Cesar Geovany Bernardez is a member and director of Organización Fraternal Negra Hondureña – OFRANEH (Honduran Black Fraternity Organization). The organization has worked since 1978 for the promotion of the Afro-Caribbean Garifuna people's right to self-determination through programmes that support their political, social, economic and cultural advancement. In October 2016, OFRANEH was the recipient of the Nota SOL Prize, which recognises groups that strengthen the culture of indigenous peoples, foster sustainable development and defend their human rights. In 2015, OFRANEH was awarded the Food Sovereignty Prize, which honours grass-roots activists working for a more democratic food system.
Human rights defenders suffer extrajudicial executions, enforced disappearances, torture and ill-treatment as well as judicial harassment, threats and stigmatisation. Journalists, lawyers, prosecutors, those defending the rights of women, children, the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) community, indigenous and Afro-Honduran communities, and those working on environmental and land rights issues are particularly at risk.
