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PBI-Guatemala accompanies San Francisco Quezaltepeque Indigenous Community at hearing of criminalized ancestral authority

By
Brent Patterson
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On September 13, PBI-Guatemala posted:

“Yesterday, #PBI accompanies the San Francisco Quezaltepeque Indigenous Community to the third public and oral debate hearing of an ancestral authority of San José Cubiletas criminalised for his work in defence of the territory.

The prosecuted facts occurred on 27 August 2021 when personnel linked to the municipality of Quezaltepeque tried to extract balastre from the San José Cubiletas community without the authorisation of the ancestral authorities.

The hearing took place in the Criminal Sentencing and Drug Trafficking Court of Chiquimula.”

Canadian mining company

PBI-Guatemala has previously also noted: “The indigenous community of San Francisco Quezaltepeque is resisting a mining company working in the municipality: Minerales Sierra Pacifico S.A. This company has five exploration licenses for gold, silver, copper, lead and zinc. The Ch’orti’ people are concerned about the negative impacts of these mining activities and also about the contamination of the water of the Rio Grande by the honey water from coffee production, which could be worsened by the mining activity.”

As noted on page 10 of this report, Minerales Sierra Pacifico S.A. is a wholly owned subsidiary of Vancouver-based Radius Gold.

You can find the Comunidad Indígena San Francisco Quezaltepeque on Facebook here.

PBI-Colombia accompanies Peace Community as impunity continues six months after the murder of two members

By
Brent Patterson
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PBI-Colombia has posted:

“We continue to accompany the Peace Community of San Jose de Apartadó who, continue to defend the territory and build alternatives from food sovereignty for peace.

6 months after the murder of Nallely Sepúlveda and Edinson David, we continue to share the concern for clarifying facts and access to justice.”

The Peace Community also tweeted:

“On 19 March, our comrades Nallely Sepulveda and Edinson David were assassinated. 6 months have passed, everything is still in impunity.”

Community members Nalleli Sepúlveda, age 30, and Edinson David, age 14, were killed on March 19, 2024.

The threat of armed groups, commodity exports

Moira Birss, formerly of PBI-Colombia, has written in the NACLA report:

“Part of what makes Apartadó and the Urabá region so attractive to armed groups (and the economic interests that often drive them) is the area’s strategic location near the Gulf of Urabá. The gulf flows into the Caribbean Sea, connecting to the Panama Canal and all its commodity export opportunities. On the other side of the gulf is the Darien Gap, which in recent years has become an important migratory route and where transit is controlled by the Gulf Clan. The Peace Community believes that the transit of goods and people through this area is central to the motivation behind the murders of Nalleli and Edinson.

In the months and weeks leading up to the killings, tensions had been building in La Esperanza over widening a pedestrian and horse path to become a car-sized road that would go deep into the hills, presumably to facilitate commodity exports.

The route runs through the Las Delicias estate [where Nalleli and Edinson were killed]. As it is not authorized by the regional authorities, the construction of the road is illegal. The Peace Community has opposed the project and has denounced the involvement of the Gulf Clan and the support of the Army in the process.”

The specific threat of a mine

Birss also notes: “The area is also reported to contain significant coal deposits, for which the state issued an exploratory license more than 15 years ago.”

Photo: Nalleli Sepúlveda paints a wooden gate that the Peace Community rebuilt after it was destroyed. It reads: “Mining kills the land. We have the right to protect nature.” Photo by the Peace Community.

In the days after the murders of Nalleli and Edinson, the Minister of the Interior Franklin Castañeda visited Las Delicias.

On the evening of March 27, Castañeda tweeted: “A field inspection will be carried out on the mining titles.”

We await an update on this.

The Peace Community

The Peace Community is located more than 700 kilometres northwest of Bogota in the mountainous northern region in the department of Antioquia.

On March 23, 1997, the Peace Community of San Jose de Apartado was formed. The farming community declared itself neutral in the armed conflict and rejected the presence of all the armed groups in its territory.

On the twentieth anniversary of its formation in 2017, the Peace Community stated that 326 of its members had been murdered and that more than 4,000 human rights violations had been committed against the community.

PBI-Colombia began accompanying the Peace Community in 1999.

