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PBI-Guatemala accompanies the Association for Justice and Reconciliation (AJR) at #IxilGenocide trial

By
Brent Patterson
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On October 16, PBI-Guatemala posted:

“Today #PBI accompanies the Board of Directors of the Association for Justice and Reconciliation -AJR- to the continuation of the oral and public debate of the #GenocidioIxil case.

Today’s hearing consisted of the presentation by the Public Prosecutor’s Office (MP) of the first part of the technical-military expert report by General Rodolfo Robles Espinoza.

November 4th will be the last day for the presentation of evidence and in the subsequent hearings the conclusions of the parties will be heard.

The next hearing is scheduled for tomorrow [October 17] at 8.30am, where the reading of the aforementioned expert report will continue.”

The Ixil Genocide

Prensa Comunitaria has reported:

“The trial against the former chief of staff of the army, Benedicto Lucas, began this Friday [April 5, 2024] in the High Risk Court ‘A’, presided over by Judge Gervi Sical. The facts on trial are the deaths of 844 people of the Mayan Ixil ethnic group between 1981 and 1982, when Lucas was chief of staff of the army.

According to the prosecutor’s office, when the general held the position of chief of staff of the army, between August 16, 1981, and March 23, 1982, the attack against the Mayan Ixil population, north of Quiché, in the municipalities of Nebaj, Cotzal and Chajul, intensified.

This area was declared red by the Chief of Staff with the intention of destroying this population because they were considered to support the Guerrilla Army of the Poor (EGP), one of the four guerrilla groups during the internal armed conflict.”

On October 3, LaHora.gt reported: “The trial against Lucas began on April 5 and to date it has been 6 months of oral and public debate in which the court has heard experts and witnesses proposed by the Public Ministry (MP) and who affirm that the retired military officer participated in the massacres that ended the lives of more than a thousand Ixil settlers established in Quiché. between 1980 and 1981.”

Accompaniment

The Association for Justice and Reconciliation (AJR) is a coalition of survivors from 22 communities in five regions of the country that suffered the scorched earth policy between 1978 and 1985.

PBI-Guatemala began accompanying the AJR Board of Directors in April 2024 and will continue to do so for the duration of this judicial process.

PBI-Colombia accompanies Justice and Peace Commission at “Skateboard Bridge” youth gathering

By
Brent Patterson
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PBI-Colombia has posted on Instagram:

“We accompanied the Inter-Church Justice and Peace Commission (CIJP) in the ‘Meeting of Art, Sport, Peacebuilding, Territory and Youth’ in Ciudad Bolivar on 12 October.

During the cultural day, the participants redefined the public space and planned a music and skateboarding exhibition as a way to build peace in the territory and generate links between the population with a focus on youth.”

PBI-Colombia has accompanied the Justice and Peace Commission since 1994.

Promotion for the event.

PBI-Honduras observes CMDBCPT press conference that demands justice for murdered Guapinol River defender Juan López

By
Brent Patterson
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PBI-Honduras has posted:

“Today [October 17], we observed the press conference of Guapinol Despierta [Guapinol Wake Up] in front of the Organized Crime, Environment and Corruption Court in Tegucigalpa. 27 years after the murder of Carlos Escaleras, the Municipal Committee in Defence of the Commons and Public Goods [of Tocoa/CMDBCPT] continues to demand justice for the environment and #JusticeForJuanLópez.”

El Heraldo further reports: “Members of the Municipal Committee for the Defense of Property in Tocoa demanded more arrests of the intellectual and material authors of the murder of environmentalist Juan López.”

That article adds that at the press conference outside the court “they demanded that the authorities speed up the judicial case of those arrested for the crime” of killing Lopez more than a month ago on September 14.

Photo: Guapinol River defender Juan López.

MNTV also reported: “So far, the authorities have arrested three people, identified as Óscar Alexi Guardado Alvarenga, Daniel Antonio Juárez Torres and Lenin Adonis Cruz Munguía, who are accused of being the material authors of the crime. However, the residents demand that the intellectual authors behind the murder be investigated and captured. During the demonstration, the residents of Guapinol expressed their pain and frustration through banners and slogans demanding justice for Juan López and a real commitment from the judicial system. The mobilization highlights the growing concern for the safety of environmental defenders in the country and the need to guarantee their protection.”

