Country Report: Peru

In 2025, Peru continued to backslide on democracy and human rights as Congress adopted measures that fostered impunity, weakened democratic institutions, and eroded judicial independence. Congress passed a broad amnesty law that grants impunity for serious crimes committed during the armed conflict. 

​Organized crime continued to expand across the country, leading to an increase in homicides, extortion, and other violent crimes. 

On October 10, Congress ousted then-President Dina Boluarte, citing an obscure constitutional provision allowing it to declare that the presidency has been “vacated” if the president faces “moral incapacity.” José Jerí, the head of Congress, took office as interim president. 
 
Threats to Judicial and Prosecutorial Independence 
More than half of the lawmakers in Congress are facing investigations for corruption or other crimes. In recent years, Congress has taken steps to undermine the independence and capacity of courts and prosecutors. 

In January 2025, authorities swore in a new seven-member National Board of Justice that, when it functions properly, plays a key role in safeguarding the separation of powers. An international mission of experts monitoring the selection process concluded that it “fail[ed] to meet international standards of transparency, publicity, technical criteria, and citizen participation.” 

In September, the National Board of Justice appointed Tomás Gálvez as attorney general. Gálvez, who had been investigated for an influence peddling scheme known as “Cuellos Blancos,” said he would remove leading anti-corruption prosecutors. He had not removed them at time of writing. 
 
Impunity for Human Rights Violations 
In July, Congress passed an amnesty bill that grants impunity for serious crimes committed during the country’s internal armed conflict. President Boluarte enacted the law in August, despite an Inter-American Court of Human Rights ruling ordering Peru to halt implementation of the bill pending an analysis of its compatibility with the court’s prior rulings on amnesty laws. 

Authorities have failed to adequately investigate the killing of 49 protesters and bystanders during large protests that took place between December 2022 and February 2023. As of September, nobody had been convicted for these killings. In July, prosecutors said that 70 percent of their investigations into the abuses remained in the “preparatory phase.” 

In September, Congress shelved a constitutional complaint against President Boluarte regarding her role in the repression of the protests. The Public Prosecutor’s Office had charged Boluarte and several former ministers for failing to prevent homicides and injuries. Lawmakers argued that there was no evidence that Boluarte had ordered the abuses or knew about them when they happened. 
 
Public Sector Corruption 
Corruption remained a major driver of institutional decline in Peru. In 2024, Peru experienced a steep drop in Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index. 

Five former presidents have been charged with corruption; four of them remained behind bars at time of writing. 

In August, the Constitutional Court ordered the suspension of criminal investigations against President Boluarte until she finishes her term. At the time, the Attorney General’s Office was investigating her for allegedly receiving expensive watches from a provincial governor and for her alleged responsibility in the killings and injuries of protesters, among other alleged offenses. Prosecutors reactivated the investigations in October, after she was ousted and lost her immunity. 

In January, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Working Group on Bribery sent a high-level mission to Peru. The group expressed concern over “developments that could jeopardize judicial and prosecutorial independence in Peru” including disciplinary investigations against prosecutors in charge of major corruption cases. 
 
Security Policies 
Crime remained a major concern for Peruvians. As of August, authorities had registered 1,377 homicides in 2025, a 14.6 percent increase compared to the same period in 2024. During the same period, criminal complaints alleging extortion rose by nearly 30 percent. 

The year saw several protests in different parts of the country demanding government action to ensure security. 

In September and October, protesters took to the streets across Peru demanding action against rising crime and political corruption. Many also protested Congress’s decision to appoint José Jerí as president. Clashes between police and protesters left one person dead and more than 70 people injured. 
President Boluarte declared and extended states of emergency, suspending basic rights in parts of the country, including neighborhoods in Lima, the capital, and Callao, to respond to crime. As of June, these measures had failed to reduce homicides.

In April, Congress modified Peru’s law on asset forfeiture, making it harder for prosecutors to seize assets from defendants. Asset forfeiture laws often raise serious human rights concerns. However, a group of judges, prosecutors, and other officials said in a joint statement that the change in Peru weakened an essential legal tool to fight organized crime groups. President Boluarte signed the bill into law in May. 
 