PBI-Canada and CFSC (Quakers) hold webinar on Canadian arms exports to Israel and the call for an arms embargo

By
Brent Patterson
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On September 18, the Canadian Friends Service Committee (Quakers) and PBI-Canada jointly organized a webinar, moderated by Sandra Wiens, to coincide with the six-month anniversary of the House of Commons vote (on March 18, 2024) to “cease the further authorization and transfer of arms exports to Israel.”

To watch the video of the webinar, click here.

The first speaker was Kelsey Gallagher with the Waterloo-based Project Ploughshares, a Canadian peace research institute. He monitors Canada’s export of weapons and military components. He is the author of numerous reports including Fanning the Flames: The grave risk of Canada’s arms exports to Israel.

Gallagher illustrated Canada’s legal obligations with respect to arms exports in this slide.

Gallagher shared this crucial slide in his PowerPoint presentation.

Our next speaker was Noam Perry with the Oakland, California-based American Friends Service Committee’s Action Center for Corporate Accountability. He researches corporate complicity in state violence and human rights violations. His organization, the AFSC, published the online resource: Companies Profiting from the Gaza Genocide.

Perry shared this slide.

Perry also highlighted through the following two slides that in at least some instances, the engines for the Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) Heron TP attack drone were manufactured by Pratt & Whitney (a Raytheon subsidiary) in Canada.

And our concluding speaker was Rachel Small, the Canada Organizer for World BEYOND War. She is now based just outside of Toronto. She has organized within local and international movements for over a decade and is a member of the Jews Say No To Genocide Coalition and the Arms Embargo Now! campaign.

Small shared this slide of an interactive map that shows the multiple companies located in Canada that contribute to the arming of the Israeli military, including the Pratt & Whitney plant, mentioned by Perry, located in Mississauga (just outside Toronto).

Small also showed this video highlighting the Arms Embargo Now campaign and how communities have mobilized their collective power to pressure the Canadian government to promise to end the approval of new military export permits. While emphasizing that as an important step, the video notes the Canadian government has yet to formalize this policy or stop the flow of arms they have already approved.

For more information and to take part in the Arms Embargo Now! campaign, we encourage you to check out that website here.

PBI-Canada looks to PBI-UK joint pre-election statement on what politicians can do to support human rights defenders

By
Brent Patterson
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Photo: The Palace of Westminster in London, England that houses the House of Commons and the House of Lords.

The next federal election in Canada will take place on or before October 20, 2025.

While it is perhaps unlikely that the Trudeau government will fall next week, his minority government will face a non-confidence vote in the House of Commons on Wednesday September 25.

With an election on the near- or mid-term horizon, we look to a statement signed by PBI-United Kingdom and multiple other organizations in the lead-up to the general election that took place in the UK on July 4 of this year.

That statement says, in part:

“As recognised by the UK government, Human Rights Defenders (HRDs) are agents of change who can ensure the sustainable impact of a range of UK foreign policy priorities. HRDs are experts in their communities whose objectives often mirror those of any progressive foreign policy: combating the climate crisis, upholding free speech and the rule of law, tackling poverty, and empowering women.

Environmental defenders and Indigenous leaders have consistently been at the forefront of proposals to tackle the climate crisis. In Latin America and the Caribbean, civil society organisations played a crucial role in the negotiation, adoption and ratifications of the 2021 Escazú Agreement, the first regional environmental human rights treaty.

[It is] in the UK’s strategic interest to support and partner with HRDs, including Indigenous communities, trade unionists, journalists and civil society groups, contributing to the protection they need to work safely.

What politicians can do

In 2021, our organisations published On the Human Rights Frontline – How the UK government can defend the defenders. We made the case for – and proposed a draft version of – a UK government strategy to promote civic space and improve support and protection for HRDs.

UK politicians should prioritise gathering inputs from across UK and global civil society to ensure that this strategy is effective, and includes the components we have called for since 2021: Implementing effective diplomatic strategies to recognise and protect defenders; Transforming the nature and scale of funding for civil society to be sustainable & flexible; Developing protection mechanisms, respite schemes and rapid response support.”

The 5-page statement and list of signatories can be read at: On the Human Rights Frontline: How the UK government can defend the defenders.

PBI-Honduras accompanies CMDBCP as it demands independent investigation into the murder of Guapinol River defender Juan López

By
Brent Patterson
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PBI-Honduras has posted:

“Today we are accompanying the press conference of the Municipal Committee in Defense of Common and Public Goods. The Committee demands that justice be done and that those responsible for the vile murder of the defender Juan Lopez be punished. From PBI we make an urgent call for justice to be done.”