And Infobae reports: “Defender Roxana Romero told EFE that López’s death is ‘an environmental crime” because the activist “had been energetically denouncing all these manifestations of violence’ around the Montaña de Botaderos Carlos Escaleras National Park and the damage to the communities.”

Romero added: “Doing justice for Juan and Carlos is also doing justice for the Botaderos mountain (Carlos Escaleras) by freeing it from all these extractive projects that are taking the life of a lot of nature.”

Photo: Environmental activist Carlos Escaleras was murdered in Tocoa on October 17, 1997. The national park was named in his honour in 2016.

Committee member Leonel George also commented: “Impunity is killing us, we demand justice for the murder of comrade Juan López and also justice for the environmental crime committed in the Botaderos Carlos Escaleras Mountain National Park.”

Tu Nota also reports George stating: “‘We are here to demand justice for both the defender Juan López and for the Montaña Botaderos Carlos Escaleras National Park. One of the executives of the Pinares and Ecotek company, indicted for illegal exploitation and damage to the park, will be present. Justice must come, it is indebted to the people and the communities. It is time to generate the confidence that the citizens need.”

Photo: PBI-Honduras observes press conference, October 17, 2024.

Committee statement

The Committee states: “We reiterate that the guarantee of justice for Juan López and the guarantee of justice for the Carlos Escaleras National Park, are decisive for the protection of the members of the Municipal Committee and for the Defense of the Common and Public Goods of Tocoa and community due to the high risk in which we find ourselves for the defense of human rights.”

They further state: “We demand that the Public Prosecutor’s Office continue the investigation and prosecution of the intellectual authors whose motives continue to seriously threaten the lives of the members of the Municipal Committee and threatened communities that in defense of the National Park and its seismic source are being investigated by the mining and energy megaproject.”

And they state: “We regret that no concrete actions have been taken for more than a month after the murder for our benefit and protection, we demand the immediate implementation of all protection measures.”

Accompaniment

The Peace Brigades International-Honduras Project has accompanied Municipal Committee for the Defence of Common and Public Goods of Tocoa (CMDBCPT) processes and Guapinol River defenders since January 2019.

Video of press conference, October 17, 2024.

Agnès Callamard: COP16 should discuss legal protections for environmental rights defenders and land protectors

By
Brent Patterson
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Photo: Agnès Callamard

In advance of the COP16 Biodiversity conference that will take place this coming October 21 to November 1 in Cali, Colombia, Agnès Callamard, Amnesty International’s Secretary General, has commented:

“Environmental rights defenders and land protectors often risk their lives to protect our planet and its biodiversity. Delegations should keep this harsh reality in mind when they meet in Colombia, which has long been the deadliest country in the world for environmental activists. The monitoring framework should include parameters to capture initiatives and legal protections for land defenders, as well as their impact and consequences, including in terms of impunity.”

Target 22 of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework pledges to “ensure the full protection of environmental human rights defenders”

The Washington, DC-based organization Global Witness has highlighted: “Target 22 aims to ensure the full protection of environmental human rights defenders while guaranteeing access to justice and information. The Colombian Government has a historic opportunity to make CBD [Convention on Biological Diversity] COP16 a turning point for both biodiversity and those who protect it – and to live up to its promises to place defenders’ voices at the centre of the agenda. On top of this, CBD COP16 could provide defenders with recourse to justice through heightened recognition, security, legislative protection and corporate accountability for the industries behind reprisals.”

We note with the concern that Canada’s 2030 Nature Strategy: Halting and Reversing Biodiversity Loss in Canada submitted in advance of COP16 only makes sparse reference environmental human rights defenders (EHRDs):

“In Canada, many EHRDs are Indigenous Peoples and advocate for everyone’s right to a safe, healthy, and sustainable environment. Although GAC [Global Affairs Canada] has released best practices in their report, Voices at Risk, to aid discussions with EHRDs, governments, communities, and businesses, understanding their firsthand experiences to inform biodiversity decisions is important.”

