US embassy cable - 05TEGUCIGALPA1459

UNCLAS TEGUCIGALPA 001459 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR WHA, WHA/CCA, WHA/PPC, AND WHA/CEN 
STATE FOR DRL/MLA 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PHUM, PREL, HO 
SUBJECT: WOMEN FOR PEACE: COFADEH COORDINATOR NOMINATED FOR 
2005 NOBEL PEACE PRIZE 
 
 
1.  Bertha Oliva, Coordinator General of the Committee of 
Relatives of Detained and Disappeared Persons in Honduras 
(COFADEH), has been nominated by the Project for 1000 Women 
for Peace in 2005 to receive the Nobel Peace Prize as part of 
a collective of 1000 women human rights activists.  1000 
Women for Peace was founded in 2003, with support from the 
Swiss Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the UN Development 
Program, with the goal of identifying 1000 women in the human 
rights field to be nominated to collectively receive the 2005 
Nobel Peace Prize. 
 
2.  The nomination recognizes Oliva's more than 24 years of 
work with COFADEH to sustain peace and overcome hate and 
vengeance in the face of grave human rights violations. 
COFADEH began its work in 1982 when the families of twelve 
disappeared persons banded together to lobby for the safe 
return of their loved ones.  In its first years, COFADEH 
primarily advocated government investigations into the cases 
of disappeared persons.  In the 1990s, the group expanded its 
portfolio to include more general human rights work.  COFADEH 
joined the Latin American Federation of Associations of 
Relatives of the Detained and Disappeared (FEDEFAM) in 1983 
and the Commission for the Defense of Human Rights in Central 
America (CODEHUCA) in 1993. 
Palmer