Shrinking Civic Space 
Congress and the Boluarte administration created a hostile environment for human rights groups and independent journalists. 

In March, Congress approved a law granting the Peruvian Agency for International Cooperation, a government agency, sweeping authority over media and civil society organizations that receive foreign funding. The law requires prior approval for activities conducted with foreign funding and bans the use of foreign funds to pursue legal action against the state, including in national and international human rights cases. In April, United Nations experts expressed concern about the impact of the international cooperation law on nongovernmental organizations and said the law was a “worrying curb on civic space and human rights work.” 

In a speech in February, President Boluarte accused human rights groups of “undermin[ing] the authority of the state and delegitimiz[ing] the principle of order.” 
Peruvian journalists reporting on matters of public interest often face abusive criminal defamation charges. At time of writing, Congress was discussing a bill that would expand defamation penalties to up to six years in prison. 

In September 2025, Reporters Without Borders reported that eight investigative journalists were subjected to surveillance, judicial proceedings, and interception requests by police, senior officials, and political figures in retaliation for work that sought to expose alleged corruption involving President Boluarte, her brother Nicanor Boluarte, and Justice Minister Juan José Santiváñez. 

At time of writing, Gustavo Gorriti, a leading investigative journalist, remained under criminal investigation for allegedly receiving sensitive information from prosecutors. 
In September, the National Association of Journalists of Peru recorded more than 18 incidents of violence against journalists during protests, in most cases by police officers. 

Journalists have also suffered deadly attacks. In January, unidentified assailants shot and killed journalist Gastón Medina dead outside his home in Ica, after he reported on alleged misuse of public funds and other irregularities in the regional government, provincial municipality, and local judiciary, and on extortion mafias targeting transport workers. In May, unknown assailants killed journalist Raúl Célis López in Iquitos. He had reported on alleged cases of corruption in the regional government, as well as on extortion and organized crime in the Amazon region. 
 
Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights 
Data released in 2025 showed that nearly 28 percent of the population had incomes below the national monetary poverty line in 2024, a 1.4 percentage point decrease from 2023 but still significantly above the 20 percent figure from 2019, before the Covid-19 pandemic. Poverty remained particularly high in rural areas (39.3 percent). 

Extreme poverty—defined by the government as the inability to afford a basic food basket—increased to 5.5 percent of the population (approximately 1.9 million people), twice the 2019 level. 

According to the International Labour Organization, by the end of 2024, 72 percent of workers were engaged in the informal economy, the highest rate in the region. In September, the OECD urged the government to address this situation and expand access to quality early childhood education, particularly for families with low incomes and rural communities. 

That same month, young people from the “Generation Z” movement organized a protest in response to the Pension System Modernization Law, which Congress approved in 2024, and implemented by executive decree in September 2025. The law required all workers, including the self-employed, to enroll in either the public or private pension system and limited withdrawal options for younger contributors.
 
Environment and Human Rights 
Mining has historically been one of Peru’s most important economic sectors. Peru’s mining industry, which extracts copper, gold, zinc, lead, and iron, among other minerals, represented 66 percent of Peru’s total exports in 2024. 

The Peruvian Institute of Economics, a national economic research center, has estimated that illegal mining, most of it resulting from small-scale mining operations, accounted for roughly half—more than US$6.8 billion—of the country’s gold export value in 2024. Artisanal and small-scale mining can be an important source of income for many individuals with low incomes, but has a significant impact on the environment and public health in Peru. 

In 2025, Congress continued to extend the deadline to incorporate illegal and informal miners into the legal mining economy. This has effectively allowed illegal miners to operate without accountability. 

​Groups involved in illegal exploitation of natural resources and the illegal occupation and appropriation of land have repeatedly threatened and attacked forest defenders. 
 
Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity 
Peru does not allow same-sex marriage or legal gender recognition for transgender people and lacks comprehensive anti-LGBT discrimination legislation. 