Three Indigenous water protectors — Sleydo’ Molly Wickham (Wet’suwet’en Cas Yikh house), Shaylynn Sampson (Gitxsan), and Corey Jocko (Kanien’kehá:ka Mohawk) — are engaged in an abuse of process application alleging the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) Community-Industry Response Group (C-IRG) used excessive force during their arrest and custody in November 2021 for peacefully opposing the construction of the Coastal GasLink fracked gas pipeline on Wet’suwet’en territory in northern British Columbia.

Two rounds of court hearings have already taken place, with two more rounds — November 4-8 and December 9-13 — taking place not long after the discussions on Target 22 at COP16 in Colombia.

WEBINAR, October 24

Join us on Thursday October 24 at 12 pm (Colombia) / 1 pm (Ottawa) / 7 pm (Geneva) for a webinar that will link the protection needs of environmental defenders and the upcoming United Nations COP16 Biodiversity, COP29 Climate and Binding Treaty talks.

In its assessment of COP28 in December 2023, Global Witness noted: “Since the Paris Agreement was signed in 2015, we documented the killings of at least 1,390 land and environmental defenders. And yet, there is not a single reference to land and environmental defenders in the final text.”

This one-hour webinar with simultaneous translation will feature Cali, Colombia-based Berenice Celeita of the Association for Social Research and Action (Nomadesc), Washington, DC-based Javier Garate of Global Witness, and Geneva-based Yannick Wild of Peace Brigades International-Switzerland.

To register, please click here.

Further reading: PBI-Canada to host webinar on COP16, COP29, the Binding Treaty and the language needed to protect environmental defenders.

Peace Brigades International co-hosts Women Human Rights Advocacy Week in Geneva, September 16-21

By
Brent Patterson
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Photo: María Eugenia Gabriel Ruiz of the Human Rights Solidarity Network (Red Solidaria DH) meets with UN Special Rapporteur Pedro Arrojo-Agudo, September 18, 2024.

The International Service for Human Rights (ISHR) reports that Peace Brigades International and other organizations co-hosted the Women Human Rights Advocacy Week (WHRD-AW) this past September 16-21 in Geneva.

The ISHR article explains: “Throughout this experience, the women defenders deepened their advocacy work with the UN mechanisms, including Special Procedures, the Human Rights Council (HRC, or the Council), the Office of the High Commissioner (OHCHR). They also engaged with the international community in Geneva.”

The event brought together eleven women environmental defenders and Indigenous leaders from Honduras, Mexico, Colombia, Guatemala, Indonesia, Palestine, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Russia, Sri Lanka and Nigeria.

Tania Hernández from Civic Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras (COPINH) drew attention to the impact of extractive companies on Lenca territories, called for the confirmation of the convictions of those who have been held responsible for the murder of Berta Caceres, and called for justice for Guapinol River defender Juan López who was murdered on September 14 for his opposition to the Los Pinares megaproject.

Video still: Tania Hernández, Honduras.

The ISHR article also highlights: “In a roundtable on Gender and Environmental Rights: Exploring the Intersection in International Law co-hosted with PBI, María Eugenia Gabriel, from Red Solidaria de Derechos Humanos de Michoacán, shared  the situation of avocado monocultures. She explained the socio-economic effects of these crops, which are aggravated by organised crime, causing the systematic violation of the rights of Indigenous peoples.”

Photo: María Eugenia Gabriel, Mexico.

The ISHR article further notes: “In the same event, Dorthea Wabiser from Pusaka Bentala Rakyat shared the challenges that Indigenous peoples face in Indonesia, as the government does not recognise Indigenous peoples under national law. She stressed that non-recognition infringes international standards such as the right to consultation and free, prior and informed consent in West Papua.”

Photo: Dorothea Wabiser, Indonesia.

