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PBI-Mexico accompanies the International Women’s Day march in Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua

By
Brent Patterson
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On March 9, PBI-Mexico tweeted:

“Yesterday #8M , PBI accompanied the women of #CiudadJuárez in the march for #InternationalWomensDay.

The women are demanding justice, fair treatment and an end to the violence against them. They demand security and guarantees from their #HumanRights.

#8M2023 #8marzo2023”

“Femicide nation”

Earlier this year, France 24 reported: “Mexico’s worsening gender violence crisis and the state’s failure to respond have led protesters and activists to call the country a femicide nation.”

In 2022, The Guardian adds: “Last year Mexico recorded 1,015 cases of femicide – when a woman is murdered specifically because of her gender – compared with 977 in 2020. Overall, about 3,500 women were killed.”

In August 2021, Border Report also reported: “High-profile reports by Amnesty International, the Northern Border College and others found a pattern of gender-based violence and sexual abuse in many of the 400 or so killings of women in Juarez between 1993 and 2005. …But for all the press the femicides have garnered in the past, the fact is that more women than ever are being murdered in Juarez. The city has recorded 491 homicides where women were the victims in the past three years alone.”

The Associated Press has highlighted key problems such as “police officers who won’t take reports about missing women, clumsy or nonexistent investigations, prosecutors and judges who revictimize women” and that despite increasing numbers “only 27% of violent deaths of women were classified as femicides [in 2021] and that women’s killings were more likely to be classified as unintentional, something akin to manslaughter.”

And Open Democracy has also reported: “Estimates from Mexico’s national human rights commission suggest that 90% of registered femicides go unpunished, with no convictions.”

IWD protests across Mexico

Mexico News Daily reports: “Marches were held in numerous cities, including Guadalajara, Monterrey, Morelia, Chihuahua, Puebla, Oaxaca, Zacatecas and Mérida.”

The San Diego Union-Tribune has also reported: “More than 1,000 women wearing purple marched in Tijuana on Wednesday [March 8] to demand an end to femicide and other abuses that they frequently face.”

And Reuters has highlighted: “By nightfall in Mexico’s second-largest city, Monterrey, protesters clashed with police and some set a local government palace gate on fire.”

We support the call for an end to femicide and all forms of violence against women.

#8M2023 #8marzo2023 #CallItFemicide #IWD2023

Civilian Review and Complaints Commission (CRCC) to conduct a “systemic investigation” on the RCMP’s “community-industry response group”

By
Brent Patterson
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Photo: RCMP Chief Superintendent John Brewer became the C-IRG’s gold commander in 2021. He was the silver commander in charge of operations when the squad was created in 2017. Photo by APTN.

The CBC reports: “The RCMP’s federal watchdog agency is opening a probe into the activities and operations of the Community-Industry Response Group (C-IRG), a special unit that polices protests against resource extraction in British Columbia.”

That article adds: “According to the terms of reference, the watchdog will conduct a comprehensive review known as a systemic investigation and focus on the C-IRG’s authorities and accountability.”

The Civilian Review and Complaints Commission (CRCC) posted this statement and the terms of reference for the probe.

The CRCC statement highlights: “The CRCC’s systemic investigation will examine whether relevant policies, procedures, guidelines and training: clearly define the RCMP’s and C-IRG’s authorities, roles, and requirements; are consistent with applicable jurisprudence/case law and the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms; and reflect previous relevant CRCC recommendations and other good/leading practices.”

The terms of reference notes that it will look at C-IRG actions at: “the Cooper Creek Cedar Ltd injunction on Salisbury Creek Forestry Road; the Coastal GasLink Ltd injunction on Wet’suwet’en traditional territory; and the Teal Cedar Products Ltd injunction in the Fairy Creek watershed.”

In May 2022, the RCMP arrested 17 people for blocking a logging operation in the area known as Salisbury Creek, near the small community of Argenta in the Kootenays. Photo: The RCMP arrest a police liaison representative. Photo by Louis Bockner/The Narwhal.

The RCMP have launched three militarized raids – in January 2019, February 2020 and November 2021 – against Wet’suwet’en land defenders opposed to the Coastal GasLink fracked gas pipeline being built on their territory without consent. Photo: The RCMP arrest land defenders on Wet’suwet’en territory in November 2021. Photo by Dan Loan.