This post can also be found on Instagram and Facebook.

The video of the press conference can be seen here.

Juan López

Environmental defender Juan López, who was 46 years old, of the Municipal Committee in Defense of Common and Public Goods (CMDBCP).

Photo: Juan López working at his home in Tocoa in September 2021. Photo by Orlando Sierra/AFP via Getty Images.

Photo by Santiago Navarro F in Avispa.

López was shot to death on the evening of Saturday September 14 in Tocoa, Colon. His funeral took place on Sunday September 15.

Photo by Libération.

López was opposed to the EMCO-Los Pinares megaproject led by Lenir Pérez and Ana Facussé that includes two iron oxide mines established within a national park, a petroleum coke-powered thermoelectric plant that requires water from the Guapinol River and its tributaries, and a pelletizing plant.

The press conference

The CMDBCP press conference that PBI-Honduras accompanied made the following demands:

1- Independent and exhaustive investigation: We reject the participation of the Tocoa Prosecutor’s Office and the UMVIBA [the Specialized Unit for the Investigation of Violent Deaths in Bajo Aguán] in the investigation of the murder of Juan López, given their role in the persecution and criminalization of the defenders of the CMDBCPT. We demand an impartial, independent investigation in coordination with the CMDBCPT, which excludes any local representatives involved in power structures that perpetuate the risk to defenders in the area.

2- Immediate protection of defenders: We demand that the State comply with its obligation to protect the defenders of the CMDBCPT and its legal team. Likewise, we demand that Precautionary Measures MC 137-2023, of which Juan López was a beneficiary, be implemented immediately; this to guarantee the safety of the other members of the CMDBCPT, their families and close ones.

3- Definitive cancellation of the Emco Holdings/Los Pinares/Ecotek megaproject: We demand the immediate cancellation of all components of this megaproject, which has violated the environmental and human rights of local communities.

4- We demand the immediate implementation of Decree 18-2024, which protects all protected areas in Honduras from mining, and whose defense cost the life of our colleague Juan López.

5- State responsibility: We demand that the State of Honduras assume its responsibility for the failure to implement protection measures that could have saved the life of our compañero Juan López, and for the unjust criminal persecution of which he was a victim. And take responsibility for the integral protection of his family.

6- Justice and sanctions for those responsible: We demand the immediate punishment of all those responsible, both in the public and private spheres, for their involvement in the crimes against Juan López and other defenders. This sanction must include public officials who, by action or omission, have allowed the escalation of violence and criminalization in the Municipality of Tocoa, Colón.

7- No to the stigmatization, intimidation and persecution against Carlos Orellana, pastor of the Catholic Church who has demanded justice for Juan Lopéz.

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

#JusticiaParaJuanLopez

The demands.

Canadian environmental defender Paul Watson remains in Nuuk Prison as Japanese whaling ship heads to the North Pacific

By
Brent Patterson
-

Photo: Trucks with digital billboards displaying a photo of Paul Watson and calling for his release in New York. Photograph: David Dee Delgado/Reuters.

This past summer, the Associated Press reported: “Greenland police said they apprehended veteran environmental activist and anti-whaling campaigner Paul Watson on an international arrest warrant issued by Japan.”

Toronto-born Watson, who is now 73 years of age, was arrested on Sunday July 21 when his ship docked in Nuuk, Greenland.

Greenland considers Watson a flight-risk so he has been detained in custody for the past 60 days (as of September 18).

On September 4, a court ruled that he must remain in custody until at least October 2 as a legal review of his Japan’s extradition request continues.

Watson would face a maximum sentence of 15 years in prison in Japan.

Le Monde has explained: “[Watson] was arrested in July in Nuuk, the capital of the autonomous Danish territory of Greenland, on the basis of a 2012 arrest warrant issued by Japan, which accuses him of causing damage to one of its whaling ships in 2010 in the Antarctic. It says he also injured a Japanese crew member with a stink bomb intended to disrupt the whalers’ activities and has asked Denmark to extradite him to face trial.”

Watson has countered: “I didn’t do anything, and even if I did the sentence would be [a fine of] 1,500 kroner [$223] in Denmark – not even a prison sentence – while Japan wants to sentence me to 15 years.”

BBC also reports: “French President Emmanuel Macron’s office has asked Denmark not to extradite Paul Watson, and there has been vocal support from legendary actress turned animals rights activist Brigitte Bardot. Meanwhile a petition calling for Mr Watson’s release has surpassed 120,000 signatures.”

