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Photo-journal of PBI-Canada visit with PBI-Honduras accompanied organizations, defenders and communities

Photo: PBI-Honduras and PBI-Canada stand beside the Guapinol River threatened by the Los Pinares megaproject, October 30. SUNDAY OCTOBER 27 PBI-Canada coordinator Brent Patterson arrives at Palmerola International Airport in Comayagua, a city located approximately 86 kilometres from Tegucigalpa. Photo: Palmerola airport. Contra Corriente has reported: “This concession was awarded Read more…

By Brent Patterson, ago

Nepal’s foreign minister visits Canada, international delegation of lawyers call for strengthened transitional justice

Photo: Dr. Arzu Rana Deuba, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Nepal, meets with Melanie Joly, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Canada, in Ottawa in September 2024. The Kathmandu, Nepal-based Himalayan Times reports: “Minister for Foreign Affairs Dr Arzu Rana Deuba and her Canadian counterpart, Melanie Joly had a bilateral meeting Read more…

By Brent Patterson, ago

PBI-Mexico accompanied lawyer María Eugenia Gabriel Ruiz interviewed by El Pais, speaks about avocados and mining

Photo: “María Eugenia Gabriel Ruiz, indigenous Purépecha activist from Michoacán, in Madrid Río on 26 September.” Photo by Mario Bermudo. María Eugenia Gabriel Ruiz is an Indigenous Purhépecha lawyer and member of the Human Rights Solidarity Network (Red Solidaria DH), an organization accompanied by the Peace Brigades International-Mexico Project. El Read more…

By Brent Patterson, ago

PBI-Colombia welcomes new brigade members, PBI-Honduras seeks new applicants with November 9 deadline

Photo: (from left to right) Ita from Mexico, Mar, Michael and Celia from the Spanish State, Valeria from Mexico. Yesterday, PBI-Colombia welcomed five new volunteers. The project noted: “From PBI-Colombia we receive with great enthusiasm the new brigade members, who from the Urabá-Bogotá and Barrancabermeja teams will accompany Colombian human Read more…

By Brent Patterson, ago

“As a collective, we want to turn our pain into rights” – Yanette Bautista of the “Nydia Erika Bautista” Foundation

Today, October 23, the National Day of Recognition of Women Searchers of Victims of Forced Disappearance is commemorated in Colombia. On this day, Amnesty International has amplified the voice of Yanette Bautista, whose sister Nydia was forcibly disappeared in 1987. A key excerpt from Yanette’s testimony in Rolling Stone magazine Read more…

By Brent Patterson, ago

PBI-Guatemala accompanies the Peaceful Resistance of the Poqomán People in Chinautla in struggle against sand mines

PBI-Guatemala has posted: “On Tuesday [October 15], #PBIacompanies the women at the #Chinautla Poqomam Village Peaceful Resistance. At their meeting, they updated us about their upcoming activities and expressed their concerns regarding the safety situation of the community and defenders. They also shared with us their struggle for the recovery Read more…

By Brent Patterson, ago

PBI-Colombia accompanies CAHUCOPANA as communities analyze and evaluate their self-protection measures

The Humanitarian Action Corporation for Coexistence and Peace in Northeast Antioquia (Cahucopana) has posted: “Resistance and denunciation, when the bullets sound, our voices more! On the 15th of October, Cahucopana Nordeste and social organizations Guardias campesinas [Peasant Guard] @Gacena, #AMATNASB, (ancestral and traditional agro-mining association of Northeast Antioquia and South Read more…

By Brent Patterson, ago

PBI-Kenya expresses concern about the abduction of four Turkish asylum seekers and their forcible return to Turkey

Photo from Velev news. This statement from the Police Reforms Working Group says: “The principle of non-refoulement is a cornerstone of refugee protection. It has been recognised in international humanitarian law for more than seventy years.” Refoulement refers to the forcible return of refugees or asylum seekers to a country Read more…

By Brent Patterson, ago

Can the UN COP16 conference in Colombia help save the lives of frontline environmental defenders?

Webinar speakers: Michel Forst, Yannick Wild, Berenice Celeita, Javier Garate. In his opening message today to the United Nations COP16 biodiversity conference in Colombia, UN Secretary General António Guterres said: “Our task at this COP is to move from words to deeds.” Those words, to be further negotiated at COP16, Read more…

By Brent Patterson, ago

PBI-Mexico condemns the murder of Indigenous Maya Tzotzil Padre Marcelo Pérez Pérez

PBI-Mexico has posted: “We are deeply shocked by the murder of Father Marcelo. We condemn his murder, call for a thorough investigation into this crime, and recall the Mexican State’s obligation to protect human rights defenders.” In July 2022, PBI-Mexico joined with other organizations to “urge the federal government to Read more…

By Brent Patterson, ago