In May, Peru enacted a law that purports to combat sexual violence against children and adolescents, but includes provisions that restrict use of public restrooms based on “biological sex,” which could exclude trans people from restrooms aligned with their gender identity. Vague language in the law could allow censorship of educational, artistic, or identity-based expression. 
 
Reproductive Justice 
Women, girls, and pregnant people can legally access abortions only when a pregnancy threatens their life or health; even then, they many face barriers. 

In June, the National Maternal Perinatal Institute of Peru revised its therapeutic abortion guidelines in ways that effectively make it harder for women and girls to access abortion when their life or health is at risk. 
 
Violence against Women and Girls 
As of August, authorities had registered 105 femicides—defined as the killing of a woman or girl in certain contexts, including domestic violence. 

The Ombudsperson’s Office noted an increase in cases of missing women, girls, and adolescents during the first half of the year, with more than 6,000 women reported missing. 

​In June, members of Congress introduced a bill that would impose prison sentences of up to six years for filing “false complaints” in domestic violence cases. Women’s rights groups warned that the bill would discourage victims from seeking help. 
 
Foreign Policy and Human Rights Commitments 
In August, President Boluarte announced the creation of a working group to analyze, among other things, whether and how Peru should withdraw from the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, which has played a key role in protecting the rights of Peruvians. 
 
Human Rights Watch, World Report 2026. New York.

​Country Report: Nicaragua

​The government of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo tightened its authoritarian hold over Nicaragua. A sweeping constitutional overhaul further concentrated power in the executive, while authorities continued systematically repressing dissent through arbitrary arrest and prosecution, enforced disappearance, forced exile, revocation of citizenship and confiscation of assets. 
 
Concentration of Power 
In January, the ruling-party-controlled National Assembly passed a sweeping constitutional change. The amendment named Murillo, Ortega’s wife and then vice-president, as “co- president,” and empowered their presidency to “coordinate” the judiciary and legislative branches of government. Ortega has been in power since 2007. A constitutional amendment approved by the Assembly in 2014 abolished presidential term limits. 
 
Persecution of Critics 
The government continues to target all forms of dissent and in 2025 expanded the repression to include some government supporters. As of October, a human rights organization reported that at least 77 remained behind bars as political prisoners. Security forces sustain a climate of fear through surveillance, harassment, and arbitrary detention. 

In August, lawyer Carlos Cárdenas and opposition figure Mauricio Alonso died in custody following weeks of enforced disappearance, according to the media outlet Confidencial. At least six political prisoners have died in custody since 2019.

The new Constitution allows authorities to revoke the Nicaraguan nationality of people deemed responsible for “treason,” a provision that provides domestic legal cover for a practice that began in 2023. At least 452 Nicaraguans have reportedly been arbitrarily deprived of their nationality, leaving many stateless; authorities have also seized their assets. Over 200 members of the Catholic clergy have been forced into exile, deported, or denied re-entry since 2022. 
 
Transnational Repression 
According to UN experts, government critics abroad face surveillance and harassment by Nicaraguan authorities, and, at times, violent attacks. 

In June, Roberto Samcam, a retired army major and outspoken critic of Ortega, was killed at his home in San José, Costa Rica. He had previously received death threats linked to Nicaraguan security agents. In September, Costa Rican authorities detained four people in connection with the case; three are currently held in pretrial detention. 

Since 2018, at least seven Nicaraguan critics in exile have been killed or attacked, according to Nicaraguan human rights groups. In September, the Group of Human Rights Experts on Nicaragua (GHREN) called for “robust protection mechanisms for exiled populations and comprehensive investigations into the transnational dimension of the threats they face.” 
 
Freedom of Expression and Association 
Authorities have largely dismantled civil society, cancelling the legal registration of thousands of NGOs since 2018. As of November, over 5,500 organizations, roughly 80 percent of active groups, had been shut down by the government, including human rights groups, humanitarian organizations, charities, and universities. At least 58 media outlets have been closed. 

In November, a new telecommunications law entered into force, requiring public telecommunication and audiovisual providers to hand over location data and unrestricted system access to regulators, posing a threat to privacy, data protection, and freedom of expression. 

