OFRANEH Wins Major Human Rights Award

The Fund for Global Human Rights is delighted to share that long-time grantee OFRANEH has received the 2023 Business and Human Rights Award.

Watch the video announcement

OFRANEH—the Organización Fraternal Negra Hondureña, or Black Fraternal Organization of Honduras—has worked for decades to protect the land and resources of Afro-Indigenous Garifuna communities along the Atlantic coast of Honduras. The Fund has supported OFRANEH since 2013.

Although OFRANEH functions as a discrete organization, it is really a social movement of nearly 50 Garifuna communities. Through organized local assemblies and committees, OFRANEH has helped amplify thousands of Garifuna voices and channeled their collective advocacy and grassroots resistance to advance the rights of Indigenous people throughout Latin America.

In 2015, OFRANEH won two landmark judgments before the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, which found the Honduran state responsible for violating the Garifuna’s collective ownership of their land. The court affirmed the importance of free, prior, and informed consent, and ordered the state to pay reparations through a public statement of responsibility, collective land ownership titles, and future protections for ancestral lands.

Eight years later, OFRANEH is still advocating for the Honduran government to meet their obligations.

OFRANEH’s organizers and leadership, including coordinator Miriam Miranda, have been frequently attacked and intimidated for their critical work. In September 2023, the Honduras Solidarity Network issued a statement condemning recent attacks and calling for justice.

These heinous threats speak to the vitally important role that land and environmental defenders play in Honduras—and underscore the harm they continue to face in the region. According to Global Witness, of the 177 land and environmental defenders who were killed in 2022, nine out of ten were from Latin America.

Despite the constant danger, the activists of OFRANEH continue to advocate for the land, rights, and future of the Garifuna people. We are proud to support their impactful work, and warmly congratulate them on this well-deserved recognition of their inspiring efforts.

OFRANEH is the sixth recipient of the Business and Human Rights Award. Fund grantee AFREWATCH received the award in 2021.