Honduras

Key Factors: Honduras is the third poorest country in the region and one of the least developed in the world, ranking 116th out of 173 countries in the 2002 UN Human Development Index. People with disabilities constitute one of the most disadvantaged sectors of Honduran society.¹ Government officials are often unaware of disability issues, but there is a clear interest in human rights on the part of some government officials and NGO leaders.

Terminology

There is general agreement in Honduras regarding the most appropriate disability related terminology. "Personas con discapacidad", translated as "person with disabilities" is the term of choice because it focuses on the person and does not define him or her through disability. Other terms are occasionally used but generally considered inadequate. These include terms like "discapacitado", translated as "disabled"; "lisiado", translated as "crippled"; "limitado", translated as "limited"; "minusválido", translated as "handicapped"; or "personas con necesidades o retos especiales" translated as "person with special needs or specially challenged" When quoting official documents within this report, the original terms have been preserved and translated as noted here.

Definition of Disability

The recent document entitled the "Social Policies for Disability Prevention, Comprehensive Care and Rehabilitation of Disabilities, and the Promotion and Protection of the Rights and Duties of People with Disabilities" conforms to the accepted terminology. The policies, which are still pending approval, define a person with a disability as "any person suffering or that will suffer for more than 6 months from a physical or mental health condition that restricts their activities."²

^1. United Nations Development Programme, Human Development Report 2002: Deepening democracy in a fragmented world, (Oxford University Press, New York 2002).

^2. Ministry of Health, "Social Policies For Disability Prevention, Comprehensive Care And Rehabilitation Of Disabilities, And The Promotion And Protection Of The Rights And Duties Of People With Disabilities," 4 May 2004.

This definition acknowledges that while a particular impairment may be an individual problem, disabilities and disadvantages are social problems. Once approved, this definition will be officially used by all areas of the government.

The definition provided by an earlier disability law is currently still in use. That law, which is currently under review, stated that: "a handicapped person is a human being who, due to congenital or acquired causes, suffers from a reduction in his or her mental or physical abilities, which affects his or her potential for self-sufficiency, learning or working to become an active member of society."³

Disability Population

The last Multi-Purpose Household Survey, conducted by the National Statistics Institute (INE) in September 2002, included a disability module that collected important information, such as the number of people with disabilities and their employment condition. According to the household survey, the total population of Honduras is estimated to be 6,697,916 people. Of that, approximately
2.6 percent of the population, or 177,516 individuals, are people with disabilities. This number includes 97,867 men and 79,649 women.⁴

Disability organizations do not rely on this survey, due to concerns over the definition of disability adopted by the INE. They prefer to use the World Health Organization (WHO) or Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) estimates, both of which are based on a much wider definition of disability. The WHO estimates that people with disabilities average 10% of the population, while PAHO puts that number at 14% for Honduras.⁵ Based upon these figures, there would be approximately 600,000 people with disabilities in Honduras.

Legislation & Disability Rights

The Honduran government has not yet issued any statement in support of the creation of a United Nations Convention for the protection of the rights of people with disabilities, and it has not signed the Inter-American Convention on the Elimination of All forms of Discrimination Against People with Disabilities.⁶

Honduras did ratify the ILO Discrimination (Employment and Occupation) Convention 111 on 20 June 1960 with Decree 209.⁷ It has not, however, ratified ILO Convention 159 on Vocational Rehabilitation and Employment (Disabled Persons).

^3. Congressional Decree 184-87, (22 December 1987).

^4. National Statistics Institute, Encuesta de Hogares [Household Survey], September 2002. The sample included 21,935 households.

^5. World Health Organization, "International Day of Disabled Persons: 3 December 2002", (Press release, 3 December 2002), http://www.who.int/mediacentre/notes/np9/en/; http://www. ops.org.ni/opsnil/tematicas/rehabilita/resumen_americas.htm#cifras_discapacidad.

^6. Oscar Salomon Núñez (General Director of Special Matters, Ministry of Foreign Affairs), interviewed by author, 21 October, 2003.

^7. Comisionado de los derechos Humanos de Honduras, [Honduras Human Rights Commission] Informe sobre los derechos de las personas con discapacidad en Honduras [Report on the rights of people with disabilities in Honduras], October 2003. Information about ratification also available at http://www.ilo.org/ilolex/english/convdisp1.htm.

In Honduras, the needs of vulnerable groups have traditionally been addressed through a charitable approach rather than a human rights approach. Thus, the disability rights framework is not yet well-established in Honduran law. There is no central agency to deal with reports on human rights violations against people with disabilities.