Between 2018 and mid-2025, 293 journalists fled the country—the second-highest figure in the region. 
 
Indigenous People’s Rights 
Indigenous and Afro-descendant leaders have faced systematic persecution, including surveillance, arbitrary detention, prosecutions, and entry bans. In 2023, police arrested Brooklyn Rivera and Nancy Henríquez, two leaders of YATAMA, an Indigenous political party. Henríquez was sentenced in late 2023 to eight years in prison for “undermining national integrity,” Rivera’s whereabouts remained unknown at time of writing. 
 
Access to Abortion 
Nicaragua has prohibited abortion under all circumstances since 2006. Those who have abortions face up to two years in prison, and medical professionals who perform them face up to six. The ban forces women and girls to continue unwanted pregnancies, putting their health and lives at risk. In January, the UN Human Rights Committee found Nicaragua violated the rights of 12- and 13-year-old rape survivors by forcing them into pregnancy and motherhood, amounting to torture and violating their rights to life and dignity. The committee urged Nicaragua to “review its legal framework and ensure access to pregnancy termination services for all women and girls who are victims of sexual violence....” 
 
Refugees, Asylum Seekers, and Migrants 
Between 2018 and mid-2025, more than 342,000 Nicaraguans had sought asylum abroad, primarily in Costa Rica, the United States, Mexico and Spain. An additional 31,000 had been formally recognized as refugees. In July, the US government announced the termination of Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Nicaraguans, ending protections for roughly 4,000 people. The measure entered into force in September; a court challenge to the termination was pending at time of writing.

During the first half of the year, US authorities returned over 2,100 Nicaraguans to Managua. Justice and Accountability 

In April, the UN Human Rights Council extended the mandate of the GHREN for two years. The group has found reasonable grounds to believe that authorities have committed crimes against humanity, including murder, imprisonment, torture, sexual violence, forced deportation, and persecution on political grounds. It has called on states to bring a case against Nicaragua at the International Court of Justice for violations of the UN Conventions on Statelessness. 

In 2025, the government continued isolating itself from multilateral oversight. Between February and June, Nicaragua announced or formalized disengagement with the UN Human Rights Council, the Food and Agriculture Organization, the International Labor Organization, the International Organization for Migration, UNESCO, and the UN Refugee Agency. In March, Nicaragua also decided to not participate in the adoption of its UN Universal Periodic Review outcome. The government withdrew from the Organization of American States in 2023. 

No international rights monitoring bodies have been allowed to enter Nicaragua since 2018. 
 
Sanctions 
In April, the US imposed visa restrictions on more than 250 Nicaraguan officials for undermining fundamental freedoms; in total, US visa bans now cover over 2,000 current or former officials. The US also maintains targeted financial sanctions on senior officials and state-linked entities. 

In October, the European Union renewed sanctions against 21 individuals and three state- linked entities who it determined had undermined human rights, democracy and rule of law. The United Kingdom and Canada have sanctioned 17 and 35 individuals, respectively, for serious human rights violations. 
 
Human Rights Watch, World Report 2026. New York.

Country Report: Mexico

​Claudia Sheinbaum, who became the first woman to serve as Mexico’s president in October 2024, inherited serious human rights challenges, including extreme criminal violence and grave abuses by the military. 
 
Her predecessor, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, presided over a process of democratic backsliding, undermining judicial independence, transparency, and the rule of law. At the same time, 13 million people were lifted out of poverty during his government. 
 
With the backing of Sheinbaum and López Obrador, Congress passed a justice reform in September 2024 that could severely undermine judicial independence. The amendment mandated that all judges in the country run for election, the first of which was held on June 1. 
 
Security and Criminal Violence 
Violence, which increased dramatically after the government announced a “war on drugs” in the mid-2000s, continued at extremely high levels. The official 2024 homicide rate stood at more than 25 per 100,000 inhabitants, one of the highest in the world. 
 
Official figures released in August indicated that more than 1,800 people had been killed in Sinaloa since a kingpin was taken to the United States and detained in July 2024, triggering fighting between factions of the Sinaloa cartel. 
 
