Domestic violence questions in Honduras
What the Law recognises as violence, who can report, and what happens next — with the article that says so. If you need help now, the emergency lines and the directory by department are in domestic violence.
What is domestic violence under the Law?
The Law defines it as any pattern of conduct associated with a situation of unequal exercise of power manifested in the use of physical, psychological, patrimonial and/or economic, or sexual violence. And it defines that unequal exercise of power as any conduct aimed at affecting, compromising or limiting the free development of a woman’s personality on grounds of gender. There need be no blows: three of the four forms it recognises leave no mark.
Legal basis: Article 5 of the Ley contra la Violencia Doméstica.
What is physical violence?
Any act or omission that causes harm or damage to a woman’s bodily integrity and that is not classified as a crime in the Código Penal. Where the act does constitute a crime, the case is referred to the Ministerio Público (Article 22).
Legal basis: Article 5 of the Ley contra la Violencia Doméstica.
What is psychological violence?
Any act or omission whose purpose is to degrade or control a woman’s actions, behaviour, beliefs and decisions. The Law lists: intimidation, manipulation, direct or indirect threats, humiliation, isolation, confinement, surveillance, insults, blackmail, degradation, ridicule, humiliating or degrading treatment, and threatening to take her children away from her.
Legal basis: Article 5 of the Ley contra la Violencia Doméstica.
What is sexual violence?
Any conduct involving threat or intimidation that affects a woman’s sexual integrity or self-determination — the Law expressly mentions unwanted sexual relations and the denial of contraception and protection, provided they are not classified as crimes in the Código Penal.
Legal basis: Article 5 of the Ley contra la Violencia Doméstica.
What is patrimonial and economic violence?
Any act or omission involving the loss, transformation, denial, removal, destruction or withholding of belongings, personal documents, movable and immovable property, valuables, rights or economic resources intended to meet the needs of the woman or the family group. It expressly includes diminishing, reducing or withholding her income and failure to meet maintenance obligations. Withholding her documents or not paying maintenance is violence under this Law.
Legal basis: Article 5 of the Ley contra la Violencia Doméstica.
Who can commit domestic violence under the Law?
The Law protects a woman against her spouse, former spouse, partner or former domestic partner, and against any relationship akin to a couple — including those where there has or has not been cohabitation and those in which a romantic relationship is or was maintained. You need not live together, nor still be together.
Legal basis: Article 1 of the Ley contra la Violencia Doméstica.
Who can file the report?
Five categories, and the last is the broadest: the woman directly affected; any member of the family group; any official, public employee or professional who by virtue of their role has contact with her or her family group; state institutions and NGOs defending women’s rights; and any person who knows of the case. The report may be made orally or in writing, and you do not need a lawyer to make it (Article 4).
Legal basis: Article 16 of the Ley contra la Violencia Doméstica.
Does a domestic violence judgment create a criminal record?
The sanction this Law imposes is not a Código Penal penalty. Article 7 applies precisely to acts of domestic violence that do not amount to harm classified as crimes, and the sanction is community service of one (1) to three (3) months. It is different where the act does constitute a crime: the proceedings are then referred immediately to the Ministerio Público (Article 22) and a criminal process does follow.
Legal basis: Article 7, Article 22 of the Ley contra la Violencia Doméstica.
What happens if the reported person does not comply with the measures?
They are sanctioned under Article 7: one (1) to three (3) months of community service for failing to comply with one or more of the protective mechanisms — and the Law adds that this is without prejudice to the penalty for the offence of disobedience to authority. If they assault again after having complied with the measures, Article 8 escalates the response.
Article 11 carries a transcription error in the official text: it reads “A quien cumpla una o más de las medidas… se le sancionará” (whoever COMPLIES shall be sanctioned), when what is sanctioned is the opposite. The Poder Judicial edition corrects it in a footnote — “the correct word is incumpla”. What is punished is NON-compliance.
Legal basis: Article 11, Article 7, Article 8 of the Ley contra la Violencia Doméstica.
Source
Ley contra la Violencia Doméstica (Decreto No. 132-97 and its amendments, including Decreto 250-2005) — articles 1, 4, 5, 7, 8, 11, 16 and 22. Checked against the edition published by the Poder Judicial. The questions come from the public enquiry bank of the Consultorio Jurídico Gratuito de la UNAH; the answers are our own and cite the applicable article.