Home Blog Page 109

1,358 Palestinian human rights defenders may have been killed over the last 10 months

By
Brent Patterson
-

Photo: Journalists holding placards protest the killing of journalist Mohamed Abu Saadeh in an Israeli attack on August 7, 2024. Photo by Doaa Albaz/Anadolu Agency.

Front Line Defenders has noted: “People considered to be human rights defenders in the OPT [Occupied Palestinian Territory] include journalists, lawyers, medical workers, fieldworkers, international volunteers who act as independent observers and carry out human rights work and defenders working for economic, social and cultural rights.”

The Guardian now reports that the civilians who have been killed over the past ten months include 168 journalists, 855 medical staff and 79 paramedics.

The European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights has previously noted that two lawyers – Dana Yaghi and Nour Naser Abu Al-Nour – from the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights were killed in Israeli airstrikes in February.

The New Republic has also reported: “On April 1, the Israeli military repeatedly struck a humanitarian relief convoy from World Central Kitchen … killing seven foreign aid workers [including Canadian Jacob Flickinger].”

And Human Rights Watch has noted: “As of April 30, the UN reported that 254 aid workers had been killed in Gaza since October 7, 2023, with UNRWA personnel accounting for 188 of these fatalities. On May 13, a UN vehicle was hit on the way to a hospital in Gaza, killing at least one UN staff member and injuring at least one more.”

Using the Front Line Defenders definition of a human rights defender, this would suggest that 1,358 human rights defenders have been killed (168 journalists, 855 medical staff, 79 paramedics, 2 lawyers, 254 aid workers).

Front Line Defenders has commented: “The impact on HRDs, as on the population at large, has been devastating. Those defending the right to health and the right to life as doctors, nurses, or ambulance workers, those exposing and documenting war crimes as journalists, and those providing humanitarian support as volunteers or employees of aid agencies were all specifically targeted by Israeli bombs or guns.”

Administrative detention of human rights defenders

The United Nations Special Rapporteur for human rights defenders Mary Lawlor has also recently highlighted the concern about the arbitrary detention of Palestinian human rights authorities by Israeli authorities.

Lawlor says: “I call on the Israeli authorities to respect fair trial conditions, or immediately release the remaining two human rights defenders, as well as the dozens of other human rights defenders detained on account of their peaceful activities.”

Tweet.

40,000+ Palestinians killed

This week, The Guardian also reported: “Ten months into Israel’s war on Gaza, the death toll has passed 40,000, according to health authorities there. …’This number, 40,000, includes only bodies that were received and buried,’ said Dr Marwan al-Hams, the director of field hospitals at the Palestinian ministry of health. …About 10,000 airstrike victims were thought to remain entombed in collapsed buildings, Hams said, because there was little heavy equipment or fuel to dig through steel and concrete ruins looking for them.”

That article adds: “Most are considered civilians because of their age or gender, with 10,627 children, 5,956 women and 2,770 elderly people.”

92,000 Palestinians wounded

On August 16, Reuters also reported: “Seven-year-old Sila Houso’s mother will not let the girl see her own shrapnel wounds after an Israeli strike that disfigured her head, fractured her forehead and detached a retina. When Sila asks her mother about her health, Um Sila tells the child she is beautiful. She is one of more than 92,000 Palestinians whom Gaza health authorities say have been wounded in the more than 10-month Israeli offensive.”

Image of Sila Housa.

186,000 Palestinians could die

On July 5, The Lancet highlighted: “Even if the conflict ends immediately, there will continue to be many indirect deaths in the coming months and years from causes such as reproductive, communicable, and non-communicable diseases. …It is not implausible to estimate that up to 186 000 or even more deaths could be attributable to the current conflict in Gaza.”

Peace Brigades International

Numerous organizations, defenders and communities accompanied by Peace Brigades International – including Credhos, Copinh, dhColombia, Nomadesc, Maya Q’eqchi’ journalist Carlos Ernesto Choc and the Cerezo Committee – have expressed their concern about the situation in Palestine.

Photo: PBI-Colombia accompanied Credhos president Ivan Madero Vergel.

The PBI statement on Gaza can be read here.

PBI-Canada continues to call for a ceasefire, supports the demand for an arms embargo on Israel, and highlights the recent news report by The Maple that Quebec-based General Dynamics Ordnance and Tactical Systems Inc. has been approved by the US government to be the principal contractor in the “possible” sale of CAD $83 million in high explosive mortar cartridges and related equipment to Israel.

