Honduras: Without us, there is no present or future. Without us, there is no democracy!

Today, March 8th, International Working Women’s Day, we raise our voices with strength and determination. This is a day of struggle, resistance, and demand. In Honduras, being a woman remains a high-risk event.

🚨 Numbers that pain us, numbers that outrage us 🚨

🔴 Between 2021 and 2023, according to the Public Ministry, 73,097 reports of violence against women were registered, with an annual average of 16,000 reports of domestic violence and 3,200 for sexual crimes. Machista violence continues to drain the country. Every year, thousands of women report domestic violence, sexual abuse, and assault, but the institutions that should protect them abandon them.

🔴 Between 2005 and 2024, 7,736 women were murdered, with an annual average of 386 femicides. Every 22 hours, a woman is murdered in Honduras. By 2025, more than 45 femicides will already be recorded. Impunity is the central problem: more than 95% of these victims await justice. They are killing us, and the State continues to fail us.

🔴 Power is still not ours. Although Honduras has its first female president, the political and economic structures remain dominated by men. In the National Congress, despite parity and alternation, there are only 35 female legislators (27%), and at the municipal level, only 20 female mayors out of 298 municipalities (7%). For the internal elections on March 9, there are 1,858 candidates for deputies, of which 884 are women (47%), but only 3% are at the top of the ticket. Parity remains a debt.

🔴 Women sustain the economy, but receive crumbs. We represent 52% of the population, and even though many work in the paid sector, they continue to bear the brunt of care work in their homes (17.3% compared to 4.3% for men). The wage gap robs us of our future, while women who perform unpaid care work bear 100% of this responsibility. Furthermore, paid domestic workers continue to live in exploitative conditions: without a minimum wage, without social benefits, without social security, with grueling workdays, and exposed to violence.

🔴 While budgets are increasing in other sectors, resources are being cut for institutions that govern public policy on women, human rights, and children. The Public Prosecutor’s Office and the Judiciary invest less than 7% of their budgets on women. The budget crisis translates into a human rights crisis for women.

Enough with the empty talk, we demand real action 🔥

We don’t ask, WE DEMAND OUR RIGHTS:

An end to femicides and violence against women! We demand that every incident of femicide be served justice and that the State implement real protection and prevention policies. We demand the passage of the Comprehensive Law against Violence against Women, the Purple Alert Law for the Search for Missing Women, and the regulations for the Law for the Protection of Women in Contexts of Humanitarian Crises, Natural Disasters, and Emergencies.

Parity and full participation in all decision-making spaces. No more glass ceilings, no more discrimination in politics. We demand the passage of the Law against Political Violence against Women. We want real equality, not symbolic equality.

Decent work, equal pay, and guaranteed labor rights. No more exploitation or job insecurity. Women drive the economy and deserve a fair wage. We demand the approval of the Occupational Health Law.

Recognition of care work. We demand that the State assume its co-responsibility for care by developing, implementing, and allocating resources for a Comprehensive Care Policy.

Social and fiscal commitment to women’s rights. We demand that the presidential, mayoral, and provincial candidates make a real commitment to public investment to guarantee our human right to a life free from violence and poverty.

Ratification of International Labor Organization (ILO) Convention 189 on paid domestic workers and the Optional Protocol to CEDAW.

An end to impunity and state complicity. No more inefficient institutions, no more indifference to violence and inequality. We want justice, we want answers, we want a country where being a woman is not a death sentence. 💜 WE DO NOT REMAIN SILENT, WE DO NOT GIVE UP, WE KEEP FIGHTING 💜

Today, we filled the halls of the National Congress, raised our voices, and demanded profound changes.