Between May and December 2021, the RCMP arrested about 1,800 people at the blockade against logging on territory on southern Vancouver Island. Photo: The RCMP arrest activists at the Caycuse blockade. Photo by Rainforest Flying Squad.

The CRCC announcement does not appear to specify a timeline nor does it suggest that there will be public hearings into the C-IRG. It also does not specify what measures, if any, will be put into place on C-IRG activities while the unit is being reviewed.

Past concerns with the CRCC process

While a systemic investigation is different than an individual complaint, there have been concerns about the length of time a report can take.

In January 2022, APTN reported: “A federal judge says the RCMP Commissioner must respond to public complaints within six months of receiving them after a court challenge was launched over delays coming from the top of the national policing agency.”

The issue has been that the CRCC cannot make final findings and recommendations on a complaint until the RCMP commissioner respond to their interim report.

For instance, the CBC has reported: “In early 2014, the B.C. Civil Liberties Association (BCCLA) first lodged a complaint with the [CRCC] alleging Mounties were spying on Indigenous and environmental protesters opposed to the proposed Northern Gateway pipeline.”

That article adds: “There is no statutory timeline the RCMP must follow in responding to CRCC interim reports.”

In this case, the CRCC launched its investigation in 2014 and completed its interim report in June 2017. The RCMP commissioner did not respond to the interim report until November 2020, more than three years later. The CRCC published its final report in December 2020 concluding that the RCMP’s monitoring of Northern Gateway pipeline protesters in 2012 and 2013 was for the most part reasonable.

Furthermore, the CBC has also reported: “If the CRCC concludes a finding of wrongdoing is founded, it can make recommendations to the RCMP, although they are not binding. …The RCMP itself — not the CRCC — decides whether the recommendations are logged as completed.”

#AbolishCIRG

On February 21 of this year, PBI-Canada organized a webinar titled “Dismantle the C-IRG, end violence against land defenders” featuring Wet’suwet’en Hereditary Chief Na’moks, international human rights lawyer Shivangi Misra, activist-academic Keith Cherry and PBI-Canada Board member Seb Bonet.

To watch the video of that webinar, please click here.

Now, we are part of an informal network of activists, academics, lawyers and organizations who are also calling for the abolition of C-IRG.

For an in-depth read, please also see The C-IRG: the resource extraction industry’s best ally by Molly Murphy and Research for the Front Lines (January 5, 2022).

PBI-Colombia accompanies Nydia Erika Bautista Foundation on advocacy visit to Washington, DC

By
Brent Patterson
-

On March 8, PBI-Colombia tweeted:

“We accompany @nydia_erika [the Nydia Erika Bautista Foundation] to Washington due to the serious situation of impunity for forced disappearance in Colombia and to request the declassification of intelligence files to access information on the whereabouts of the victims and support for the law on women seekers and their protection.”

Declassification of intelligence files

In June 2022, Semana reported: “[The Truth Commission has recommended the declassification of intelligence files and has] proposed that these documents be kept confidential for only 15 years, and not for 30 years as is currently the case.”

The Commission’s final report also recommended that the president of Colombia ask the president of the United States to expedite the declassification of documents from US government agencies related to the Colombian armed conflict.

The article adds: “The president of the Truth Commission, Father Francisco de Roux, presented the recommendations made by the entity to the government to heal the wounds of the armed conflict and answer the multiple questions presented by the victims to understand the horror.”

Father de Roux says: “We ask the justice system to put an end to impunity, rebuild confidence in the state, guarantee the impartiality and independence of the investigative and judicial bodies, and protect the victims and judges who participate in these processes of truth and justice.”

Law on women seekers

In June 2022, El Espectador also reported: “The Nydia Erika Bautista Foundation and seven organizations of victims of forced disappearance from different regions of the country delivered a document to Father Francisco de Roux with 15 recommendations that they hope that entity will record in its final report.”

Along with the recommendation of declassifying military archives, it was also proposed to create a Law for the Protection of Women Seekers.

El Espectador explains:

“Comprehensive Law for the Protection of the Rights of Women and Family Seekers: The victims also demand that State policy include a law that recognizes their rights, their contribution to the truth and the costs that their work has implied in their lives and in their physical, mental and family integrity. “A Comprehensive Law that dignifies their ethical and political role in society and the democratic rule of law and as women caregivers heads of family to whom the State has de facto delegated the search for the disappeared,” the document says.

