September 12, 2023
The General Secretariat of the Organization of American States (OAS) and the Office of Human Rights of Honduras signed an agreement that establishes the starting point of a project to support more than a hundred internally displaced persons in the country.
The project “Strengthening the governmental response to assist internally displaced persons due to violence” will be implemented between 2023 and 2024 with funding from the Comprehensive Regional Protection and Solutions Framework Fund (MIRPS Fund), established within the OAS and administered by its Department of Social Inclusion.
This project will benefit more than 100 persons in the most affected communities by the phenomenon of internal displacement in Honduras. It seeks to consolidate the institutional response to the population internally displaced by violence by:
1) the delivery of humanitarian assistance and inter-institutional coordination of protection measures, for people internally displaced by violence and/or at risk of displacement;
2) the delivery of seed capital to persons internally displaced by violence and/or at risk of displacement; and
3) institutional strengthening through training processes focused on improving care for displaced persons.
The initiative is part of the first portfolio of projects of the MIRPS Fund, launched with the pioneering contribution of Spain.
The event was attended by the Representative of the OAS General Secretariat in Honduras, Catherine Pognat; the Ambassador of Spain in Honduras, Diego Nuño; the Minister of Human Rights, Nathalie Roque; the Representative of UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, Andrés Celis; Melissa Pocasangre, Regional Coordinator of the MIRPS Fund; the Vice Chancellor for Migration and Consular Affairs of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation of Honduras, Antonio García Carranza; and Julie Thompson, Policy and Human Rights Officer of the U.S. Embassy, representing the Chair of the MIRPS Support Platform.
About the MIRPS Fund:
The MIRPS Fund is the specific voluntary contributions fund of the Comprehensive Regional Protection and Solutions Framework in Central America and Mexico, unanimously approved by the OAS Permanent Council on May 27, 2020. The approval of this fund fulfills a mandate given to the OAS General Secretariat by the highest political body of the Organization during the OAS General Assembly held in 2019 in Medellin, Colombia.
The MIRPS Fund is one of the mechanisms for the collection and channeling of financial resources through voluntary contributions that will allow the 7 MIRPS countries (Mexico, Belize, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Costa Rica and Panama) to comply with the commitments acquired in the framework of this process, responding from an approach of shared responsibility to the challenges posed by forced displacement in this region, in order to protect and improve the living conditions of people who have been forced to be displaced and the communities that host them. But also, in light of the challenges that have unfortunately already intensified with the arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic which will require additional investments and efforts to address the needs of refugees, asylum seekers, internally displaced persons and returnees with protection needs in this region.