Honduras has several national laws that specifically protect or benefit people with disabilities. Legislation includes:

Military Junta's Decree 962, dated 7 May 1980, which created the National Council on Comprehensive Rehabilitation to coordinate and supervise disability services.

Legislative Decree 86-45, dated 11 April 1984, which proclaimed the last Friday of April as the "Day of Solidarity Toward the Handicapped", to be observed every year.

Legislative Decree 184-87, also know as the "Training and Rehabilitation of the Handicapped Person Act", dated 22 December 1987, which guaranteed equal rights for people with disabilities and mandated the provision of comprehensive rehabilitation services for the social integration of people with disabilities.

Legislative Decree 17-91, also known as the "Promotion of Employment for People with Disabilities Act", dated 26 February 1991, which encouraged the integration of people with disabilities into the open labor market or other appropriate occupational alternatives.

Agreement 1662-EP91 between the President of the Republic and the Ministry of Public Education, dated June 1991, which established the Policies on Special Education of the Ministry of Public Education.

Executive Agreement STSS-116-01, dated 30 May 2001, which approved the Safety and Occupational Health Regulations for underwater fishing, aimed at preventing disabilities by establishing minimum health and safety requirements.

Members of the disability community note that compliance with these laws is often low. For example, despite its legal creation, the National Council on Comprehensive Rehabilitation was never an actively working entity. There are no penalties for noncompliance, and few people are aware of the full extent of the existing laws.

Inclusion

Communication

There are extensive limitations to communication for people with disabilities in Honduras. The Constitution of the Republic is not available in Braille, and no arrangements have been made by the responsible government agencies to obtain a Braille printer.⁸

The National Library offers no information access facilities for people with visual disabilities, nor does it offer new technologies.⁹

Of the more than 12 television channels broadcasting in Honduras, there is only one television channel that broadcasts the news with captions for hearing-impaired viewers.¹⁰

Sign language interpreters are scarce in Honduras. Over the past year, the National Association of the Deaf has been developing a Honduran Sign Language dictionary.

No strategies are in place to help people with speech or hearing impairments to communicate with the authorities in case of natural disasters, civil emergencies, or crimes.¹¹

^8. Armando Sanchez Padilla (General Coordinator of the National Federation of Organizations of People with Disabilities), interviewed by author, 21 October 2003.

^9. National Library, interviewed by author, 9 July 2003.

10. Channel 48, the Catholic television channel, broadcasts many of its programs captioned for people who are deaf.

11. Orguidea Centeno (Executive Director, National Association of the Deaf), interviewed by author, 20 October 2003.

Education

Broadly speaking, children with mild to moderate intellectual disabilities are integrated into the mainstream educational system. Youth with severe disabilities are trained separately in private or semi-private specialized centers and work at sheltered or occupational workshops run by those centers.¹² Table one provides a summary of how many students with disabilities are being taught in each type of educational setting.

Table 1: School Attendance¹³

Educational setting	Number of students with disabilities	Percentage of total
Public sector (regular classroom)	10,442	84%
Public sector (support classroom)	466	4%
Private sector	760	6%
Special education center	449	4%
Distance learning	77	1%
Informal education	54	0%
Other	97	1%
Don't know	77	1%
Total	12,421	100%

As with the full population of people with disabilities, there is no valid data available on the number of children with disabilities. However, based upon the low number of students with disabilities identified in table one, there are most likely a large number of children excluded from the educational system. There are 17 Special Education Centers, mostly located in Tegucigalpa, the capital city, and San Pedro Sula, the second most important city in the country. Most centers were established by NGOs and private initiatives. Of the centers in San Pedro Sula, two are run by the Honduran Institute for Children (IHNFA), and one is run by the San Pedro Sula municipality.¹⁴

Most of these centers work with pre-school and elementary-school children, and aim to integrate these children into the mainstream educational system. The centers also sometimes provide vocational training for adolescents who have been unable to integrate into the regular system.¹⁵

12. Yolanda de Coello (Exectuive Director, FUHRIL), interviewed by author, 20 October 2003.

13. INE, 26th Survey of the National Statistics Institute, September 2003.

14. Yolanda de Coello. Information was also obtained from Handicap Honduras.

15. Marien de Romero (Executive Director, Juana Leclerc Psychopedagogical Institute), interviewed by author, 15 October 2003.