The article also notes that Deyanira Soscué  of the Regional Indigenous Council of Cauca (CRIC) in Colombia “talked about the socio-environmental impacts that multinational corporations have on the Nasa Indigenous territories” while Yasmeen El Hasan, a representative of ​​the Union of Agricultural Work Committees in Palestine, “raised the issue of farmers’ rights and their access to land and resources in the context of the Israel’s war on Gaza and the genocide against the Palestinian population.”

Photo: Yasmeen El Hasan, Palestine.

The full International Service for Human Rights (ISHR) article by Isabella Matias Heredia and Salomé Boucif can be read at Together for environmental justice: The Women Human Rights Advocacy Week 2024 (October 14, 2024).

Photos: Dorothea Wabiser (Indonesia), Tania Hernández (Honduras), María Eugenia Gabriel (Mexico), Yasmeen El Hasan, (Palestine).

Photos: Yannick Wild of PBI-Switzerland and Manuel Jabonero of PBI-Mexico were both at the Women Human Rights Advocacy Week in Geneva.

Canada’s COP16 plan fails to ensure the full protection of environmental human rights defenders

By
Brent Patterson
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Video by Michael Toledano of RCMP C-IRG arresting environmental human rights defenders, November 2021.

The Guardian now reports: “More than 80% of countries have failed to submit plans to meet a UN agreement to halt the destruction of Earth’s ecosystems, new analysis has found. …Countries committed to submit their plans for meeting the agreement before the biodiversity Cop16 in Cali, Colombia, which begins this month [October 21 to November 1] – but only 25 countries have done so.”

Germany and the United Kingdom did not submit plans, while the United States is not a signatory to the Convention. Greenpeace España has noted: “The Government of Spain is one of the first countries to present its National Action Plan on Biodiversity.”

The article highlights that Canada is one of the few countries to submit a plan to achieve the goals and targets of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework. However, the text of Canada’s plan raises concerns.

The Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework includes Target 22 (that promises to “ensure the full protection of environmental human rights defenders”) and the Target 3 pledge (the “30 by 30” goal).

Target 22

Ahead of COP16, the Washington, DC-based organization Global Witness has highlighted: “Target 22 aims to ensure the full protection of environmental human rights defenders while guaranteeing access to justice and information. The Colombian Government has a historic opportunity to make CBD [Convention on Biological Diversity] COP16 a turning point for both biodiversity and those who protect it – and to live up to its promises to place defenders’ voices at the centre of the agenda. On top of this, CBD COP16 could provide defenders with recourse to justice through heightened recognition, security, legislative protection and corporate accountability for the industries behind reprisals.”

Target 3

And Mongabay has reported: “Although the [Kunming-Montreal global biodiversity] framework calls on states to recognize and respect Indigenous rights and territories, experts and advocacy groups such as Minority Rights Group (MRG), Survival International and Amnesty International say the lack of clarity on the logistics of the 30 by 30 goal [reflected in Target 3] makes it prone to conflict. And if implemented poorly, it could result in millions of people being evicted from their ancestral territories.”

Many organizations – including ProDESC Mexico, CONDEG Guatemala, CENSAT Agua Viva Colombia and the International Network for Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ESCR-Net) – have also highlighted: “Protected areas have led to displacement and eviction of Indigenous Peoples and other land-dependent communities and brought serious human rights abuses by conservation organizations and enforcement agencies.”

Canada’s plan

In the document Canada’s 2030 Nature Strategy: Halting and Reversing Biodiversity Loss in Canada, the Government of Canada notes its support for Target 3 (the 30 by 30 goal), but only sparsely notes EHRDs in Target 22:

“In Canada, many EHRDs [environmental human rights defenders] are Indigenous Peoples and advocate for everyone’s right to a safe, healthy, and sustainable environment. Although GAC [Global Affairs Canada] has released best practices in their report, Voices at Risk, to aid discussions with EHRDs, governments, communities, and businesses, understanding their firsthand experiences to inform biodiversity decisions is important.”

