The International Association of Prosecutors deplores the murder of Honduras prosecutor KAREN GABRIELA ALMENDAREZ HERRERA

The Independent Association of Prosecutors (IAP) is the only world organization of prosecutors, prosecuting authorities and associations. It covers six continents and over 175 jurisdictions, and represents over 200,000 prosecutors. The IAP is a non-political and non-governmental organization, and enjoys special consultative status with the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations.

The IAP is committed to upholding the rights of prosecutors, and this includes their personal safety and that of their families. In the IAP’s “Standards for Protection and Security of Prosecutors”, it is stated that “States shall take all necessary measures to ensure that public prosecutors, together with their families, are physically protected by the appropriate authorities when their personal safety is threatened as a result of the proper discharge of their functions”. States, moreover, are enjoined to provide any necessary protections for prosecutors and their families “at home or when travelling”.

The IAP has learned with great sadness of the murder of Karen Gabriela Almendarez Herrera, Special Environmental Prosecutor, in Nacaome City, Honduras. She was shot dead when returning to her home from a gym in the El Chaguite neighborhood. The Police Directorate of Investigations (DPI) is now investigating the killing, which may be linked to organized crime, and those responsible for this senseless killing must be brought to justice.
 
As this is the third murder of a prosecutor in Latin America in less than a month, following the killings of a Paraguayan prosecutor in Colombia and a traffic prosecutor in Ecuador, the IAP calls for prosecutorial safety to be accorded the highest possible priority by governments throughout the continent.
    
The IAP, therefore, requests the States of Latin America to urgently review the adequacy of their existing arrangements, to consider how they can be strengthened, and to do their utmost to ensure that the highest levels of protection are achieved. If prosecutors are to uphold criminal justice, maintain the rule of law, and hold criminals to account, they, and their families, must be fully protected at all times.
 
IAP
May 31, 2022