We are also working with the Canadian Friends Service Committee on a webinar that will take place on September 18, the six-month anniversary of the House of Commons resolution to “cease the further authorization and transfer of arms exports to Israel”. More details on this webinar coming soon.

Vancouver Island University calls on RCMP to remove Palestinian Solidarity Encampment after August 18 deadline

By
Brent Patterson
-

Photo from PSE on Instagram.

On Thursday August 15, the Canadian Press reported: “Pro-Palestinian protesters who set up an encampment at Vancouver Island University in Nanaimo, B.C., have been told to pack up within 72 hours. The B.C. Civil Liberties Association says a judge in Vancouver granted an injunction ordering the encampment removed on Thursday, and that no further camps be established in the same area for 150 days.”

VIU says: “The Court’s order mandates that the encampment be removed by 9:30 am on Sunday, August 18th. …We have requested the RCMP’s assistance to support VIU’s enforcement of the order if participants remain after the court-ordered timeframe.”

The campus community radio station CHLY adds: “Judge Stephens rejected VIU’s request to allow police enforcement terms. This would have ordered the RCMP and any other police authority to remove and arrest any person who is knowingly breaking the injunction order. VIU stated in their notice of application that an injunction is needed as ‘the police have thus far been unwilling to assist with the removal of the encampment without an injunction.’”

The Palestinian Solidarity Encampment (PSE) statement on Instagram following the court decision gives no indication that they will leave.

It highlights: “We, the students, remain steadfast in our commitment to the Palestinian cause, our, demands, and our right to protest.”

For further updates from the PSE at VIU, click here.

Image of the encampment.

PBI-Canada continues to call for the abolition of the RCMP C-IRG/CRU and expresses the concern that this controversial unit now under systemic investigation could be used against the Palestinian Solidarity Encampment at Vancouver Island University.

Further reading: 1,358 Palestinian human rights defenders may have been killed over the last 10 months (August 17, 2024).

PBI-Mexico salutes Indigenous communities working in defence of territory, water and their self-determination

By
Brent Patterson
-

Photo: PBI-Mexico accompanies the Peoples’ Front in Defence of Land and Water at the first Assembly of Cholultec Peoples convened by the Union of Peoples and Subdivisions against the Sanitary Landfill and in Defense of Life to reaffirm their rights to self-determination and autonomy; May 14, 2024.

On August 10, PBI-Mexico posted on Facebook:

“For yesterday, the International Day of Indigenous Peoples, we salute the indigenous communities and peoples who struggle daily for human rights, in defense of territory and water, and for respect for the rights of autonomy and self-determination of indigenous peoples. At PBI Mexico, we reaffirm our commitment to respect and guarantee the right to self-determination of indigenous peoples in Mexico, as contemplated in Convention 169 of the International Labor Organization (ILO) and the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

This right to self-determination is being exercised by the Peoples’ Front Morelos Puebla Tlaxcala together with other peoples and communities of the Cholulteca region, co-convening the First Assembly of the Cholulteca Peoples, where the Cholulteca peoples reaffirmed their rights to self-determination and autonomy, as well as their collective commitment to life, against the San Pedro Cholula intermunicipal sanitary landfill.”

Every August 9 commemorates the International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples, chosen in recognition of the first meeting of the UN Working Group on Indigenous Populations held in Geneva in 1982.

Accompaniment

PBI-Mexico has accompanied the Peoples’ Front since early 2020. In August 2022, that accompaniment was extended for another three years.

Further reading: PBI-Mexico accompanies Peoples’ Front in Defence of Land and Water at highway blockade at Cholula garbage dump (March 22, 2024)

Video: PBI-Mexico with Indigenous Nahua land defender Miryam Vargas Teutle of the Peoples’ Front (December 18, 2023).

PBI-Honduras sends condolences on the murder of CNTC campesino leader and land defender Olman Garcia

By
Brent Patterson
-

PBI-Honduras has posted:

“From PBI Honduras, we send our deepest condolences to the @CntcTegucigalpa [National Union of Rural Workers] and to the family of peasant leader and land defender Olman García, who was murdered on August 4 in Ceibita Way (Esparta, Atlántida).”

The image below states:

“In memory of land defender Olman Garcia

From PBI Honduras, we send our deepest condolences to the National Union of Rural Workers (CNTC) and the family of the peasant leader and land defender Olman Garcia, who was assassinated on August 4th in Ceibita Way (Esparta, Atlántida). 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.”