In May, two advisors to the Mexico City mayor were murdered. At time of writing, authorities had detained two people allegedly involved in the crime, but had yet to identify the person who ordered the killings and the motivations behind it. 
 
In September, police in Paraguay detained the former secretary of security of the state of Tabasco and expelled him to Mexico on charges of collusion with cartels. 
 
In November, the mayor of Uruapan, Michoacán, who had openly denounced criminal groups in the area and pointed out their links to state politicians, was murdered. 
 
Authorities estimate that around 70 percent of firearms recovered at crime scenes in Mexico were trafficked from the US. In June, the US Supreme Court brought by Mexico against some US arms manufacturers. 

Access to Justice 
Impunity remains widespread. Prosecutors solve approximately one in ten intentional homicides they investigate, in many cases with evidence that has been altered, fabricated, or obtained through threats or torture. Prosecutors’ offices often lack qualified investigators, basic materials and resources, and adequate protection to carry out their work. 
 
In September 2024, Congress passed a constitutional amendment requires all state and federal judges, including Supreme Court and Electoral Tribunal justices, to step down and be replaced through popular elections in 2025 and 2027. The amendment also created a new “Judicial Disciplinary Tribunal” with broad powers to sanction or remove judges. The constitutional change threatens judicial independence in the country and fails to address key obstacles Mexicans face to access justice. 
 
In June, Mexico conducted popular elections to appoint half of the judiciary, including 881 federal judges and members of the Supreme Court. The elections were marked by turnout and concerns about the integrity of the process. 
 
The United Nations Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers and after the election said that “the deficiencies observed in this first election jeopardize institutional integrity and public confidence in the justice system.” 
 
In November 2024, Congress re-elected Rosario Piedra Ibarra as head of the Ombudsperson’s Office, a supposedly independent agency charged with protecting human rights. During her first tenure in office (2019-2024), she repeatedly failed to subject the López Obrador administration to robust, meaningful scrutiny. 
 
Torture
Police officers, prosecutors, and soldiers continued to use torture. In June, the Federal Institute of Public Defense, which is part of the federal judiciary, had documented 3,177 incidents reported as acts of torture, involving 4,100 victims between 2019 and 2025. 
 
The World Organisation Against Torture, a human rights group, said in June that torture continued to be a “widespread practice” in Mexico. 
 
Arbitrary Detention 
Congress passed a series of laws, the most recent one in April, to expand mandatory pretrial detention. The Inter-American Court of Human Rights has twice ordered Mexico eliminate mandatory pretrial detention because it is incompatible with human rights standards. 
 
In September, Congress approved a reform that makes it harder for people to request injunctions (“amparo”) against judicial decisions ordering the pretrial detention of detainees. It also limits judicial protection in collective matters such as environmental protection. 
 
Around 40 percent of those imprisoned in the country have not been sentenced. They remain in prison with harsh conditions, including overcrowding and lack of medical and mental health services. Media outlets, human rights groups, and public defenders have reported an increase in suicide among female detainees in some prisons. 
 
Military Abuses 
The government has continued to expand the use of the military in public security and civilian tasks. 
 
In November 2024 and July 2025, Congress passed laws transferring the National Guard, a force deployed to carry out public security tasks, to the control of the Army. 
 
The military continued to carry out media outlets reported extrajudicial executions. Human rights groups and several including the killing of two girls, aged 7 and cases of abuse, 11, in Sinaloa in May. 
 
In August, residents of Cozumel set fire to a military garrison after accusing a soldier of raping a 9-year-old girl. 
 
The military and the Ministry of Defense continued to deny the military’s role in human rights violations. Organization of American States (OAS) experts said in 2023 that the military had obstructed the investigation into the unresolved disappearance of 43 students in Ayoztinapa in 2014. During the first year of President Sheinbaum’s administration, the military continued to refuse to hand over relevant documents to the new special prosecutor appointed to the case in July. 
 
A government-mandated “Truth Commission” found in 2024 that the military committed “systematic and widespread” human rights violations between 1965 and 1990, but the 
Ministry of Defense has still not acknowledged the military’s responsibility for the crimes. 
 