EHRDs and Voices at Risk

This past July, The Globe and Mail reported: “[Mary Lawlor, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on human rights defenders] singled out Canadian embassies, saying many have failed to respond adequately to those who raise serious concerns about the impacts of mining and oil activities abroad. Canada introduced ‘Voices at Risk’ guidelines in 2019, aimed at supporting human-rights defenders and giving advice to Canadian diplomats working overseas, but she says it hasn’t been properly implemented.”

Photo: UN Special Rapporteur Mary Lawlor in Toronto.

EHRDs at risk on Indigenous territories in Canada

On two occasions (September 28, 2022 and September 28, 2023), PBI-Switzerland has highlighted at the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva, the ongoing criminalization of Wet’suwet’en land defenders and water protectors, notably by the RCMP Community-Industry Response Group (C-IRG).

Photo: PBI-Switzerland’s Yannick Wild at the UN, September 2023.

Last month, following his spring-time visit to Wet’suwet’en territory in northern British Columbia, Pedro Arrojo-Agudo, the UN Special Rapporteur on the right to water and sanitation, addressed the Human Rights Council and called on Canada to “stop criminalization of those who oppose large-scale industries in their territories.”

Photo: Pedro Arrojo-Agudo at the UN in Geneva, September 2024.

At the conclusion of his visit to Canada in April 2024, Arrojo-Agudo also expressed “grave concern about the criminalization, repression and persecution faced by Indigenous Peoples opposing large infrastructure projects.”

C-IRG criminalization of EHRDs

Noting the Wet’suwet’en struggle to protect Wedzin Kwa (Morice River) from the Coastal GasLink (CGL) fracked gas pipeline, Amnesty International has highlighted: “In three large-scale police raids (January 2019, February 2020 and November 2021), a total of 74 people were arrested and detained, including among others, legal observers and members of the media. These raids were highly militarized with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) using helicopters, dog units and assault weapons not to mention involvement by CGL’s private security company.”

Those militarized raids were conducted by the RCMP’s Community-Industry Response Group (C-IRG) now under systemic investigation by the federal Civilian Review and Complaints Commission (CRCC).

Three water defenders — Sleydo’ Molly Wickham (Wet’suwet’en Cas Yikh house), Shaylynn Sampson (Gitxsan), and Corey Jocko (Kanien’kehá:ka Mohawk) — arrested in that November 2021 RCMP raid were found guilty in January 2024 of criminal contempt of court for violating a court injunction by attempting to impede construction of the pipeline.

Their sentencing has been deferred pending the outcome of an abuse of process application in which the three water defenders allege the RCMP used excessive force while making the arrests and that the group was treated unfairly while in custody.

Two rounds of hearings have already taken place, with two more rounds — November 4-8 and December 9-13 — not long after the discussions on Targets 3 and 22 at COP16 (October 21 to November 1) in Colombia.

Webinar, October 24

Join us on Thursday October 24 at 12 pm (Colombia) / 1 pm (Ottawa) / 7 pm (Geneva) for a webinar that will link the protection needs of environmental defenders and the upcoming United Nations COP16 Biodiversity, COP29 Climate and Binding Treaty talks.

This one-hour webinar with simultaneous translation will feature Cali, Colombia-based Berenice Celeita of the Association for Social Research and Action (Nomadesc), Washington, DC-based Javier Garate of Global Witness, and Geneva-based Yannick Wild of Peace Brigades International-Switzerland.

To register, please click here.

Further reading: PBI-Canada to host webinar on COP16, COP29, the Binding Treaty and the language needed to protect environmental defenders.

Mountain Valley Pipeline, financed by Canadian banks and co-owned by a Canadian company, sues water protectors

By
Brent Patterson
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Photo: Ojibwe water protector Tara Houska, locked to machinery at a Mountain Valley Pipeline worksite, October 16, 2023.

In response to a tweet that says: “For Indigenous People’s Day [a holiday in the United States observed this year on October 14] how about we drop all charges on Indigenous Land and Water protectors instead of being performative”, Ojibwe water protector Tara Houska tweeted: “Yes please. I’m being sued for $4M by Mountain Valley Pipeline company in Virginia — alongside dozens of grandmas, college kids, people who protested destruction & stood up for life. Meanwhile, hurricanes, wildfires, mudslides, droughts, flooding, all of it rages on.”

