BQ 833 – 13/2025
Thomas Schirrmacher and Matthias Boehning on an ISHR-Panama Exploration Mission

From a report by the Secretary General of the ISHR Matthias Boehning

(Bonn, 06.02.2025) The President and the Secretary General (SG) of the International Society for Human Rights (ISHR), Thomas Schirrmacher and Matthias Boehning, conducted an exploration mission in Panama since ISHR currently does not have a re­presentation in the coun­try. During his re­cent trips to Miami, how­ever, the SG during a meeting with Dr. Haydee Marin’s, Vice President of the ISHR for the American region, to engage with some of her friends and colleagues, eg Ana Aba­unza Ramos, who is half-Panamanian, and has long had plans to start a human rights work in Panama. Dr. Marin con­nected the SG to a Pana­manian lady in Pa­nama City, Miriam Mora­les, who served the ISHR leader­ship very well during their presence in Panama by taking them around in her car and introducing them to very interesting and pro­mising contacts:

(1) Maria del Carmen Salaverry, who works in the Office of the First Lady of Panama and is very close to her and many other influential people in the highest levels of Pan­ama’s government – the ISHR leadership had a very friendly and warm introductory meeting with her in her office and made plans for a joint event on the human rights situation in February 2025 in Panama City to which all human rights actors and key stakeholders in Panama would be invited to kickoff an initiative to foster greater justice in the country;

(2) three representatives of the Panamanian women’s rights organization “Funda Género”,Presi­dent Gilma de León, Vice President Haydee Méndez de Espino and Xiomara de Armijo – all three doctors, who pre­sented their work to the ISHR leadership and arti­culated concrete needs that could potentially be met through the coope­ra­tion with ISHR: very spe­ci­fically, they published a collection of all women-re­lated legislation in Pana­ma a few years ago, a book which now needs to be updated for which funds are needed that can potentially be raised through ISHR’s sup­port from the German em­bassy’s small project fund;

(3) Miriam Morales’ son Luigi Pezzotti who is a young criminal lawyer in Panama that has a passion for human rights and also international law and could potentially be a good foun­ding member of a Panama­nian section of the ISHR due to his passion and dy­namism.

Not through Miriam but during the Faith & Free­dom Summit in the Latin American and Caribbean Parliament in Panama, the ISHR leader­ship got to know another potential founding member like Pas­tor Adonis Betan­court Hechavarria of the Iglesia Evangélica Com­munication Biblica Inter­na­cional, hea­ding the human rights com­mission of the Evangelical Alliance in Pa­nama.

This is the conclusion, the ISHR leadership draw from the exploration mission: “With all quality contacts and existing willingness and readiness, the ISHR leadership believes that the establishment of a Pa­namanian representation of ISHR is not only realistic but also feasible in the ra­ther short to medium term.”

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• Photo 1: Thomas Schirrmacher addressing the human rights summit in the Latin American and Caribbean Parliament © Esther Schirrmacher
• Photo 2 (left to right): Matthias Boehning Pastor Adonis Betancourt Hechavarria Thomas Schirrmacher © Esther Schirrmacher
• Photo 3: Matthias Boehning and Luigi Pezzotti © ISHR/Martin Warnecke
• Photo 4: President and Secretary General of ISHR with the leadership of with Funda Género © ISHR/Martin Warnecke
• Photo 5: Thomas Schirrmacher and Matthias Boehning with Ministers of the government of Panama © ISHR/Martin Warnecke