In September, the government acknowledged that there were corrupt links between the Navy and criminal groups involved in the illegal trafficking of diesel. 
 
Disappearances
Thousands of people continue to disappear in Mexico every year, with the official total in 2025 reaching more than 130,000 individuals (the total includes cases reported since 1952). Authorities have not taken sufficient measures to prevent these disappearances and hold those responsible to account. 
 
In March, a local group of volunteers who search for missing people reported the discovery of hundreds of shoes, clothing items, charred human remains, and what appeared to be 
several underground ovens on a ranch outside the city of Guadalajara, in the state of Jalisco. 
 
That same month, the UN Committee on Enforced Disappearances initiated, for the first time in its history, a review under article 34 of the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance into whether enforced disappearances in Mexico were “widespread or systematic.” President Sheinbaum denied that there was a “policy of disappearances” in the country and the speaker of the Senate said he would ask the UN to “sanction” the president of the committee. 
 
Relatives of disappeared people continued to face risks. Human rights groups reported September that eight people looking for the disappeared had been killed in 2025. 
 
Privacy and Access to Public Information 
In November 2024, Congress reformed the Constitution to shut down the National Institute for Access to Information and Personal Data Protection, an independent government body, and transfer its powers to an agency within the Ministry of Anti-Corruption, which began operating in May. Article 19, a press freedom group, reported that the new agency undermined public access to information, ruling against most of the of the petitions. 
 
In July, Congress passed a law creating new mandatory identity and cell phone registries. The law grants authorities virtually unlimited power to access information about citizens without judicial authorization. 
 
Attacks Against Journalists and Human Rights Defenders 
Mexico remained one of the most dangerous countries in the world for the press. Article 19 reported in November that seven journalists had been killed in 2025.
 
Article 19 also reported that authorities and individuals connected to them launched 51 cases of “judicial harassment” against journalists and critics between January and August. 
 
Mexico remained a dangerous country for human rights defenders. In April, the body of Sandra Dominguez, an Indigenous human rights lawyer who had disappeared months earlier, was found in Oaxaca. 
 
Migrants and Asylum Seekers 
In April, the UN Committee on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families examined Mexico’s compliance with the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families. The body acknowledged the assistance provided to Mexican workers abroad, but expressed concern about the apparent “outsourcing of border control by US authorities” and the “militarization of migration management.” 
 
According to Mexican authorities, as of April, Mexico had received nearly 39,000 immigrants deported from the US, including 33,000 Mexicans. Humanitarian groups have expressed concern about the risks faced by deportees due to criminal violence in areas like Tapachula. 
 
According to the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), in 2024 the Mexican Commission for Refugee Assistance received “almost 80,000 asylum and refugee applications.” UNHCR estimated that the figure could be even higher in 2025. Despite the increase, the Mexican Commission for Refugee Assistance faced budget cuts, partly due to US foreign aid cuts.
 
Women’s and Girls’ Rights 
In November 2024, Congress amended the Constitution to recognize women’s rights and mandated gender parity in elected positions. In January, President Sheinbaum created the Ministry of Women.
 
In July, Mexico appeared before the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women. The committee welcomed the election of the country’s first female president, while noting “an increase in gender-based violence against women and girls committed by state and non-State actors.” 
 
In June, Guanajuato’s Congress voted against a bill that would have decriminalized abortion. Supreme Court rulings protect women and girls from criminal prosecution for abortion and 24 of the country’s 32 states have explicitly decriminalized abortion. However, gaps persist in women’s sexual and reproductive health care, particularly for rural and Indigenous women. Maternal mortality remains high in some regions, and reports of obstetric violence continue. 
 
Femicide continues to be a “major concern.” According to official figures, 444 women and girls were murdered during the first half of 2025. 
 
Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity 
Same-sex marriage is available in all 32 states. In 2025, Veracruz state passed a law allowing transgender people to change their names and gender markers on birth certificates through a simple administrative process, bringing the number of states that have done so to 23. 
 