The timing of the arrest

While the arrest reportedly relates to an incident more than 12 years ago, it came when Watson was en route to the North Pacific to confront a Japanese factory whaling ship. The Japan Times has reported: “The brand-new, nearly 9,300-ton lead vessel for Japan’s whaling flotilla departed Tuesday [May 21] on its maiden hunt — heralding a new era for an industry defended by the government as an integral part of Japanese culture.”

The illegality of whaling

The International Marine Mammal Project has previously noted: “In 2014, the International Court of Justice ruled that Japan’s so-called ‘scientific’ whaling in Antarctica was really for commercial purposes and therefore violates the IWC Convention. Japan stopped the Antarctic hunts for one year, and then renewed them with 1/3 the quota previously for minke whales (from 1,000 per year down to 333 per year).”

Criminalization a global trend

Last week, Global Witness issued their Missing Voices report that notes: “Murder continues to be a common strategy for silencing defenders and is unquestionably the most brutal. But as this report shows, lethal attacks often occur alongside wider retaliations against defenders who are being targeted by government, business and other non-state actors with violence, intimidation, smear campaigns and criminalisation. This is happening in every region of the world and in almost every sector.”

And last year, The Guardian newspaper in the United Kingdom reported: “Climate and environmental justice groups report a significant increase in draconian, and often arbitrary, charges for peaceful protesters as part of what they claim is a playbook of tactics to vilify, discredit, intimidate and silence activists.”

That article continues: “The Guardian has also found striking similarities in the way governments from Canada and the US to Guatemala and Chile, from India and Tanzania to the UK, Europe and Australia, are cracking down on activists trying to protect the planet. The legal contexts vary, but the charges – such as subversion, illicit association, terrorism and tax evasion – are often vague and time-consuming to disprove, while a growing number of countries, including the US and UK, have passed controversial anti-protest laws ostensibly intended to protect national security or so-called critical infrastructure such as fossil fuel pipelines.”

PBI accompanied defenders

Examples of criminalized defenders accompanied by PBI include social leaders in San Luis de Palenque, Colombia (for protesting against a Canadian oil and gas company), Maya Q’eqchi’ journalist Carlos Choc in Guatemala (for reporting on the Fenix mine that was first developed by a Canadian mining company), the Guapinol River defenders in Honduras (who oppose the Los Pinares-Ecotek mining-petcoke thermoelectric-iron oxide pelletizing plant megaproject), and Nahuatl water protector Miguel López Vega in Mexico (for defending the Metlapanapa River from an industrial park).

PBI-Canada has also highlighted that 74 people – land defenders, allies, legal observers and members of the media – were criminalized during three large-scale raids by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) Community-Industry Response Group (C-IRG) on Wet’suwe’ten territory in British Columbia during the resistance to the Coastal GasLink gas pipeline being built on Indigenous lands without consent.

UN Special Rapporteur

The UN Special Rapporteur for human rights defenders, Mary Lawlor, has commented: “These defenders are basically trying to save the planet, and in doing so save humanity. These are people we should be protecting, but are seen by governments and corporations as a threat to be neutralised. In the end it’s about power and economics.”

And as Watson has highlighted: “If the ocean dies, we all die. The ocean is the life support system for the planet, providing 50 percent of the oxygen we breathe and regulating climate. Providing oxygen and sequestering carbon dioxide is the major contribution of plankton. The whales are the primary species that fertilize the phytoplankton. In order to restore phytoplankton populations we need to restore whale populations and we need to abolish the industrialized exploitation of biodiversity in the ocean.”

We continue to follow this.

Video: Honest Government Ad | Japan vs Paul Watson by The Juice Media (language warning).

PBI-Mexico accompanied María Eugenia Gabriel Ruiz meets with UN Special Rapporteur on the right to water

By
Brent Patterson
-

This morning, PBI-Mexico posted: “Yesterday, Mª Eugenia de la @redsolidariaDH was able to speak with the Special Rapporteur Pedro Arrojo @SRWatSan about the challenges and impacts faced by the communities of Michoacán regarding access to water due to its indiscriminate use in monocultures and mining activities.”

María Eugenia Gabriel Ruiz, who is part of the Indigenous community of Comachuén, Michoacán, is a lawyer, land rights activist and member of the Human Rights Solidarity Network (Red Solidaria DH), an organization accompanied by PBI-Mexico.

