IDLO and the Municipality of San Pedro Sula in Honduras have launched an awareness campaign on city services available to survivors of gender-based, domestic and intra-familial violence, with information on what constitutes violence, how to avoid it and where to seek help when it happens.
The services are part of the Model for a Municipal Response to Violence in San Pedro Sula that was developed with support from IDLO in 2017. The Model has allowed the city administration to better plan, budget and provide basic support services, available to the city’s 876,000 inhabitants and especially its more vulnerable citizens: women and children, as well as elderly and disabled persons.
The campaign, which is being promoted on social media with the hashtag #SPSactivaEnPrevención (San Pedro Sula, active in prevention), invites people to take an active stance against violence, whether they see it take place at home, at work or in the streets. Its messages will be disseminated widely across the city through traditional and digital media channels as well as civil society organizations.
Elena Incisa di Camerana, IDLO’s Regional Manager for Latin America and the Caribbean, said: “We are grateful to the Municipality for the opportunity to support their efforts to promote greater awareness of people’s rights among vulnerable populations. In doing so, IDLO is able to contribute to building a fairer and more peaceful society in Honduras.”
Since it was introduced in 2017, the Model for a Response to Violence has given impetus to a number of municipal policies and plans to promote and protect human rights, aimed at taking action to strengthen access to justice, rebuild the social fabric of the city and improve trust in local institutions.
Lilia Umaña Montiel, Deputy Mayor of San Pedro Sula, added: “The Model is helping us to put a more human face on local government and provide citizens with the solutions they need as soon as they are confronted with violations of their rights.”
IDLO has been working in Honduras since 2012 and opened a country office in Tegucigalpa in 2015. Honduras has been a Member Party of IDLO since 2015.