The Teletón Foundation runs a school integration program aimed at including children from their rehabilitation centers into the public education system. The National Autonomous University of Honduras (UNAH) has developed a support program which benefits about 100 students with disabilities annually.¹⁶

In Honduras, the national teachers training curriculum includes one course on special education.¹⁷ The National Pedagogical University also offers a five-year course on special education.¹⁸

Employment

The 2002 INE Household survey collected employment data for people with disabilities. Unemployment is higher among people with disabilities than it is for the general population. According to the survey, 68% of people with disabilities of working age are not in the active labor force compared to 49% of the total population of Honduras. Table two provides a summary of the employment status of those people with disabilities who are in the active labor force.

Table 2 Employment statistics for people with disabilities¹⁹

Among those people with disabilities who are employed, 73% are either self-employed or working for no pay. Among the general population, this number is 51%. Moreover, self-employment is the only type of employment for which the overall percentage of people with disabilities in the sector is roughly the same as the larger population. In general, even among those people with disabilities who have managed to find work, underemployment remains a problem.

In 1987, the Training and Rehabilitation of People with Disabilities Act was passed by the legislature. Implementation of its provisions became the responsibility of the Institute for the Habilitation and Rehabilitation of People with Disabilities. However, this institute was closed for budgetary reasons, and so the goals contained in the legislation remain largely unfulfilled.

16. Nery Madrid (Director of the SED Program, UNAH); Rina Lobo (former Director of Teletón Foundation), interviewed by author, 4 November 2003.

17. Carlos Avila (Minister of Education, Ministry of Public Education, interviewed by author, 9 July 2003.

18. Carlos Avila (Minister of Education).

19. Encuesta de Hogares. "Underemployment" refers to those people working 36 hours or more a week who are not earning a basic minimum wage. "Visible underemployment" refers to those who are employed but who are working less than full time. "Open unemployment" refers to those people seeking employment who are not employed.

Employed	49,150
Gainfully employed	13,206
Self-employed	30,077
Unemployed	1,155
Active labor force	50,304
Open Unemployment rate	2.3%
Underemployment rate	5.0%
Visible underemployment rate	31.8%

Section 2 of the Promotion of Employment for People with Disabilities Act, obligates Public Administration Agencies and private businesses to hire a certain number of people with disabilities. Under the current Administration a greater number of people with disabilities have been hired at all levels, including high-ranking positions. Examples are Vice-Minister of the Presidency, President of the UNAH, Legal Counsel for the Ministry of Finance, Coordinator of the SED program for the UNAH, and General Employment Director in the Ministry of Labor.²⁰

Health

The Ministry of Health provides funding of approximately two million lempiras (US$12,000) to at least four health care organizations working for people with disabilities. Additionally, the government currently provides funding of approximately 12 million lempiras (US$676,000) to the disability sector, through the Ministry of Governance and Justice.²¹ The funds are used for a variety of projects including personnel and infrastructure as well as orthopedic appliances and comprehensive rehabilitation programs.

Rehabilitation centers are located in major cities and strategic regional locations. These include Danli, Comayagua, Ceiba, Choluteca, San Pedro Sula, Copan, Santa Bárbara, La Esperanza, Olanchito, Catacamas, and Juticalapa.²²

Area hospitals and the country's two general hospitals also provide medical rehabilitation services.

People with disabilities can obtain auxiliary materials such as technical aids from the Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Department of the San Felipe Hospital, a publicly funded hospital. There are also private institutions, such as Teleton and FUHRIL, where people with disabilities can obtain technical aids.

There is no training on the provision of care to people with disabilities available for physicians, either before or after they acquire a medical degree in Honduras. However, some opportunities to study abroad do exist. Training in Functional Therapy is offered as well as training for auxiliary nurses in the field of Physical Therapy.²³

20. Armando Sanchez Padilla.

21. Dr. Maria del Carmen Sevilla (Chief of the comprehensive care of persons with disabilities, Ministry of Health), interviewed by author, 10 July 2003; Miguel Calix (Assistant of the Vice Minister of Governance and Justice, Ministry of Governance and Justice), interviewed by author, 21 October 2003.