Protect the rights of missing women and searchers who have been victims of sexual violence so that they can access truth and justice. The document argues that there is a “total absence of criminal and disciplinary investigation of gender violations – including sexual violence – suffered by disappeared women and perpetrated against women searchers, under the armed conflict.””

PBI-Colombia has accompanied the Nydia Erika Bautista Foundation occasionally from 2007 and in full since 2016.

The Foundation was created in 1997. It has placed the issue of the enforced disappearance of more than eighty thousand people as a result of the armed conflict on the national agenda and has promoted national legislation on the subject. It was named after Nydia Erika, Yanette’s 32-year-old sister, who was disappeared on August 30, 1987 during an operation carried out by Army Brigades III and XX. There are indications that Nydia Erika suffered torture and sexual violence during her captivity before being executed.

Photos: Nydia Erika Bautista, her sister Yanette, and Yanette’s daughter Andrea Torres Bautista.

 

PBI-Guatemala accompanies Human Rights Law Firm at pre-trial evidentiary hearing in the Military Diary Case

By
Brent Patterson
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On March 8, PBI-Guatemala posted:

“#PBI accompanies the Human Rights Law Firm to the pre-trial evidentiary hearing against all those accused in the #MilitaryDiaryCase. The hearing was suspended due to the absence of a technical defence lawyer.”

The Military Diary gives an account of more than 195 victims of state security violence between 1983 and 1985. Those seen as “internal enemies” were disappeared. Of 183, it contains specific files, with details of their capture, the place where they were captured and what happened to each of them afterwards.

The code “300” at the end of entries is understood to mean they were executed.

On May 27, 2021, 11 retired military and former police officers were arrested for the disappearances detailed in Military Diary. Two of the arrested died without facing trial.

In May 2022 nine of them were sent to trial by Judge Miguel Ángel Gálvez for their alleged participation in kidnappings, disappearances, torture and executions.

On May 11, 2022, the Associated Press reported: “A Guatemala judge who last week ordered nine former police and military officers to stand trial for alleged crimes during that country’s civil war, said Wednesday [May 11] that death threats against him had increased since announcing his decision.”

Judge Gálvez said: “They send me messages, they call me on the phone, there’s vehicles following; all of that is happening.”

He left Guatemala on November 4, 2022.

In PBI-Guatemala’s most recent monthly information package, they note:

“In the Diario Militar (DM) case, we were present at the hearing to review the coercive measures against the defendants Jacobo Esdras Salán Sánchez, former Army colonel, and Malfred Orlando Pérez Lorenzo, former member of the disbanded National Police (PN). They have been accused of crimes of forced disappearance, murder, attempted murder and crimes against humanity. Judge Rudy Eleazar Bautista Fuentes recognized that these crimes should not be granted alternative measures but accepted the petition anyway, and granted the measures on the basis of the defense’s arguments that pre-trial detention could worsen the health of the defendants. The two will have to pay a bail of Q6000 and present themselves every month at the Human Rights Prosecutor’s Office to sign a registration book. The judge’s decision caused much indignation among the relatives of the detained and disappeared and their lawyers expressed bewilderment.”

PBI-Guatemala has been accompanying the #CasoDiarioMilitar court hearing process that began in May-June 2021.

PBI-Guatemala is accompanying the law firm on three other court cases: the Hogar Seguro case (where officials and police are accused in the death of women and girls in a safe house fire), Samococh (the extrajudicial killing by police of Q’eqchi’ opposed to Santa Rita dam), and the Teacher case (the continued criminalization of Q’eqchi’ defender Bernardo Caal Xol).

PBI-Guatemala began to accompany Édgar Pérez Archila in August 2010, due to several security incidents Edgar had faced in relation to the high profile judicial processes he was working on.

At the end of 2013, PBI-Guatemala extended the accompaniment to the other lawyers at the BDH.

For more, CBC has reported the stories of three women – Wendy Mendez, Maria Consueleo Pérez, and Annabella Jiménez – who now live in Canada, but who lost loved ones who are listed in the Military Diary. That story by Erin Ellis can be read here.

PBI-Guatemala accompanies Peaceful Resistance of Cahabón as Q’eqchi’ defenders receive threats for defending territory and rivers

By
Brent Patterson
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On March 8, PBI-Guatemala posted:

“#PBI accompanies to the Peaceful Resistance of Cahabón visiting Q’eqchi’ defenders who receive threats for defending their territory and rivers.”