Grist has explained: “In September 2023, Mountain Valley Pipeline LLC filed a lawsuit against more than 40 individuals and two organizations — Appalachians Against Pipelines and Rising Tide North America. The suit seeks more than $4 million in damages and a ruling prohibiting the defendants from accessing construction sites, planning demonstrations, or raising funds for protest activities.”

That article further notes: “Those fighting the pipeline say the suit is intended to chill protest and intimidate them. Mountain Valley Pipeline LLC has been regularly adding defendants to the suit, often after identifying them near protests or reading their names in the news.”

On September 27, 2024, The Guardian also reported: “The MVP, a joint venture in which the gas giant EQT Corporation is now the majority shareholder and operator, is claiming millions of dollars in alleged damages resulting from peaceful and mostly brief acts of civil disobedience. Such lawsuits can chill free speech and debate, which are vital for a healthy democracy, according to the UN and other legal experts.”

It adds that the lawsuit now includes 22 named individuals and 25 Jane Does claims $4.35 million in damages.

The pipeline entered into service on June 14, 2024.

At that time, Reuters noted: “The Mountain Valley project is owned by units of [the pipeline’s then-“lead partner”] Equitrans [Equitrans Midstream/ETRN.N], NextEra Energy (NEE.N), Consolidated Edison (ED.N), AltaGas (ALA.TO), and RGC Resources (RGCO.O). Equitrans will operate the pipeline. …EQT [EQT.N] agreed in March to buy Equitrans in an all-stock deal, which is expected to close in the fourth quarter. That would bring back the pipeline business that EQT spun off in 2018.”

In 2018, when construction began on the Mountain Valley Pipeline, Equitrans Midstream Corp. received more than $22 million in financing from two Canadian banks, Scotiabank and the Toronto-Dominion Bank. Between 2016 and 2023, the Royal Bank of Canada provided $1.36 billion in financing to EQT.

AltaGas, with a 10 percent/US $352 million ownership interest in the pipeline, is a Canadian corporation based in Calgary, Alberta.

Vanguard Group connections

Stop the Money Pipeline has noted: “MVP is among the numerous fossil fuel infrastructure projects in which Vanguard, the world’s second-largest asset manager, is deeply involved. As of the end of December 2023, Vanguard has over $16.7B in share holdings and almost $3B in bond holdings in the project’s owner companies.”

Vanguard Group Inc. is also the largest institutional shareholder in Nucor Corporation (NUE).

An investigative report by Contra Corriente and Drilled reveals that U.S.-based Nucor maintained a relationship with Inversiones Los Pinares, the company behind a controversial mining megaproject in Honduras, at least until September 30, 2023, despite having claimed to have ended their ties in October 2019.

The struggle to defend the Guapinol River from this megaproject has taken the lives of Levin Alexander Bonilla (October 27, 2018), Roberto Antonio Argueta Tejada and José Mario Rivera (August 28, 2019), Arnold Joaquín Morazán Erazo (October 13, 2020), Aly Dominguez and Jairo Bonilla (January 7, 2023), Óscar Oquelí Domínguez Ramos (June 15, 2023) and most recently Juan López (September 14, 2024).

The Peace Brigades International-Honduras Project accompanies the Municipal Committee for the Defense of Common and Public Goods of Tocoa and the Guapinol River defenders.

Video still: Juan Lopez, the father of two daughters, was killed one month ago today for protecting the Guapinol River from a megaproject.

We continue to follow all these threads.

Tweet by Tara Houska.

           

   

Tweet by Mary Lawlor, UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders.

New “Fairy Creek” documentary revisits the blockades on Pacheedaht territory that experienced RCMP C-IRG violence

By
Brent Patterson
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Photo from Cinema Politica.

The frontline documentary FAIRY CREEK will premiere in Toronto at the Planet in Focus Film Festival on October 17.