22. Research data provided by FUHRIL and Handicap Honduras.

23. Nery Madrid.

Housing

There is no state-run housing project for people with disabilities, nor are there any credits or aid for them to purchase a house.²⁴

A housing project called "Ciudad España" was implemented after Hurricane Mitch tore through Honduras. At first, this project targeted flood victims. Later, efforts were made by the National Union of Honduran Blind Persons, the Honduras Association of Physically Impaired People, and the Christian Fraternity of People with Disabilities to secure a portion of the housing units (200 units), which could then be granted to people with disabilities. This project is sponsored and conducted by the Honduran Red Cross and the Spanish Red Cross.²⁵

Independent living centers are reported to be operating in Santa Bárbara and Danli, supported by FUHRIL.²⁶

Institutionalization

There are several institutions in Honduras that provide housing and long-term care for people with disabilities. They include Pilar Salinas School for the Blind, Home for the Handicapped, Bencalet Home, SOS Villages, and Casa de Ángeles. Most people in these types of homes or shelters have been abandoned by their families or are orphaned.²⁷ There is no mechanism to report the incidence of death or abuse in those institutions.

Accessibility

In addition to economic hardship, movement and transportation problems are among the most significant challenges experienced by people with disabilities. Most public buildings and transportation remain inaccessible even in urban areas.

To date there are no regulations on accessibility. The National Federation of Organizations of People with Disabilities (FENOPDIH), the National Association of the Deaf (ANSH), the Honduras Association of Physically Impaired People (ALFH), the National Association of the Disabled (ANADISH), and the Honduran Foundation for the Rehabilitation and Integration of the Handicapped (FUHRIL) are working together on a proposal for national regulations that would require all public buildings and facilities to be made accessible for people with disabilities.²⁸

24. Fausto Ramirez Garcia (Executive Director, Social Housing Fund), interviewed by author, 5 November 2003.

25. Armando Sanchez Padilla. The person in charge of this project is Meneka Mencia.

26. Yolanda de Coello.

27. Armando Sanchez Padilla; Yolanda de Coello.

28. Manual de Accesibilidad elaborado por el Grupo solidario para la Accesibilidad en Honduras. The manuel was compiled from accessibility publications of other countries.

Currently, most public buildings are not accessible to people with mobility disabilities. The central post office in the capital city is not accessible since there are stairs at the main entrance. The buildings of the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Finance, and the Ministry of Health are also not accessible.

Infrastructure, in general, is far from optimal. For people with disabilities it can be difficult to simply use the streets without the risk of accidents. There is no proper signaling at intersections, there are open sewers and potholes in roads and sidewalks; there are no handrails on walls; there are no ramps or elevators; and there are no public toilets that are accessible for people with mobility disabilities.²⁹

Public transportation is not accessible for people with physical disabilities, hindering their freedom of movement. Public buses are not adapted to people with mobility disabilities. Very few people with disabilities can afford an adapted vehicle of their own. Thus, it is almost impossible for people with mobility disabilities to participate in social events, access education, or travel to a workplace.³⁰

Disability Action & Awareness

The agency that was previously in charge of planning disability policy was the Institute for the Habilitation and Rehabilitation of People with Disabilities, which has been closed. Thus, there is currently no national disability action plan. The planning role has been taken up temporarily by the Ministry of Health which developed the Social Policies. These policies were jointly designed by representatives of government agencies and private disability organizations.³¹

The Social Policies will be the starting point for a future national plan. The plan will be prepared with all the parties involved in the earlier discussions, especially people with disabilities.³²

In addition, government agencies and organizations from civil society are working together to draft a revised Disability Law. Two workshops will be held to collect feedback from the disability community regarding the proposed reforms. The draft is expected to be completed in 2004 and will be sent to Congress after approval by representatives from the disability sector. Among those disability organizations that are participating in the process are FENOPDIH, the Coordinator of Rehabilitation Institutions and Associations (CIARH), FUHRIL, and Handicap Honduras.

29. Maricela Turcios (Cordinator of the Accessibility Commission of the Tegucigalpa City Hall), interviewed by author, 12 January 2004.

30. Panel discussion with leaders of disability organizations, 9 September 2003.

31. Dr. Maria Del Carmen Sevilla (Chief, Department of Attention for Persons with Disabilites of the Ministry of Health), interviewed by author, 10 July 2003.

32. Armando Sanchez Padilla.

In July 2001, in an unprecedented effort, various organizations of persons with disabilities nationwide joined the efforts of the National Association of the Disabled of Honduras to create the National Federation of Organizations of Persons with Disabilities of Honduras. Like the National Association of the Disabled of Honduras, which is made up of individuals with a variety of different disabilities, the National Federation is a cross-disability organization. Its main objective is to advocate for social recognition of people with disabilities and to influence the political and social policies that affect them. The group participates in high-level meetings and takes part in decision-making processes.