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Updates on Honduras

31 Dec 2005

As of August 2004, a governmental expert committee finalized a first draft law on implementing legislation. The reform includes some of the crimes of the Rome Statute but there is no reference to cooperation with the Court.
In June 2004, the Committee on the Revision of the Penal Code did not recommend any proposals on the incorporation of international crimes to national legislation. The Committee had been reviewing the Penal Code since November 2003.

In November 2002, the Executive branch expressed an interest in discussing draft implementing legislation for the Rome Statute. The Ministries of Justice and Foreign Affairs may consider a new amendment to the Penal Code, an addendum to the already drafted amendment or a new and autonomous act on crimes under international law.

On 22 May 2002, in response to the petition made by the President of the National Congress, the Honduran President ordered that ratification legislation be sent without delay to the Presidential Office, and that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs send it to the National Congress for immediate approval.

On 29 May 2002, the Minister of Foreign Affairs and the President signed the Executive Agreement to submit the Statute to the National Congress. The following day, the Rome Statute was considered by the National Congress, and was unanimously approved. The legislation was then sent to the Honduran President for his sanction and promulgation, and published in the official journal, La Gaceta, in order to be incorporated into domestic law.

During its session in January 2002, the Plenary of the Supreme Court of Justice rendered a favorable opinion on the ratification of the Rome Statute. This opinion was sent to the Secretary of Foreign Affairs, Guillermo Perez Cadalso, former Supreme Court Justice who presided over the commission that wrote the favorable opinion.