PBI-Switzerland has also noted: “María Eugenia Gabriel Ruiz is part of the Red Solidaria de Derechos Humanos, which accompanies Indigenous and rural communities in the state of Michoacán in their processes of autonomy and self-determination, with an intersectional and feminist approach. A lawyer and social anthropologist, her work focuses on supporting Purhepecha women [Indigenous people centered in the northwestern region of Michoacán], security issues, and strengthening processes of self-determination.”

Threats

In February 2020, Animal Politico reported: “María Eugenia Gabriel Ruíz says that everything has already happened to her: she has been insulted in the street; They have pointed a gun at her from the open window of a van, and have tried to lynch her and burn her alive inside her own home. And all, he says, for two reasons. The first, because she is an Indigenous woman. And the second, for being the representative of the Communal Government Council of Comachuén, a Purépecha community.”

Mining impacts the Indigenous Nahua community of Santa María Ostula

Several years ago, the Chiapas Support Committee highlighted: “Mining companies have 40,000 hectares under concession within this territory. [Luxembourg-based] Ternium, just one steel manufacturing company, has a concession of 5,000 hectares within Ostula. As has been documented in parts of the country, there is a marriage of convenience between mining companies and organized crime, in which the cartels are in charge of the ‘security’ of businesses.”

Maria Eugenia in Europe

On September 13, PBI-Mexico also posted:

“María Eugenia, defense attorney and member of the @redsolidariaDH, presents the situation and challenges of defending the #HumanRIghts and communities in Michoacán within the framework of the Conference for Human Rights in Mexico organized by the @DMRKMexiko [the German Human Rights Coordination Mexico network] and @boell_latina [Team Latin America | Heinrich Böll Foundation].

Along with María Eugenia, colleagues from @CdhFrayba [Frayba Human Rights], @prensacimac [Communication and Information for Women] and @RedTDT [the National Network of Civil Human Rights Organizations “All Rights for All”] also presented their situation and analysis on the protection of human rights defenders and journalists in Mexico.”

We continue to follow the work of Maria Eugenia.

Further reading: PBI-Mexico accompanies Red Solidaria DH, recognizes the collective rights of the Indigenous Nahua peoples of Santa Maria Ostula (PBI-Canada, March 8, 2024).

This Wednesday

By
Brent Patterson
-

We hope that you will be able to join us tomorrow – Wednesday September 18 at 2:30 pm ET – to hear an expert panel provide an informed and clear update on the current situation six months to the day after the House of Commons voted to “cease the further authorization and transfer of arms exports to Israel.”

To register, click here.

Join Kelsey Gallagher from Project Ploughshares, Rachel Small from World Beyond War Canada, and Noam Perry from the American Friends Service Committee Action Center for Corporate Accountability for their expert analysis.

The webinar will help answer: What are Canada’s international human rights obligations with respect to the export of military goods? What arms companies are exporting weapons despite the International Court of Justice ruling on a probable genocide in Gaza? How can you engage to support the campaign for an arms embargo?

85+ people have now registered for this one-hour webinar. We hope you will be able to join us too to hear answers to these questions and more.

Register now by clicking here.

This webinar is being jointly organized by the Canadian Friends Service Committee (Quakers) and Peace Brigades International Canada.

Ambassadors of the EU, Spain, Germany and France condemn the assassination of Honduran environmental defender Juan Lopez

By
Brent Patterson
-

The following is our English translation of the text in Spanish (also included above) of the statement that was tweeted by the European Union in Honduras and reposted by the embassies of Spain, Germany and France in Honduras:

#TeamEurope

The ambassadors of the European Union, Spain, Germany and France in Honduras condemn in the strongest possible terms the assassination of Juan Lopez, a committed environmental defender and coordinator of the Municipal Committee of Common and Public Goods of Tocoa. We express our condolences and solidarity to his family, his loved ones and the entire community of human rights and environmental defenders.

We urge the authorities to immediately carry out a thorough investigation to bring all those responsible for this cowardly crime to justice. Swift, effective and exemplary measures need to be put in place to find the source of the threats faced by human rights and environmental defenders.

This murder is part of a disturbingly long list of murders. Impunity must be combated with the utmost speed and force.

Photo: Juan Lopez.

Further reading: Guapinol River water protector and CMDBCPT leader Juan López killed by gunmen in Tocoa, Colón, Honduras (PBI-Canada, September 15, 2024).

