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Welcome everybody to our live video conference with Bertha Oliva of COFADEH. So as part of
Amnesty International's Letter Writing Marathon one of the cases we are working on this year
is to defend the rights of COFADEH human rights activists. The Committee of Relatives of the
Detained and Disappeared in Honduras is one of Honduras' main human rights organisation.
Its work includes seeking justice for current human rights abuses by the security forces
and for the disappeared in the 1980s and also training local human rights activists. The
organisation has it's own radio programme and newspaper and it organises protests and
meetings to obtain justice for the victims of enforced disappearances.
The Rome Statute established by the International Criminal Court defines enforced disappearances
as a crime against humanity and practices specifically addressed by the Inter-American
Convention on Forced Disappearances of Persons.
In International Human Rights Law a forced disappearance occurs when a person is secretly
abducted by the state or political organisation, or a third party. There is usually authorisation
or support of the state or political organisation, followed by refusal to acknowledge the person's
fate or whereabouts, with intent to place the victim outside the protection of the law.
Bertha Oliva is the General Coordinator of COFADEH and she founded COFADEH together with other women
who lost their loved ones inorder to seek justice and compensation for the families
of hundreds of dissidents that disappeared between 1979 and 1989.
Bertha has since become an emblematic presence in the Central American human rights movement
and today is one of the leading voices of resistance to a coup that ousted the elected
former president of Honduras. Today COFADEH's brave work places their members at great risk.
Since recent years members of COFADEH have suffered intimidation, surveillance, threats
and attacks. Since 2011, staff members have been subjected to an increasing number of
threats
and incidents of intimidation.
Despite the danger COFADEH continues its crucial work of providing legal and social support.
There emblem of the white dove symbolises their commitment to peace and human rights
and their determination to never give up.
(Talking in background)
Welcome Bertha