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people continued to face violence. According to the National Observatory of Hate Crimes Against LGBT People, run by human rights groups, 31 people were killed between January and September due to their sexual orientation or gender identity.
 
Rights of Older People and People with Disabilities 
In December 2024, Congress amended the Constitution to guarantee a pension for people living with a “permanent disability” and to require the government to ensure “rehabilitation and habilitation.” At time of writing, the disability pension covered about 1.5 million of the 8.8 million people with disabilities officially registered in Mexico. 
 
 
Also in December 2024, Mexico City’s Congress reformed civil law to abolish guardianship and recognize full legal capacity for all people aged 18 and older, including people with disabilities and older people. 

Congress also changed the Constitution to establish that adults 65 and older are entitled to a non-contributory pension from the state. 
 
Indigenous People’s Rights 
In September 2024, a Constitutional reform strengthened the recognition of the rights of Indigenous and Afro-Mexican peoples, for instance, by explicitly recognizing their right to be consulted in decisions regarding administrative or legislative measures that significantly affect them. 
 
Policies on Climate Change and its Impacts 
The Sheinbaum administration announced plans in August to ensure that 35 percent of electricity generation comes from renewable sources by 2030.
 
Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights
According to official numbers, from 2018 to 2024, a total of 13.4 million people in Mexico were lifted out of poverty and 1.7 million out of extreme poverty. Official studies indicate that 6.6 million of them were lifted out of poverty mainly due to increases in the minimum wage. Since July, the government has begun implementing new labor rules requiring digital platform companies to register workers with the Social Security Institute and contribute based on their net income. 
 
Foreign Policy 
In October 2024, Mexico was elected as a member of the Human Rights Council for the 2025-2027 term. 
 
Mexico has supported efforts to advance a treaty on crimes against humanity. But Mexico has been ambivalent regarding some of the most critical human rights situations in Latin America, often invoking the doctrine of “non-intervention.” 
 
Human Rights Watch, World Report 2026. New York.

Country Report: Honduras

​In November, Hondurans went to the polls to elect a new president and all 128 members of Congress. 
 
Pressing ongoing human rights concerns include impunity for corruption, attacks against human rights defenders, violence against women, widespread poverty, and weak rule of law. 
 
Free and Fair Elections 
The 2025 electoral process in Honduras was marred by allegations of fraud among political actors, political pressure on electoral authorities, and significant delays in the organization of the elections and the counting of votes. There were inadequate safeguards against illicit campaign financing. At least 13 people were killed due to political violence in the lead-up to the elections, according to the University Institute for Democracy, Peace and Security. United States President Donald Trump sought to influence the outcome by supporting a presidential candidate and threatening to withhold US financial support to Honduras if he did not win. 
 
The Organization of American States (OAS) and the European Union sent missions to monitor the elections; both reported a peaceful election day. However, delays in the publication of preliminary results undermined confidence in the process. President Xiomara Castro said the elections should be considered “null” and that her party would not recognize the preliminary results, in part because of President Trump’s intervention. The OAS urged political actors to refrain from disrupting public order while tallies were still being counted, warning that such actions represented a “clear attempt to obstruct the final phases of the electoral process.” At time of writing, the electoral authorities had not yet declared the winners, creating uncertainty and concerns about potential post-electoral tensions. 
 
Corruption and Rule of Law 
Public corruption, impunity, and political interference in judicial processes undermine the rule of law. 
 
In 2022, President Castro’s government and the United Nations Secretariat signed a memorandum to create a UN-backed commission to investigate and prosecute corruption. UN experts indicated that legal reforms were necessary for the commission to operate effectively. Congress passed some of these reforms but at time of writing had yet to modify laws that currently limit accountability by barring sanctions against legislators for actions taken in their official capacity and granting amnesty to officials of Manuel Zelaya’s administration charged with or convicted of certain actions after the 2009 coup against Zelaya. 
 
Honduras ranked 154 out of 180 nations in Transparency International’s 2024 Corruption Perceptions Index. 
 
