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 Honduran President Xiomara Castro signing an executive document that allows open access to emergency contraception, March 8, 2023. 
© 2023 Office of the Honduran Presidency

President of Honduras, Xiomara Castro has signed an executive order ending the country’s ban on the use and sale of emergency contraception, a step forward in a country with a total ban on abortion.

Until now, Honduras was the only country in Latin America that banned emergency contraception, which can prevent pregnancy after rape, unprotected sex, or contraceptive failure and is on the World Health Organization’s (WHO) list of essential medicines. After the 2009 coup against then-President Manuel Zelaya, the de facto government prohibited emergency contraception – another example of how authoritarian governments undermine women’s rights, including reproductive rights.

In 2019, Human Rights Watch documented how Honduras’ total ban on abortion and emergency contraception put the health and lives of women and girls at risk. We urged President Castro after her election victory in 2022 to introduce legislation to decriminalize abortion, repeal the ban on emergency contraception, and ensure it is available to all. In December 2022, Castro’s administration approved a protocol allowing the use of emergency contraception for survivors of sexual violence.

Last week’s announcement, made on International Women’s Day, was the result of years of advocacy by feminist organizations in Honduras. But abortion is still illegal in all circumstances and carries prison sentences of up to six years for both the people who undergo abortions and the medical professionals who provide them. Research shows the criminalization of abortion results in riskier abortions and an increase in maternal deaths.

Honduras must fulfill its international human rights obligations, ensuring effective access to emergency contraception, as well as to adequate sexual and reproductive health services and information. President Castro should not only fulfil her campaign promise to legalize abortion in instances of rape, risk to the life of the pregnant person, and risk of severe fetal impairment, but Honduras should also decriminalize abortion in all other circumstances and ensure women and girls have access to safe abortion and post-abortion services.

Despite Tartous and Latakia being declared “safe” area by the Danish Immigration Service, Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International say that returning Syrians still face grave human rights abuses.

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Danièle Darlan, of the Central African Republic, receives the International Women of Courage Award from US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, with US first lady, Jill Biden, during a ceremony in the East Room of the White House, in Washington D.C, March 8, 2023.
© 2023 Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP Photo

Danièle Darlan, former head of the Constitutional Court in the Central African Republic, knew her post would be challenging when she assumed her role in 2017. The country, much of which was controlled by armed groups that committed human rights abuses with impunity, was emerging from presidential elections after establishing a new constitution.

Last week Darlan received the International Woman of Courage award from the US government, which recognizes her efforts to protect the constitution. She was called by her nickname, the “Woman of Iron.”

In 2020, Darlan certified election results after a vote in which armed group activity ensured low turnout, meaning another term for President Faustin-Archange Touadéra.

She was then visited last year by Russian diplomats looking to change the country’s constitution to enable Touadéra to stay on. Darlan was quoted as saying, “I warned them that our instability stemmed from presidents wanting to make their rule eternal.”

Indeed, in 2015 Central Africans held a national dialogue saying “no” to eternal presidents and enshrined term limits in the 2016 constitution.

Last year, Darlan ruled that plans pushing for constitutional change were unconstitutional.  Following her decision, groups of mostly young men showed up outside her office, calling for her removal. We spoke with some of these men last month who confirmed being paid by pro-ruling party youth associations to attend the protests, saying they didn’t really care about the court’s decision.

Seeing Darlan as a threat, the government moved to illegally remove her as the Court’s president, citing her age.

On January 3, the constitutional court, now under a new president, ironically declared that the decision to forcibly retire Darlan from the court was unconstitutional. However, the court ruled there was nothing to be done because Darlan had already announced she did not intend to return to the court. This has set off a judicial crisis that continues to challenge the legitimacy of a court that should be regarded as the guardian of the country’s constitution.

Darlan’s award is well deserved. She has shown real courage and continues to do so. But she also remains illegally removed from office and the court she used to lead has cleared the path toward changing the constitution.

The current government is turning its back on the commitment against eternal presidents. The Central African Republic needs more women of iron to ensure democracy is given a fair chance.

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Syrian refugee Sawsan Doungham (L) and son Majed (C) protest against the deportation of Syrian families to their homeland at the City Hall Square in Copenhagen on November 13, 2021.
© 2021 THIBAULT SAVARY/AFP via Getty Images

The Danish Immigration Service has announced that it deems two more areas of government-controlled Syria as “safe” for returns: Tartous and Latakia. In 2019, Damascus and Rif Damascus were also controversially declared “safe”.

According to the Immigration Service, the security situation in the two governorates has improved, which means Syrian refugees from these areas may lose their temporary protection in Denmark and be forced to return home.

On March 17, two Syrians from Latakia will have their temporary protection revocation appeals heard in front of the Danish Refugee Appeals Board. If the board rules in line with the Immigration Service’s decision to revoke protection, it could set a dangerous precedent for many more Syrian refugees currently settled in Denmark.

The addition of Latakia and Tartous to Denmark’s “safe” list comes despite reports from Human Rights Watch and Amnesty that returning Syrians face grave human rights abuses and persecution at the hands of the Syrian authorities and affiliated militias, including torture, extrajudicial killings, and kidnappings.

All Danish Immigration Service decisions to revoke temporary protection are subject to an appeal by the Refugee Appeals Board. Since the beginning of 2022, the Board has overturned 77 percent of the cases leading to criticism of the Immigration Service from several Danish politicians, saying that the high reversal rates “indicate that the Immigration Service is interpreting the rules too narrowly”.

The designation of Latakia and Tartous as safe comes just weeks after devastating earthquakes hit Turkey and Syria, killing tens of thousands and causing major damage, including to water networks in already severely poverty-stricken Latakia and Tartous. Many people there are now without running water and have a heightened risk from infectious diseases. This disaster exacerbates the ongoing humanitarian crisis in the country, where more than 90 percent of the population depends on aid to survive.

While several countries, such as Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Jordan, and UAE have sought to normalize relations with the Syrian government following the earthquakes, Denmark should refrain from playing into the regime’s hand by announcing Tartous and Latakia “safe.” While active hostilities may have decreased in recent years, the Syrian government continues to subject citizens to the same abuses that led them to flee in the first place, including arbitrary detention, mistreatment, and torture.

Instead of stripping Syrians of protection and leaving them in limbo in deportation centers, Denmark should reverse its decision to revoke protection for some Syrian refugees and recognize that Syrian refugees remain at risk in their home country, no matter which part of the country they come from.