Details about that screening can be found here.

That web-page notes there will be “a post screening live Q&A with the Director Jen Muranetz and Director of Photography/Co-Producer Sepehr Samimi.”

Muranetz’s website notes that she “is an award-winning documentary filmmaker and visual storyteller residing on the unceded and stolen Coast Salish territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh Úxwumixw (Squamish) and səl̓ilwətaɁɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) First Nations, in the place now known as Vancouver, BC.”

Victoria Buzz adds: “The film documents the protests against Teal-Jones Group in the logging of old-growth groves near Port Renfrew, which to date is the largest act of civil disobedience in Canadian history.”

“The RCMP faced massive scrutiny during and following this protest for their ethics in arresting the activists involved as well as their gatekeeping of the media, who were often kept from the site where they were trying to report from.”

That article further notes after the screening in Toronto “it will  be made readily available through its distributor, Cinema Politica.”

The link to Cinema Politica can be found here.

The protests against Teal-Jones logging of old-growth forest at Fairy Creek led to about 1,100 arrests and 464 charges laid by the RCMP Community-Industry Response Group (C-IRG) over the months of May to August 2021.

Photo from VIMooZ.

After receiving nearly 500 formal complaints about the C-IRG, and accepting more than 100 of those grievances for investigation, the Ottawa-based Civilian Review and Complaints Commission (CRCC) launched a systemic investigation of the RCMP C-IRG in March 2023. That investigation includes reviewing the C-IRG’s actions at “the Teal Cedar Products Ltd injunction in the Fairy Creek watershed”.

More than 18 months after the CRCC launched this investigation we continue to wait for a final report of their findings.

Further reading: Real climate action means defunding the police and The C-IRG: the resource extraction industry’s best ally by Molly Murphy and Research for the Front Lines (published in Briarpatch Magazine).

PBI-Honduras accompanies the CNTC in Yoro and reiterates concern about the criminalization of land defenders

By
Brent Patterson
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PBI-Honduras has posted:

“Yesterday we accompanied the CNTC Tegucigalpa in a meeting with the peasant base Brisas del Humuya (El Progreso, Yoro), to hear about their advocacy work in the community. From PBI we applaud the work of the CNTC to ensure food security and reiterate our concern about the criminalization of land defenders in Honduras.”

Access to land

The National Union of Rural Workers (CNTC) is a small-scale farming and trade union organization that fights for the distribution of land.

In Honduras fewer than 5% of landowners control 60% of the fertile terrain.

PBI-Honduras has previously explained: “Of the 404 communities that form the National Union of Rural Workers, just 20% have titles to their lands. Many others have worked and lived on their lands for three or four decades and have spent 15 years awaiting the official recognition of their rights that never seems to arrive.”

As a result of this, evictions of farmers are not uncommon.

Government policies that have prioritized mining concessions, hydroelectric dams and large-scale export monoculture further complicate the situation.

Threats against the CNTC

In April of this year, Ojalá (a digital weekly co-founded by Canadian journalist Dawn Marie Paley) reported: “Over the last 15 years, private and state security forces have killed at least 180 organized agricultural workers.”

That article adds: “More recently, semi-autonomous assassins and paramilitary groups became increasingly important. Some of these have documented ties to private security operatives known to have worked for palm corporations, as well as to military officers.”

In January 2023, Abelino Sánchez, regional secretary of the National Union of Rural Workers (CNTC) and president of a peasant cooperative in the department of Cortés, was seriously injured after being shot twice by two men who came to his house. He had received death threats related to a land conflict.

This past June, PBI-Honduras tweeted about the risks experienced by members of the CNTC: “We are concerned about the situation of threats, surveillance, attacks and criminalization against the people of the organization and its bases.”

In August 2024, CNTC member Olman Garcia was murdered. At that time, PBI-Honduras stated: “We recognize the important and courageous advocacy work that Olman carried out to promote access to land and land tenure for small farmers in Honduras. His murder highlights the risks that land defenders continue to face in the country.”

