Today, July 31, is the deadline set by the Canadian government for three transnational corporations to submit their bids to manufacture 88 new warplanes for use by the Royal Canadian Air Force. CBC reports: “By all accounts, U.S. defence giants Lockheed Martin and Boeing, and Swedish aircraft-maker Saab, have handed Read more…
On July 30, Common Frontiers, the Comité pour les droits humains en Amérique latine (CDHAL) and Projet Accompagnement Solidarité Colombie (PASC) hosted a webinar titled Militarization and COVID-19 in Colombia. That webinar featured Charo Mina Rojas of the Black Communities’ Process (PCN) and Sonia Lopez from the Joel Sierra Foundation Read more…
In January 2019, heavily-armed Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) officers arrested Wet’suwet’en land defenders opposed to the construction of a fracked gas pipeline on their unceded territories. Photo by Michael Toledano. The Global Witness Defending Tomorrow report documents the killings of 212 land and environmental defenders around the world in Read more…
In October 2019, PBI-Honduras accompanied CEHPRODEC on a march in the capital city of Tegucigalpa in defence of water against mining. On July 29, the Peace Brigades International-Honduras Project posted: “According to Global Witness, Honduras was the country with the highest percentage increase in murders of land and territory defenders, Read more…
On July 29, the Peace Brigades International-Guatemala Project posted: “Yesterday we accompanied Bernardo Caal Xol and the Human Rights Law Firm (BDH) to Bernardo’s appeal hearings which were suspended again.” “Bernardo has been in prison for two years and 7 months waiting for his appeal process to begin.” PBI-Guatemala adds: Read more…
(L-R) Katherine Miranda, César Ortiz Zorro, César Pachón. On July 29, BN Americas reported: “Colombia’s highest administrative tribunal is set to rule next month on whether oil and gas companies can proceed with fracking pilots.” The article adds: “[The Council of State] will convene a hearing on August 20 to Read more…
On July 29, Global Witness released its Defending Tomorrow report documenting the land and environmental defenders killed in 2019. It reports: “The documented number of lethal attacks against these defenders continues to rise. Again, we are forced to report that this is the highest year ever for killings – 212 Read more…
On July 28, the Peace Brigades International-Guatemala Project posted a Rights Action article from Prensa Comunitaria with this excerpt: “The helicopter landed on the community football field ‘Prof. Adolfo Ich Chamán’, named after a local teacher, respected ombudsman of the village Q’eqchi’, husband of Angelica Choc, who was killed on Read more…
The lack of a legal, enforceable framework to hold Canadian-based transnational corporations responsible for identifying, preventing and mitigating the human rights impacts of their business activities is an ongoing concern. Beyond guidelines and principles, there is a global call for binding national and international laws that would prevent human rights Read more…
United Nations Special Rapporteur Léo Heller writes: “Ten years ago, on 28 July 2010, the United Nations General Assembly passed Resolution 64/292, which explicitly recognized water and sanitation as a human right and acknowledged that water and sanitation are essential to the realization of all human rights.” In the countries Read more…