Read the Peace Brigades International-Colombia Project Annual Report 2023

Published by Brent Patterson on July 18, 2024July 18, 2024

The Peace Brigades International-Colombia Project has just released its Annual Report 2023. You can read that in English here.

Their annual report highlights: “Our mission is to protect action spaces for human rights defenders who are targeted by violent acts because of their work in defending and promoting human rights and social justice.”

It further notes: “Even though violence and human rights violations decreased slightly in 2023, there were still 188 murders of human rights leaders and defenders, 94 massacres with 303 victims and 167,540 victims of forced displacement. …Of particular concern is the situation faced by women defenders. There was a 35.2% increase in the number of murders of women social leaders in 2023 compared to the previous year.”

To help address this situation, PBI-Colombia provided 224 accompaniments in 2023. Notably, 28.6 per cent of those accompaniments were with women defenders, while 44.6 per cent included women and men defenders.

In 2023, PBI-Canada worked with our colleagues at PBI-Colombia by helping to amplify key accompaniments and issues, including:

– PBI-Colombia accompanies Nomadesc, Justice and Peace at meetings in Buenaventura with Canadian Embassy (January 31, 2023)

– PBI-Colombia accompanies CREDHOS and FEDEPESAN on verification visit to the caño San Silvestre (March 10, 2023)

– PBI-Colombia accompanied CSPP and social leaders raise concerns about Frontera Energy with shareholders (July 20, 2023)

– PBI-Colombia accompanies CREDHOS and FEDEPESAN at meetings with Canadian Embassy in Barrancabermeja (August 17, 2023)

– PBI-Colombia accompanied defender Berenice Celeita visits Ottawa (November 28, 2023)

– PBI-Colombia accompanies return of Indigenous Wounaan community to their territory after their displacement by the armed conflict (December 21, 2023)

Already in 2024, along with amplifying many more accompaniments:

– PBI-Canada co-organizes webinar encouraging applications to be a PBI-Colombia field volunteer (February 27, 2024)

And this fall, we will highlight an issue of concern raised by many Canadian unions in relation to the National Strike of April-May 2021 through a virtual screening of a film already seen by PBI-Colombia:

– PBI-Colombia joins MOCAO for a screening of the documentary ‘The Eyes That Are Reborn’ about police violence (June 19, 2024)

We also plan to bring Oscar Ramirez to Canada this November to highlight the impacts of the Canadian oil company Frontera Energy on social leaders in the community of San Luis de Palenque (a tour delayed by the rejection of visas):

– PBI-Canada organizing to bring criminalized Colombian social leaders to Toronto and Ottawa in February 2024 (December 8, 2023)

For more on our collaborations with PBI-Colombia, please also see:

– Photo-journal of 10-day PBI-Canada visit to frontline communities in Colombia (July 8, 2022)

We join with our colleagues at PBI-Colombia in expressing our appreciation to Unifor for their support of this work.

Photo: Unifor Social Justice Fund Director Navjeet Sidhu visits PBI-Colombia staff and frontline volunteers in Bogota, May 2023.