The International Experts Advisory Group (GAIPE) is a team made up of specialists in international human rights law, international criminal law, and comparative criminal law; it was formed at the request of family members of Berta Cáceres, with the suport of COPINH, Gustavo Castro, the National Network of Women Human Rights Defenders in Honduras and other national and International organizations in order to carry out an objective, impartial, independent analysis with a multicultural, gender focus on the actions that targetted Berta Cáceres and Gustavo Castro on March 2, 2016.

GAIPE’s mission is to:

• Construct an investigaory plan and theory of the case aimed at determining the responsibility of both material and intellectual autors, including the establishment of corporate responsibility and/or that of finance institutions. And in the same vein, to establish patterns and modus operandi that have triggered human rights violations against COPINH members and the murder of Berta Cáceres.
• Analyze the response of the State in the clarification of of actions targetting Berta Cáceres and Gustavo Castro, based on the highest International standards with all required due diligence.
• Establish a strategy for guaranteeing comprehensive reparations for material, psycho-social, moral and physical damages suffered by Berta Cáceres’ family members, Gustavo Castro, COPINH members and the Lenca community.
• Present recommendations for removing obstacles that impede the full enjoyent of the rights to truth, justice and reparations, and for the implementation of measures that assure that violations will not be repeated.

According to data in our Registry, between 2012 and 2014, as many as 318 attacks were committed against women defenders in Honduras, and 11 have been killed as of 2016, including Berta Cáceres. We, of IM-Defensoras express our total suport for GAIPE’s work, which we consider fundamental in efforts to see that justice is done for the murder of comrade Berta Cáceres, and prevent new attacks against women human rights defenders in Honduras.