The Peace Brigades International-Guatemala Project has accompanied the Peaceful Resistance of Cahabón since July 2017.

It has explained: “The Peaceful Resistance of Cahabón is made of more than 190 Q’eqchi’ communities who live in the Cahabón River basin. Since 2015 they have organized around defense of territory and against the launch of the OXEC I and OXEC II hydroelectric projects installed on the Oxec River, a tributary of the Cahabón River.”

It adds: “During the good-faith consultation [in August 2017] PBI accompanied the consultation process relating to the hydroelectric project installed on the Cahabón river basin, operated by OXEC SA, belonging to the Energy Resources Capital Corp group (ERCC).”

Hatch Ltd., a company founded in Toronto and now based in nearby Mississauga, was involved in the construction of the OXEC II dam.

NS Energy has reported: “Hatch would be engaged to deliver the conceptual design and detailed design-build-engineering for the Oxec II Hydroelectric Project.”

Commenting on OXEC II, Ian Ainslie, a Hatch project manager based in Niagara Falls, Ontario, noted: “Hatch has been active in developing hydroelectric sites in Guatemala for over 20 years.” And Hatch’s managing director of power, Jim Sarvinis, says: “Projects like Oxec II are exactly why we do the type of work we do at Hatch.”

In 2017, PBI-Guatemala noted: “On February 17 the Constitutional Court (CC) ordered to suspend the construction of Oxec I and Oxec II hydroelectric projects due to incompliance with Convention 169 of the International Labour Organisation (ILO) which establishes the right of indigenous peoples to be consulted on projects that affect them.”

OXEC II became operational in September 2018.

We continue to follow the Q’eqchi’ resistance to dams on the Cahabon River.

PBI comments at the UN in Geneva on the report by the UN High Commissioner on Colombia, Guatemala and Honduras

By
Brent Patterson
-

On March 8, PBI-Colombia tweeted:

“We appreciate the reports from Guatemala, Honduras and Colombia; and we regret the persistence of attacks against defenders in the three countries.”

The video clip referenced in their tweet can be seen here.

Their Twitter thread adds:

“In Colombia we salute construction efforts #Peace. High rates of murder and attacks against defenders are worrisome, especially in territories, and persistent #impunity + lack of clarification of the perpetrators and masterminds.

We encourage the Colombian State to advance with civil society a public policy of #Guarantees for defenders, with collective and gender approaches.

In Colombia we underline the importance of putting an end to all illegal intelligence and surveillance actions against defenders #humanrights, also clarifying the role of foreign companies involved. We are confident in the advance of the #WomenSearchers bill.”

PBI-Geneva has tweeted the video clip of this intervention here.

For additional context, please see: United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk presents reports on Colombia, Guatemala and Honduras (March 8, 2023).

For more about PBI at the UN, please see the PBI-Switzerland webpage in French and in German.

Naskapi land defender Napess Vollant: “If we lose this fight, we lose everything”

By
Brent Patterson
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Photo: Naskapi land defender Napess Vollant says: “I am ready to get arrested for it and a lot of my friends are as well.” Photo by Delphine Jung/Radio-Canada.

CBC reports that the mining company Century Global wants to set up an open-pit mine in Labrador that would extract 2.5 million tonnes of iron annually.

The company would also drain Lake Joyce (but promises to refill it in the last two years of the seven year production length).

Century Global Commodities Corporation is headquartered in Hong Kong and trade on the Toronto Stock Exchange. Its office in Toronto operates its mining projects in Canada.

Along with the mine, the company would build a transportation corridor to move the material to the port city of Sept-Îles on the Saint Lawrence River.

In its project summary, the company says: “Products transported over a 43km dedicated haul road from the mine site to a new rail siding near Astray Lake, which connects to an existing rail-line for transport to the Port of Sept-Îles Multi-User port at Pointe Noire, for shipment to China and other world markets.”

The article continues: “Napess Vollant, who is a member of the Naskapi Nation of  Kawawachikamach — located about 1,100 kilometres from Montreal —says the project would ruin Lake Joyce and its surrounding area. It’s a traditional hunting and fishing ground. Vollant says he won’t let anything happen to it.”

