Tegucigalpa, May 11 (teleSUR-RHC)-- Honduran authorities have blocked a human rights defender from participating in a U.N. review of the state of human rights in Honduras taking place this weekend in Geneva, Switzerland, according to the Honduras-based Association of Judges for Democracy (AJD).

Honduran judge and president of the AJD Board Mario Rolando Diaz planned to join a delegation to Geneva for the Universal Periodic Review (UPR), the U.N. mechanism that reviews all member states' human rights compliance, but was denied a leave of absence by Honduran judicial authorities days before his scheduled departure.

Honduran authorities' refusal to grant Diaz permission to participate in the review is a direct violation of the recommendations Honduras agreed to as a result of the 2011 EPU, according to the AJD.

One of some 100 recommendations adopted from the last EPU was that Honduras must allow “full participation of civil society in the follow-up activities of this (2011) review,” with which Honduras has failed to comply by blocking Diaz's travel.