In 2024, Carlos Zelaya, Castro’s brother-in-law and a member of congress, resigned after admitting he had a meeting with drug traffickers in 2013. News outlets published a video purportedly showing Zelaya negotiating with drug traffickers over contributions to Castro’s 2013 presidential campaign. His son, José Zelaya, then-minister of defense, also resigned. 
 
Former President Juan Orlando Hernández was extradited to the US on drug trafficking charges in 2022. He was convicted and sentenced to 45 years in prison in 2024. In December, US President Trump pardoned Hernández. 
 
Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights 
High rates of poverty and limited access to public services compromise the enjoyment of economic, social, and cultural rights. Per government data, 60.1 percent of households in 2025 had incomes below the national poverty line, down from 62.9 percent in 2024. 
 
One in four children under five years old suffers from chronic malnutrition, according to the UN World Food Program. Many communities lack reliable access to education, health care, housing, and clean water. 
 
The US company Honduras Próspera Inc. filed an investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) claim seeking up to US$10.8 billion in damages (equivalent to roughly 60 percent of Honduras’ 2026 budget), following the 2022 repeal of a law that created special economic zones with broad self-governance powers. In October, Próspera reported an updated damages estimate of $1.6 billion. Many ISDS critics have argued that this case and its steep claim for damages illustrates how such cases risk punishing or deterring regulation in the public interest. 
 
Land Rights and Attacks Against Human Rights Defenders 
Honduras does not adequately protect collective land rights of Indigenous and Afro- descendant communities, leaving them vulnerable to forced displacement. Land and environmental defenders face persistent threats and attacks. 
 
Global Witness documented five murders and one disappearance of land and environmental defenders in 2024, including three members of peasant communities in the Bajo Aguán. The UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) reported nine additional murders of peasants or their relatives in the Agúan between January and mid-July. 
 
According to OHCHR, Afro-Indigenous Garífuna people face discrimination and land rights violations. Honduras has not fully implemented three Inter-American Court of Human Rights rulings in their favor. The Court heard a fourth case in May; a decision remained pending at time of writing. 
 
In 2024 and 2025, Honduras’ Supreme Court upheld convictions of eight people for the 2016 murder of environmental rights defender Berta Cáceres. However, the Civic Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras (COPINH), an NGO founded by Cáceres, says not everyone culpable has been held accountable. In February, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights launched an Interdisciplinary Group of Independent Experts to investigate Cáceres’ death. 
 
 
Authorities charged three people for the 2024 murder of environmental rights defender Juan López; the case remained pending at time of writing. 
 
A national protection system created by law in 2015 to implement protective measures for human rights defenders, journalists, and justice officials vulnerable to attacks remains ineffective due in part to insufficient funding and staffing. 
Women’s and Girls’ Rights 
Women and girls face high rates of violence and barriers to accessing justice and health care. According to the think tank MundoSur, Honduras’ femicide rate in 2024 was 4.75 per 100,000 women and girls, a significant decline from 7.73 in 2023, but still one of the highest rates in Latin America. 
 
Honduras has a total abortion ban, even when the pregnant person’s life is in danger. 
 
According to the human rights group Women’s Rights Center, the Attorney General’s Office received 3,350 complaints of sexual violence against women and girls in 2024, a 27 percent increase from 2023. Sixty-two percent of cases were perpetrated against girls. 
 
Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity 
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people suffer high levels of violence and discrimination. Honduras has not complied with key measures ordered by the Inter- American Court of Human Rights in 2021, including to create a legal gender recognition procedure for transgender people. Honduras does not allow same-sex marriage and lacks comprehensive anti-LGBT discrimination legislation.
 
Public Safety 
Honduras’ high homicide rate has reportedly declined in recent years. Police estimated the 2025 homicide rate would be 15.30 per 100,000 people, down from 26.07 per 100,000 in 2024. 
 
A state of emergency declared in 2022 to address crime remains in place. OHCHR reports that it has led to arbitrary detentions, extrajudicial executions, and other abuses. As of April, the National Human Rights Commissioner, an independent government agency, had registered over 800 complaints against security forces for abuses under the state of emergency. 
 
Human Rights Watch, World Report 2026. New York.