History, Enterprise, and Reform: Honduran Zede Regimes and Indigenous Peoples’ Rights

Abstract

For decades, the situation of Indigenous peoples in Honduras has been closely monitored by the international community. With the passage of legislation in 2013 by the Honduran Government authorizing the creation of Zones of Economic Development and Employment (ZEDE), the renewed interest in Indigenous peoples’ rights in this relatively remote corner of the globe is not without merit. According to current United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, Victoria Tauli-Corpuz, the situation of Indigenous peoples in Honduras is at a critical juncture – one beset by threats to “their rights over their lands, territories and natural resources,” which are “not protected,” and can even provoke acts of violence when Indigenous peoples lay claim to their rights. Given that Indigenous peoples comprise only seven percent of the total population of Honduras, and that roughly 80 percent of Indigenous peoples still live on their traditional lands, the observations of former Special Rapporteur on the rights of Indigenous Peoples, S. James Anaya, seem prescient. The situation of Honduras’s Indigenous peoples is complex precisely because of their ancestral relationship with their lands. When this ancient relationship to the land is coupled with the efforts of Indigenous peoples to maintain an identity as a people in the face of the most “powerful sectors of society,” it is not difficult to see why legislation aimed at economic development in Indigenous lands such as the ZEDE organic law would be so controversial. Nevertheless, according to 2016 figures gathered by the World Bank, Honduras is a very poor country facing “major challenges with more than 60.9 percent of the population living in poverty.” In addition, the country faces rampant economic inequality, soaring rates of crime and violence, and an economy that is particularly vulnerable to the whims of export prices which tend to have a disproportionate, adverse impact on the country’s poor. Far from the corridors of power in Tegucigalpa, rural Hondurans tend to rely upon agriculture to make ends meet, and it is exactly this reliance that places them in such a precarious economic situation. While many other scholars and economists (not mutually exclusive terms) have addressed the former question, Given these observations, it stands to reason that economic development would be a key priority for the Honduran Government. Indeed, it would be quite difficult to imagine any functional government in the world that would ignore such fiscal dire straits. The resulting question, then, is not whether economic development needs to occur in Honduras. The situation in Honduras, instead, leaves us with two questions: whether laws creating special economic zones (SEZ) like the ZEDE can actually address these economic issues, and whether they can be made to work for the country’s Indigenous peoples in such a way that their culture, identity, land rights, and natural resources are protected. this paper will seek to address the latter, exploring what some of the best practices related to Indigenous governance might look like within the context of a ZEDE regime: 1) Section I will provide a brief hhistorical overview of Indigenous peoples’ land rights in Honduras; 2) Section II will explore some of the key provisions of the ZEDE regime, and discuss international comparative approaches that have been implemented in other jurisdictions, including other Indigenous jurisdictions; 3) Section III will seek to outline key criticisms of the ZEDE legislation; 4) Section IV will evaluate contemporary best practices for strengthening Indigenous governance, and explore ways that a ZEDE regime can maintain consistency with international law and international norms with respect to Indigenous peoples.