The article also quotes Shane Vollant, who is both Innu and Naskapi, who says: “I don’t want a mine even if we’re promised work. We are the only Naskapis in the world and we only have one territory, we can’t let it go.”

And the article notes: “Last July, the Impact Assessment Agency of Canada gave Century Global a three-year extension to provide the studies needed for the project to be formally reviewed and, possibly, approved.”

The full article can be read at ‘If we lose this fight, we lose everything’: Naskapi, Innu nations oppose Quebec mining project.

PBI-Colombia accompanies Nydia Erika Bautista Foundation at IACHR hearing in Los Angeles on forced disappearances

By
Brent Patterson
-

On March 7, PBI-Colombia tweeted:

“We accompany @nydia_erika [the Nydia Erika Bautista Foundation] to the IACHR [Inter-American Commission on Human Rights] #Hearing on right to information for family members of victims of #ForcedDisappearance

Yanette Bautista: “States must comply with #Truth and information to search for loved ones, including girls and women victims of #SexualViolence”.”

On Instagram, PBI-Colombia further noted:

“#Today we accompanied the @fundacionnydiaerikabautista during the #PublicAudience of the @cidh_iachr on the right to information from intelligence archives at the request of family members of victims of #ForcedDisappearance in Colombia, Guatemala and El Salvador.

Yanette Bautista, director of the @fundacionnydiaerikabautista:

“This hearing is a historic milestone for relatives of the disappeared. States must comply with #Truth and information to search for loved ones, among which are girls and women victims #SexualViolence”.

A day before #8M [International Women’s Day] the @cidh_iachr makes key commitment on declassification of files containing information on state responsibility in enforced disappearances and sexual violence.”

For additional quotes and video clips from the IACHR hearing, please see the Nydia Erika Twitter account here.

“For us it is important that @CIDH address the states of #Colombia, #Guatemala and #Salvador to speed up the procedures for declassification and opening of the intelligence files related to forced disappearances so that they contribute to give light”

PBI-Colombia has accompanied the Nydia Erika Bautista Foundation occasionally from 2007 and in full since 2016.

The Foundation was created in 1997 while the Bautista family was living in exile in Germany. It has placed the problem of the enforced disappearance of more than eighty thousand people as a result of the armed conflict on the national agenda and has promoted national legislation on the subject. It was named after Nydia Erika, Yanette’s 32-year-old sister, who was disappeared on August 30, 1987. There are indications that she suffered torture and sexual violence during her captivity before being executed.

El Alto Comisionado de las Naciones Unidas para los Derechos Humanos, Volker Türk, presenta informes sobre Colombia, Guatemala y Honduras

By
Brent Patterson
-

El 7 de marzo, Volker Türk, Alto Comisionado de las Naciones Unidas para los Derechos Humanos, presentó informes sobre las actividades de su Oficina en Colombia, Guatemala y Honduras.

Su declaración completa puede leerse aquí.

Esta declaración de la ONU resume:

Colombia

“El Sr. Türk dijo con respecto a Colombia, que visitó el país en enero y quedó impresionado por la apertura del Gobierno a un debate franco sobre cuestiones de derechos humanos, y su compromiso con la plena aplicación del acuerdo de paz de 2016. Animó al Gobierno a mantener conversaciones significativas con todas las partes afectadas, incluidas las mujeres.
En 2022, su Oficina documentó 92 masacres, en las que murieron 321 personas, y 116 homicidios de defensores de los derechos humanos, cometidos principalmente por agentes no estatales y grupos delictivos, que afectaron de manera desproporcionada a los pueblos indígenas y afrodescendientes.

Celebró que se abordaran las desigualdades estructurales y las causas de los conflictos, incluida la reforma rural. Espera con interés la integración de las recomendaciones de la Comisión de la Verdad en las políticas. Instó a la Fiscalía General de la República a promover la rendición de cuentas por las violaciones presuntamente cometidas por las fuerzas de seguridad durante las protestas.

Vídeo: Turk sobre Colombia.

Guatemala

Sobre Guatemala, Türk dijo que, aunque se habían producido algunos avances en cuestiones sociales y económicas en el último año, la población seguía enfrentándose a retos subyacentes y sistémicos relacionados con la rendición de cuentas, la violencia, la justicia y otros asuntos.

Preocupaba el aumento de más del 70% del número de funcionarios de justicia que sufrían acoso.