The Agrarian Platform and the Coordination of Popular Organizations of Aguan (COPA) has also posted:

“1. We strongly condemn the vile and cowardly murder of the coordinator of the Peasant Movement of Ceibita Way, affiliated to the National Center of Rural Workers (CNTC), OLMAN GARCIA ORTIZ, which occurred on Sunday, August 4, 2024, in the village of Ceibita Way, Municipality of Esparta, in the department of Atlántida,

The violent act occurred in the afternoon when hired assassins shot him repeatedly until they took his life while he was riding his motorcycle, his body remained inert on the pavement of the road.”

These two groups further note:

“5. We hold the Dinant Corporation and the Facusse family responsible for this new crime committed against our brother OLMAN GARCIA ORTIZ, we also denounce the collusion of the National Preventive Police and the Cobras Special Forces in a series of acts of violence and serious violations of human rights against peasant families fighting for the right to land and food.

6. We denounce the officials of the Protection Mechanism who denied the right to request protection to our compañero Olman García, whose right to life and to continue with his family was denied by hired assassins.

7. We demand that the Public Prosecutor’s Office conduct an immediate and exhaustive investigation to capture those responsible for this vile and cowardly murder.

8. From the Bajo Aguán region we send our most sincere expressions of solidarity with the families and comrades of our brother Olman García and we join them in the demand for justice for our martyrs.”

Accompaniment

The CNTC, created in 1985, 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.

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.

PBI-Colombia accompanies CREDHOS screening of “The Wounds of the River” documentary

By
Brent Patterson
-

CREDHOS has posted on Facebook:

“With much excitement and mixed feelings, we launched our mini-series documentary; ‘The Wounds of the River’, an audiovisual piece that highlights the voices of victims, artisanal fishermen, women, defenders and human rights defenders, who narrate the victimization against the region and our most important river artery: the Magdalena River.

This documentary series travels through the territorial realities of 8 municipalities in the region and about 32 testimonies of people who bravely decided to raise their voices, tell their stories and vindicate the Magdalena River.

In this launching, the victims and communities of Magdalena Medio were present, who were the protagonists of this mini-series.

This documentary is the result of the advocacy of the Regional Coordination of Case 08, in which we participated and have set a precedent for the victimization of the Magdalena River to be recognized.”

The Special Jurisdiction for Peace (JEP) is a tribunal that is responsible for administrating justice for crimes committed before December 1, 2016, in the context of the internal armed conflict that began in May 1964.

MSN explains: “It addresses the alliances between members of the security forces and paramilitary groups to commit crimes against humanity and war crimes against the civilian population. Homicides, massacres, forced displacement, forced disappearance, torture, threats, sexual and gender-based violence, murders, massacres and land dispossession.”

The José Alvear Restrepo Lawyers’ Collective (CAJAR) further specifies: “Figures from the JEP indicate that in this macro-case there were 15,710 victims of crimes attributed to members of the security forces, 56,502 to paramilitaries and 280 to other agents of the State. The crimes being investigated in this case are: massacres, homicides, sexual violence, illegal detentions, torture, forced disappearances, dispossession and forced displacement.”

The JEP report THE ENVIRONMENT AS A SILENT VICTIM A diagnosis of the effects of the post-peace agreement (2017-2022) published in July 2022 notes the judicial decision that “RECOGNIZE(s) the Magdalena River, its tributaries as an entity subject to rights to protection, conservation, maintenance and restoration by the State, [the Bogota-based energy company] Enel-Emgesa and the community.”

That report also notes: “The natural environment is the silent victim of the armed conflict that still persists in Colombia. Precisely, the Investigation and Indictment Unit has counted at least 283 damages to nature since the signing of the Peace Accord [in June/August 2016] until May 30, 2022.”

PBI-Colombia has accompanied the Regional Corporation for the Defence of Human Rights (CREDHOS) since 1994.

PBI-Guatemala accompanies Indigenous Community of San Francisco Quezaltepeque in opposition to Canadian mining company

By
Brent Patterson
-

The Indigenous Community of San Francisco Quezaltepeque has posted on Facebook:

“Today, August 9, we celebrate the international day of indigenous peoples from our Mayan Ch’orti’ territory in the sacred place 11 aj y cruz de la ermita, in the indigenous community of Quezaltepeque.

With the participation of the ancestral authorities of Olopa, San Juan Hermitage, Camotan, Quezaltepeque and the Ch’orti’ population, as well as the accompaniment of Peace Brigades International PBI – Guatemala Project, PNC, and the visit of the departmental governor of Chiquimula. 