We remember too that ten years earlier, Honduran campesino movement leader Margarita Murillo, a founder of the CNTC, was shot and killed on August 26, 2014.

Photo: Margarita was a founder of the CNTC in 1985 and became a member of its Board of Directors. She was 55 years old when an assassin shot her in the forehead while she was working the land in Planón, Villanueva, Cortés.

Even further back, Amnesty International raised concerns about the lack of investigation into the possible extrajudicial execution of Manuel de Jesus Guerra Arita, assistant secretary of the CNTC, on December 8, 1991.

The rights of peasants

At this time, we recall that Canada abstained in the vote on the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Peasants and other people working in rural areas that was adopted by the UN General Assembly in December 2018.

PBI-Honduras has noted that this UN Declaration recognizes key elements such as “the right to land, to natural resources and to food sovereignty, based on the principle of equality between men and women.”

The full text of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Peasants and other people working in rural areas can be read here.

Despite Canada’s abstention, the resolution in support of the Declaration passed.

The CNTC and the labour movement

The CNTC is affiliated with the Unified Confederation of Honduran Workers (CUTH) which in turn is affiliated with the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), along with 150+ labour organizations including the Canadian Labour Congress.

PBI-Honduras has been accompanying the CNTC since May 2018.

Photo: Franklin Almendares, General Secretary, National Union of Rural Workers (CNTC).

COPINH rallies outside the Embassy of El Salvador calling for the release of the Santa Marta 5 water defenders

By
Brent Patterson
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On October 9, the Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras (COPINH) posted:

“COPINH present at the Embassy of El Salvador in Honduras, demanding the release of the 5 ADES/Santa Marta defenders.

COPINH joins the demand for freedom for the defenders of Santa Marta, who have tirelessly defended the ban on metal mining in El Salvador. Today, they are on trial in order to silence their struggle and open the doors to extractivism, a direct threat to communities and the environment.

We demand their immediate release!

Enough political persecution! #Santa Marta is not alone

#Freedom for the 5“

The Peace Brigades International-Honduras Project has accompanied COPINH since May 2016.

Radio-Canada has reported: “Five community leaders and environmental defenders fighting the mining industry in El Salvador are facing a trial described as a direct attack on the defense of water and life.”

That article continues: “The community of Santa Marta, El Salvador, has opposed mining projects for more than a decade, particularly those run by foreign companies, often linked to Canadian-based mining interests.”

It further notes: “Ever Hernández, of the Association for Economic and Social Development (ADES) … explained that Canada, as the host country for a large part of the mining companies with operations in the region, has a key role in this conflict. According to him, Canadian mining companies have influence in Latin America, and sometimes communities must face legal proceedings and even criminalization when they oppose their operations.”

Photo: Supporters outside the Embassy of El Salvador in Ottawa on September 25 call for the release of the Santa Marta 5.

The trial began on Tuesday October 8 and was scheduled to conclude yesterday, Thursday October 10.

ElSalvador.com has explained: “According to the accusation, the defendants would have murdered a woman in August 1989, in the context of the civil war, allegedly considering her an Army informant. [But] ‘Due to the lack of proof and scientific evidence in the process of its purchase, it is unobjectionable that the criminalization and persecution of the environmentalists of Santa Marta has a political motive, which is to silence the opposition to metal mining and its reactivation in the country,’ said Dr. María Julia Hernández in a statement.”

On October 9, Diario Co Latino reported: “The Santa Marta community and ADES have denounced through social networks, nationally and internationally, that elements of the National Civil Police (PNC) are mistreating their fellow community leaders during the transfers to the Public Hearing, in the Sentencing Court of Sensuntepeque [a town more than 86 kilometers from the capital San Salvador].”

The following day, Diario Co Latino noted: “Pedro Cruz, from the defense team of the five environmentalists from ADES and Santa Marta, reported that the verdict of the Sentencing Court of Sensuntepeque, Cabañas, will not be known until Tuesday, October 15 of this year.”

We continue to follow this.

#LibertadParaLos5

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