La Oficina había registrado un aumento del 54% el año pasado en el acoso, la intimidación y el uso o abuso de procedimientos penales contra defensores de los derechos humanos, pueblos indígenas, organizaciones de derechos humanos, medios de comunicación y periodistas. Tres defensores de los derechos humanos y un periodista habían sido asesinados.

Es necesario adoptar una serie de medidas, como reforzar los mecanismos de protección de los funcionarios de justicia, garantizar la independencia del poder judicial y desarrollar una política efectiva, en concertación con la sociedad civil, para la protección de los defensores de los derechos humanos y los miembros de la sociedad civil.

Vídeo: Turk sobre Guatemala

Honduras

En el caso de Honduras, el Sr. Türk celebró la voluntad política del Gobierno de avanzar en la agenda política. En todo el país persisten problemas estructurales de larga data, como la pobreza y las desigualdades profundamente arraigadas; los persistentes conflictos por la tierra; la violencia generalizada, incluida la violencia de género; la impunidad; y un contexto extremadamente peligroso para los defensores de los derechos humanos y los periodistas.

Se acogieron con gran satisfacción los avances logrados, como la legislación para abordar las causas del desplazamiento civil forzado y proteger mejor a los desplazados, y la derogación de toda la normativa relacionada con las zonas económicas y especiales de desarrollo. No se había avanzado en la investigación de las graves violaciones de derechos humanos de la década de 1980. Deben respetarse los derechos de los pueblos indígenas, afrohondureños, grupos campesinos y otras comunidades históricamente desfavorecidas.“

Vídeo: Turk sobre Honduras

Para seguir las actualizaciones sobre los acompañamientos de PBI en estos países, consulte PBI-Colombia (Sitio web, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram), PBI-Guatemala (Sitio web, Facebook) y PBI-Honduras (Sitio web, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram).

United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk presents reports on Colombia, Guatemala and Honduras

By
Brent Patterson
-

On March 7, Volker Türk, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, presented reports on the activities of his Office in Colombia, Guatemala, and Honduras.

His full statement can be read here.

This UN statement summarizes:

Colombia

“Mr. Türk said regarding Colombia, he visited the country in January and was impressed by the Government’s openness to frank discussion on human rights issues, and its commitment to the full implementation of the 2016 peace agreement. He encouraged the Government to hold meaningful discussions with all affected parties, including women.

In 2022, his Office documented 92 massacres, in which 321 people were killed, and 116 killings of human rights defenders, mainly by non-State actors and criminal groups, which disproportionately affected indigenous and Afro-descendent peoples.

Addressing structural inequalities and causes of conflict, including rural reform, was welcome. He looked forward to the integration of the Truth Commission’s recommendations into policy. He urged the Attorney General’s office to advance accountability for violations reportedly committed by security forces during protests.

Video: Turk on Colombia.

Guatemala

On Guatemala, Mr. Türk said while there had been some progress on social and economic issues over the past year, people continued to face underlying and systemic challenges related to accountability, violence, justice, and other matters.

There was concern for the increase of over 70 per cent of the number of justice officials who experienced harassment.

The Office had registered a 54 per cent increase last year in harassment, intimidation and use or misuse of criminal procedures against human rights defenders, indigenous peoples, human rights organizations, media and journalists. Three human rights defenders and one journalist had been killed.

A number of steps were needed, including to strengthen protection mechanisms for justice officials, ensure the independence of the judiciary, and develop an effective policy, in concert with civil society, for the protection of human rights defenders and civil society members.

Video: Turk on Guatemala

Honduras

In the case of Honduras, Mr. Türk welcomed the Government’s political will to advance the political agenda. Longstanding structural challenges persisted across the country, including deep-rooted poverty and inequalities; persistent land conflicts; widespread violence, including gender-based violence; impunity; and an extremely dangerous context for human rights defenders and journalists.

Advances made were very welcome, including legislation to address the causes of forced civil displacement and better protect the displaced, and the repeal of all regulations related to the economic and special development zones. No progress had been made on investigating the serious human rights violations of the 1980s. The rights of the indigenous, Afro-Honduran peoples, peasant groups and other historically disadvantaged communities must be respected.”

Video: Turk on Honduras

To follow updates on PBI accompaniments in these countries, please see PBI-Colombia (Website, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram), PBI-Guatemala (Website, Facebook) and PBI-Honduras (Website, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram).

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