ↑ Honduras: ACI PARTICIPA condemns violence against family members of activist Hedme Castro
3. ↑ http://www.oas.org/juridico/spanish/mesicic2_hnd_anexo18.pdf
4. ↑ https://www.amnesty.org/download/Documents/ACT3083982018ENGLISH.pdf
5. ↑ https://www.amnesty.org/download/Documents/ACT3083982018ENGLISH.pdf
6. ↑ https://www.frontlinedefenders.org/en/case/police-attack-hedme-castro-and-three-other-hrds
7. ↑ https://www.amnesty.org/download/Documents/ACT3083982018ENGLISH.pdf
8. ↑ http://www.europarl.europa.eu/doceo/document/E-8-2017-002214_DA.html?redirect
9. ↑ https://im-defensoras.org/2017/04/whrdalert-honduras-attempt-on-the-physical-integrity-of-hedme-castro-of-aci-participa/
10. ↑ https://www.frontlinedefenders.org/en/case/hedme-castros-car-tyres-punctured
11. ↑ https://www.frontlinedefenders.org/en/case/police-attack-hedme-castro-and-three-other-hrds
12. ↑ https://www.amnesty.org/download/Documents/ACT3083982018ENGLISH.pdf