UN Special Rapporteur calls for a stop to the criminalization of water defenders opposed to megaprojects in Canada

By
Brent Patterson
-

Pedro Arrojo-Agudo, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the right to water and sanitation, presented to the Human Rights Council in Geneva this morning. He speaks about his visit to Canada here (starting at 2:09:54). While in Canada this past April 8 to 19, Arrojo-Agudo journeyed to Wet’suwet’en territory.

Among his recommendations to the Canadian state, the UN Special Rapporteur highlighted “stop criminalization of those who oppose large-scale industries in their territories.”

He also called on Canada to “enact legal reforms to guarantee throughout the country Indigenous peoples right to free, prior and informed consent” and “First Nations jurisdiction over the water sources on which they depend even if they are off reserve.”

In her 5-minute response (starting at 2:13:17), Minister-Counsellor Patricia Lyn McCullagh, Canada’s Deputy Permanent Representative to the United Nations, does not directly comment on the recommendation to stop the criminalization of water defenders.

Instead, the Deputy Permanent Representative only notes: “Canada will take into account the recommendations of the Special Rapporteur in the implementation of its action plan on the law on the Declaration of the United Nations on the rights of Indigenous peoples… [and] …Canada will continue to study the recommendations contained in the report…”

Militarized RCMP raids against water defenders

Amnesty International has documented: “Injunctions have been used by the government of Canada and the Province of [British Columbia] to undertake constant surveillance, harassment, and the forceful removal and jailing of Wet’suwet’en land defenders. Hereditary Chiefs, and matriarchs were arrested and jailed using a highly militarized police force on their territories. 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. In such raids they bulldozed and burned down buildings and desecrated ceremonial spaces.”

Watch the trailer from Yintah (on CBC Gem as of September 17 and Netflix on October 18).

Now, representatives from Amnesty International (France, Germany, the United States, Canada) and Front Line Defenders (Ireland) are monitoring an ongoing abuse of process court hearing in Smithers, British Columbia in which three Indigenous water defenders arrested by the RCMP in the above-mentioned November 2021 raid are alleging the “disproportionate and excessive use of force” against them in violation of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The application also alleges that the three water defenders were “variously denied their right to security of person, subjected to unreasonable search and seizure, arbitrarily detained and imprisoned, and denied reasonable bail without just cause.”

Front Line Defenders has further explained:

“The human rights defenders are being prosecuted for their rights as indigenous peoples, as well as their freedom of assembly in peacefully protesting the human rights impacts of the construction of TC Energy’s Coastal GasLink pipeline, which does not have the free, prior and informed consent of the Wet’suwet’en Hereditary Chiefs.

In 2019, the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination issued a decision to the Canadian State, urging them to halt the construction and to suspend all permits and approvals for the construction of the Coastal Gas Link pipeline in the ancestral land of the Wet’suwet’en Nation, as well as to cease any forced evictions against them.

Although the letter was sent to Canadian authorities, and the construction of a pipeline blatantly disregards the Wet’suwet’en laws and traditions, the project continued and the injunction remained in force during the following years, which caused indigenous human rights defenders to peacefully block access to their territory.

Front Line Defenders expresses its concern with the misuse of criminal law against these human rights defenders, as it believes they are being targeted as a reprisal for their legitimate human rights work in defence of their environment and their ancestral land, in an attempt to refrain them in their work. Indigenous rights defenders, especially those working against the negative effects of the implementation of extractive and infrastructure projects on their lands, have been living in a high-risk situation, with many of them being threatened, attacked and criminalized. Indigenous Peoples in Canada have also faced restrictions on their lands, with the use of injunctions against them by corporations.”

Gitanyow water defenders oppose pipeline

The concerns expressed by Amnesty International and Front Line Defenders, and the inattention of Canada’s Deputy Permanent Representative to the specific concerns about criminalization and RCMP violence, is particularly worrisome as Gitanyow water protectors in northern British Columbia have now set up a checkpoint on a highway in peaceful resistance to the PRGT fracked gas pipeline being built on their territory. This proposed pipeline will span more than 1,000 waterways, including major salmon-bearing rivers.

We continue to follow this situation and echo the UN Special Rapporteur’s recommendation to stop the criminalization of water defenders in Canada.

Further reading: UN Special Rapporteur comments on the “repression and persecution” faced by Indigenous water protectors in Canada (PBI-Canada, April 19, 2024).

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