In the interventions of the authorities, it was mentioned that this activity is not folklorism but it is our spirituality of the people and that it is real because we are in front of the common altar.

The struggle for the defense of the territory against mining projects and the care of the environment was made known, and that the people remain united against the social division that is happening because in some projects they do not consult the communities, such is the case of what is currently happening with the Trifinio plan and the municipality of Quezaltepeque because the consultation was not carried out and it is generating division among the communities and that is worrying.

The vision of the Ch’orti’ people is the collective because the individual does not favor the entire population.

There was artistic participation.

For his part, the governor showed his closeness to the people and is a way to bring the government to the communities to listen to their needs and at the same time he conveyed greetings from the President of the Republic Bernardo Arevalo.

He also stated that the day of the indigenous communities is not only on August 9, but every day because the resistance is permanent.

This is the first time in history that a governor has approached the people, and even more so on our indigenous peoples’ day. 

Congratulations to the Ch’orti’ people.”

Canadian mining company

PBI-Guatemala has 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.”

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

And as noted on this Gold Group Management Inc. webpage, Radius Gold is part of this group and “has an Option Agreement for a 60/40 earn-in with Volcanic Gold Mines Inc. and includes the Motagua Norte project and the Holly project.” Volcanic Gold is also a part of this group and whose assets in Guatemala include the “Holly Project and the Motagua Norte project through an Option Agreement with Radius Gold.”

We continue to follow this.

Bechtel, implicated in the Water War in Bolivia, will “oversee and manage the execution” of the PRGT pipeline on Gitxsan and Gitanyow territories

By
Brent Patterson
-

Photo: The writing on the wall says: “The water is the people’s, dammit!” Next to it are Dalmatas, “el Grupo Especial de Seguridad” special forces brought in by the Bolivian government to suppress demonstrations, February 2000.

Bechtel, the Virginia-based engineering transnational corporation at the center of the Water War in Bolivia, will oversee the construction of the Prince Rupert Gas Transmission (PRGT) pipeline on Gitxsan and Gitanyow territories in British Columbia.

The Vancouver Sun reports: “Construction on the pipeline is set to begin this month within Nisga’a lands… To maintain the current environmental pipeline permit, the partners must achieve a status of construction being ‘substantially started’ by Nov. 25.”

Offshore Energy adds: “Construction activities, set to start this month, include bridge and road construction, worker housing development, clearing and grading, and establishment of laydown yards and construction offices.”

That article highlights: “Bechtel has been selected to oversee and manage the execution of the PRGT natural gas pipeline, while B.C.-based construction company Ledcor will support the 2024 work plan.”

Davis Thames, the CEO of Houston-based Western LNG, the company that bought the PRGT project from former owner TC Energy, cited the Hoover Dam as an example of “Bechtel’s ability to get the job done right.” But Native American Netroots has commented that dam “indirectly led to the destruction of the traditional Navajo economy, and the creation of poverty and economic inequality among the Navajo.”

The Water War in Bolivia

Bechtel was also a central actor in the Water War in Bolivia.

The focal point of that Water War of October 28, 1999, to April 11, 2000, was Cochabamba, an Indigenous-majority city in Bolivia.

NACLA explains: “The Water War was precipitated when SEMAPA, Cochabamba’s municipal water company, was sold to a transnational consortium controlled by U.S.-based Bechtel in exchange for debt relief for the Bolivian government and new World Bank loans to expand the water system.”

University of California Press adds: “In response, water users from across the region occupied streets and highways, erected barricades, and held mass assemblies and rallies. Rather than negotiate, the government dispatched soldiers and police who unleashed tear gas, clubs, and bullets against protesters and bystanders alike. Undeterred, the protesters regrouped and their numbers grew.”

Ultimately, the resistance won.

Oscar Olivera, of the Highland Aymara and Quechua peoples who make up the majority of Bolivia’s indigenous peoples, has noted: “After the water war, Bechtel went to the international courts to demand that Bolivia pay $25m (£13.6m) for damages and costs. This enraged people even more and hundreds of campaigns around the world were started against the company. After four years, Bechtel dropped its demand for a stake in Bolivian water. A seemingly-invincible multinational had been defeated by a third world city.”

Olivera has also stated of Bechtel in Bolivia: “Its aim was to profit greatly from water.” That aim was backed by state violence.

