E/CN.4/2005/18/Add.5 page 9 culture, especially through the vitality of their spiritual heritage, music and dances and their rich cuisine. They also contributed to the development of Honduras, as farm workers on the big banana and coffee plantations and as railroad workers. However, they do not feel fully integrated in Honduran society owing to the marginalization and economic and social exclusion to which they have been subjected for so long. 19. The Garifuna population is spread across 46 communities along the Caribbean coast, and lacks education facilities at the secondary and university levels. It has been forced to adapt to a new culture because of the lack of a bilingual or trilingual (Spanish/Garifuna/English) multicultural education system. The possibility of owning their ancestral lands is a central and pressing preoccupation of the Garifuna. Some progress has been made thanks to recognition of the rights of some communities, but several other communities, such as those in Cayos Cochinos (Islas de la Bahía), Tornabé and Miami (Bahía de Tela), Triunfo de la Cruz and San Juan (municipality of Tela) and Punta Piedra (municipality of Colón), live in fear of being dispossessed of their lands, which are coveted by powerful farm and hotel owners. Garifuna communities have taken 25 complaints about the occupation of land belonging to them to the Honduran courts and to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. It is alleged that Garifuna leaders have been persecuted or even murdered by politicians or soldiers, or else by farm or hotel owners who covet the communities’ lands, for making their demands. The Special Rapporteur was particularly alarmed by the case of the village of Zambo Creek, whose inhabitants complain of the failure to respect their land rights and environmental degradation caused by tourist projects that have a negative impact on the ground and water, as well as on traditional fishing areas. 20. The Special Rapporteur wishes to stress in this context that he was particularly impressed by the work of the Organización de Desarrollo Etnico Comunitario (ODECO) and the Organización Fraternal Negra Hondureña (OFRANEH), which are lobbying strongly for the political, cultural, economic and social demands of the Garifuna in particular and African-Honduran communities in general. Their ability to organize both national campaigns (including the famous march on Tegucigalpa on 11 October 1996 to demand the return of Garifuna ancestral lands, known as the “march of the drums”) and international campaigns has given an added dimension to the African-Honduran cause. In 2002, ODECO obtained a written pledge from the then candidate for the presidency, Ricardo Maduro Joest, promising to improve the situation of African-Honduran people under a 16-point plan dealing with, among other things, economic and social development and culture. 21. ODECO is also firmly committed to defending the rights of the first black Honduran beauty queen, who the African-Honduran community believes has been subjected to the type of discrimination commonly practised against Blacks living in Honduras. Ms. Erika Lizzeth Ramirez Marín, who was elected Miss Honduras on 13 October 2001, accused the national director of the Miss Universe organization of sexually harassing her, making insulting sexist and racist remarks about her, telling her that as she was a Garifuna girl she was worthless, taking away, for no good reason, jewels and a cash prize she had been given, and refusing to give her the education grant awarded to the winner - in her opinion, all because she is black. A complaint against the director of the Miss Universe organization in Honduras is now being investigated by a court in La Ceiba.