On February 4-5, 2000, the Coalition for the Defense of Water and Life (La Coordinadora) held a peaceful demonstration in Cochabamba’s city plaza. The police met that demonstration with tear gas, injuring an estimated 175 and blinding two people. On April 8, 2000, 17-year-old Victor Hugo Daza was shot dead by a Bolivian Army captain who opened fire into a crowd of demonstrators. The April protests would ultimately leave six dead and dozens injured and forcibly detained.

And Ximena Ramirez Villanueva has commented in the McGill International Review: “The struggle of the Indigenous community of Cochabambinos mirrors that of many Indigenous communities all over the world.”

As the Gitxsan and Gitanyow demand that the Royal Canadian Mounted Police C-IRG/CRU not trespass on their territory and inflict the violence seen against Wet’suwet’en land defenders and those at Fairy Creek, we will continue to follow this.

Gitxsan to rally against the RCMP C-IRG/CRU trespassing on their territory at the Pacific National Exhibition, August 27

By
Brent Patterson
-

Poster for the rally.

The Gitxsan Huwilp Government has posted:

Rally with the Gitxsan

August 27th at 9am

PNE entrance in Vancouver

We continue to seek justice through civil action against the BC Supreme Court injunctions and the RCMP C-IRG … rebranded to RCMP CRU… who are sent as a military wing to enforce illegal injunctions. We demand RCMP CRU not trespass on our traditional territory when we are protecting our natural resources from being exploited. Email communications@gitxsan.ca to register and get your rally kit.

WHEN: Tuesday August 27th, 2024 at 9 AM

WHO: Gitxsan, neighbouring First Nations, and Allies

Media Contact: info@alliesinaction.ca  | 778.888.0514

—

Photo: Heavily-armed RCMP C-IRG in New Hazelton on Gitxsan territory in British Columbia, November 2021.

A mega-project that could see the RCMP C-IRG deployed on Gitxsan territory is the Prince Rupert Gas Transmission (PRGT) pipeline. Construction on this pipeline is scheduled to begin on August 24.

If completed, the 800-kilometre pipeline would carry fracked gas from Hudson’s Hope in northeastern British Columbia across an estimated 120 kilometres of Gitxsan territory as well as Gitanyow territory until it reaches the proposed the Ksi Lisims LNG terminal near the Nass River estuary on Nisga’a territory in northwestern BC. From there it would be exported to countries including Japan and South Korea.

The environmental certificate for the pipeline says it must be “substantially started” before November 25, 2024.

We continue to follow this.

Further reading: Gitxsan Huwilp Government proposes “military armistice agreement” with RCMP Community-Industry Response Group (April 22, 2023) and PBI-Canada hosts webinar on Gitxsan and Gitanyow resistance to colonial mega-projects (March 7, 2024).

The PNE runs August 17 to September 2 this year.

RCMP C-IRG hired Vancouver-based intelligence company to spy on the online activities of Fairy Creek land defenders

By
Brent Patterson
-

Photo: “RCMP officers block the road leading to the Fairy Creek encampment on the day arrests began, May 17, 2021. Photo by Jimmy Thomson / Canada’s National Observer”

Canada’s National Observer reports: “The RCMP’s controversial C-IRG unit hired a third-party intelligence company to spy on the online activities of Fairy Creek activists, newly available documents show.”

Key excerpts from the article include:

“The contents of the intelligence report, authored partway through the protest movement, has been blocked from publication by a ban imposed by the B.C. Supreme Court since June 2022. But an invoice obtained through a federal Access to Information request, filed in May 2023, allows Canada’s National Observer to reveal its existence for the first time.

The officer in charge of the RCMP’s Community-Industry Response Group, John Brewer, signed off on paying Human-i Intelligence Services Ltd. $9,975 for the report, according to the invoice. The invoice refers to the document as an “online intelligence report” on Fairy Creek.

[In February 2014] the B.C. Civil Liberties Association filed a complaint with the mounties’ sole oversight agency, the Civilian Review and Complaints Commission (CRCC), regarding the [surveillance of environmental protesters by the RCMP … during the Enbridge Northern Gateway pipeline hearings in 2013, when environmental groups were organizing to urge the National Energy Board to reject the pipeline].

The result of that complaint was a ruling that narrowed the RCMP’s leeway in determining how and when to spy on participants in peaceful environmental protests. The ruling did not address whether it would apply to a third-party intelligence company like Human-i, or whether it would apply to spying on internet activities.

Human-i Intelligence Services is a small private intelligence firm based in Vancouver and headed up by Julie Jones. …Jones also worked for the RCMP in the Wet’suwet’en protests. She testified at the trial of Chief Dtsa’hyl (Adam Gagnon) as a witness for the Crown: according to CBC’s coverage of the trial, the RCMP “hired Jones to download about a dozen web pages and video from public Facebook and Instagram accounts operated by opponents of Coastal GasLink’s pipeline.””

The full article can be read at: RCMP hired private spies to monitor Fairy Creek activists (Jimmy Thomson, Canada’s National Observer, August 9, 2024).

Peace Brigades International-Canada participates in the Abolish C-IRG coalition. We have also been following the Civilian Review and Complaints Commission (CRCC) “systemic investigation” of the C-IRG launched seventeen months ago on March 9, 2023.

On March 22, 2023, PBI-Canada hand-delivered this letter from Abolish C-IRG to the CRCC office in Ottawa that stated: “Given the nature of the complaints and substantial evidence supporting them, we argue for the suspension of all C-IRG deployment in BC pending investigation and resolution of all complaints currently before the CRCC. The CRCC reviews can take years to complete, and it is irresponsible to have this unit continue operations during that time, enabling the continuation of unlawful use of force, arrests, detentions, and assaults that have sparked such an investigation.”

The CRCC has previously told PBI-Canada that it “strives to complete its systemic investigations within 12-18 months.” The 18-month timeline falls on September 9, 2024, about four week from now.

#AbolishCIRG

PBI-Guatemala accompanied Council of Communities of Retalhuleu (CCR) highlights need for water legislation

By
Brent Patterson
-

Photo: The CCR observes water being taken from a river for a water-intensive sugar plantation; May 3, 2023.

In this article published by Peace Brigades International-United Kingdom, former PBI-Guatemala field volunteer Lorna Ní Shúilleabháin contrasts the theory versus the reality of Indigenous rights in Guatemala.

She highlights: “Approximately 43.75% of Guatemala’s population belong to Indigenous communities. Rights, laws and mechanisms exist to protect these Indigenous peoples. However, PBI has seen that these laws and mechanisms are not being implemented on the ground and Indigenous communities suffer grave human rights violations.”

Photo: Lorna Ní Shúilleabháin was a field volunteer with PBI-Guatemala from March 2023 to February 2024.

Ní Shúilleabháin notes the Agreement on Identity and Rights of Indigenous Peoples, Articles 67 and 68 of the Guatemalan Constitution, the UN Convention on the Rights of Indigenous People, Convention 169 of the International Labour Organisation, and the protocol for police action during evictions.

She adds: “According to PBI’s observations of the situation on the ground, these laws and treaties are not being implemented in indigenous communities.”

Water Law Framework Initiative 5070

Ní Shúilleabháin further notes: “The water law framework initiative 5070 proposes a new law aimed at empowering communities to manage their water resources and ensuring their right to be consulted on any agribusiness or mining projects in their areas. Civil society and grassroots organisations including the Council of Communities of Retalhuleu (CCR) have united to form Campaña Agua Para la Vida and have highlighted what should be included in the water legislation.”

The human right to water

More than five years ago, the PBI-Guatemala accompanied Chinautla Multisector Urban Platform indicated their desire to “create a water law and government and municipal agreements that guarantee community and indigenous peoples’ participation to guarantee equal rights to water” within a two year period.

This demand has a constitutional context.

The Oxford Human Rights Hub has explained: “Guatemala’s constitution has several provisions that provide for or implicate the right to clean and safe water. In April 2016 there was nationwide mobilization by rural and indigenous communities to demand a stop to the theft and contamination of water. This led to a proposal for a new law (5070) which seeks to give the greatest possible power to communities to manage their water resources and to enforce the right of communities to be consulted on any agribusiness or mining project in their area.”

Accompaniment

The PBI-Guatemala Project has accompanied the Chinautla Multisector since December 2018 and the Retalhuleu Community Council since April 2020.

In May 2023, PBI-Canada travelled to Guatemala and met with both the Chinautla Multisector and the Retalhuleu Community Council. For more on this, please see: Photo-journal of PBI-Canada visit with PBI-Guatemala accompanied organizations, defenders and communities (May 9, 2023).

Photo: PBI-Canada visits Poqomám territory to meet with Chinautla Multisector and learn about their struggle to defend the right to water; May 1, 2023.

Photo: The plantations and mills that export sugar from Guatemala to Canada impact communities and waterways in Guatemala. PBI-Canada has highlighted this at Canada has imported 1.46 million metric tons of sugar from Guatemala since 2015 (May 14, 2023).

1...108109110...476Page 109 of 476