Photo: “We will not accept that defending rights comes at the cost of exile, persecution, or death. We will continue to stand with the communities that resist and defend life, their territories, and human dignity.”
Espacio OSC has posted on social media: “Organizations, networks and human rights defenders gathered at the Protection Dialogues: Body, Territory and Sovereignty, within the framework of the #LatinAmericanMeeting, express our concern for the serious context facing Latin America for the defense of human rights.”
The statement that emerged from this meeting that took place in Latin America was signed by multiple organizations including the Corporation for Judicial Freedom (CJL) in Colombia, the Unit for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders Guatemala (UDEFEGUA), the Alternative for Community and Environmental Reclamation of Honduras (ARCAH), and the Space of Civil Society Organizations for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders and Journalists (Espacio OSC) in Mexico.
It was also endorsed by Peace Brigades International, Global Witness, Front Line Defenders, Protection International Mesoamerica, Civil Rights Defenders, and the Swedish Movement for Reconciliation (SweFOR).
That statement highlights: “Defending human rights and the rights of nature in Latin America remains a high-risk activity. The region continues to be the most lethal in the world for those who exercise this role. In 2025 alone, 275 defenders were murdered, mainly in Colombia, followed by Mexico and Brazil, according to the international organization Front Line Defenders.”
The statement also makes several calls, including asking “States to ensure, in accordance with their international obligations, a safe and enabling environment for the exercise of the right to defend human rights; respecting, protecting and guaranteeing the work of defenders; refrain from any action that hinders or criminalizes it; and repeal regulatory frameworks that restrict civic space and limit the exercise of this right.”
Peace Brigades International has signed this joint letter that calls on the European Council “to oppose the increase in the EU military budget and to ensure that taxpayers’ money is invested in what really protects people: health, housing, education, human rights, peacebuilding, the environment and social welfare.”
The letter says: “We urge Members of the European Parliament and EU governments to: Reject the proposal to allocate 131,000 million euros to defence, security and space in the MFF 2028-2034 and stop the militarisation of the EU budget.”
The €131 billion allocation for 2028-2034 would be an increase from the €28.97 billion allocated for 2021-2027.
It also calls on Members of the European Parliament and European Union governments to: “Create a binding exclusion framework based on human rights, environmental protection and due diligence for EU funding, preventing public money from going to companies involved in war crimes, occupation, repression, genocide, environmental destruction or serious human rights violations.”
The European Council, comprised of the heads of state or government of European Union countries, European Council President, the European Commission President, met on June 18-19, 2026, in Brussels to discuss an allocation of €131 billion to “armament and space” in the next Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF 2028–2034).
PBI-Canada takes note of this because on May 20, 2026, the European Parliament formally welcomed Canada into the defence borrowing and procurement agreement known as Security Action for Europe (SAFE). The €150 billion program grants preferential access to military contracts financed through low-interest loans. In reference to European military spending, Canadian Defence Minister David McGuinty describes Europe as a “major marketplace for us.”
Insight EU Monitoring also noted: “EU leaders discussed the EU’s next long-term budget, also known as the multiannual financial framework (MFF), based on the negotiation box with figures presented by the Cyprus presidency. They called on the incoming Irish presidency to advance work by the European Council meeting on 15 October 2026. …EU leaders [also] welcomed increased national defence spending and progress across priority capability areas, particularly drone and counter-drone systems, early warning, air defence and long-range precision strike capabilities.”
Photo: Protest outside the Embassy of the Philippines in Ottawa. The banner in white says: “Marcos Jr #1 Lackey, Corrupt, Fascist, Seller of the People’s Wealth!”
On Friday June 26, Canadian prime minister Mark Carney announced that the president of the Philippines, Ferdinand Marcos Jr., would be visiting Vancouver, British Columbia from Wednesday July 1 to Saturday July 4, 2026.
Marcos landed at Vancouver International Airport at 4:46 p.m. local time (7:46 pm Wednesday July 1 in Ottawa / 7:46 a.m. Thursday July 2 in Manila).
The Globe and Mail has reported: “Mr. Marcos is leading a delegation of as many as five cabinet ministers as well as a business delegation of 15 to 20 people, according to Jose Victor Chan-Gonzaga, the Philippines’ ambassador to Canada. …Mr. Chan-Gonzaga said he anticipates liquefied natural gas and oil will be part of the discussion with Canada as his country tries to secure new sources of energy.”
Agreements to be signed
The Globe and Mail article further notes: “The Business Council of Canada and the Philippines Chamber of Commerce and Industry are also expected to sign an MOU to deepen commercial ties during Mr. Marcos’ visit.”
The Manila Times has also reported: “Palace Press Officer Claire Castro said Marcos would witness the signing of agreements on energy, natural resources, trade and investment, labor and immigration, tourism, culture and arts during his visit.”
And the Philippines-based GMA News has noted: “The President said he expects the discussions to produce a broad framework for a bilateral Plan of Action, which will guide future cooperation and further elevate Philippines-Canada relations.”
Protests against Marcos Jr.
Anakbayan Canada has posted on social media that there would be protests in Vancouver, Toronto, Calgary and Ottawa.
They further note: “As Filipino youth, we will put Marcos Jr.’s on notice, and that every step of his visit will be met with protest to hold him accountable with his corruption that has plagued our country and to amplify the voices of overseas Filipinos.”
And in their outreach for the protest in Ottawa, the Ottawa Committee for Human Rights in the Philippines stated: “Who is this visit for? The defence contractors and militarists who profit from the Filipino people’s lack of sovereignty. The mining corporations that extract the Philippines’ wealth at gunpoint, using paramilitaries and bribes and leaving behind ruined land. The undemocratic Marcos Regime, which steals public money shamelessly, arresting and killing activists who call attention to his crimes.”
Radyo Migrante now reports via Instagram: “Progressive groups, human rights organizations, allies and community members gather in Ottawa to denounce Philippine President Marcos Jr’s visit to Canada and to hold him accountable for his crimes against humanity, including records of violations of International Humanitarian Law in the Philippines. Labeled as ‘King of Corruption,’ they emphasize Marcos Jr.s’ role in the government’s massive corruption scandal, the ghost flood control projects. Concerned Canadians also joined the protest to express their concern regarding the newly signed military agreements between Philippines and Canada.”
Human rights violations
Less than two weeks ago, the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders released a report that found “repressive counter-terrorism laws and counter-insurgency policies have been used to attack and criminalize land and environmental rights defenders, human rights lawyers, journalists, trade unionists, and women human rights defenders, including those from Indigenous Peoples’ communities.”
In the media release for that report, Shahindha Ismail, the Secretary-General of the Paris, France-based International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) commented: “President Marcos Jr.’s failure to dismantle his predecessor’s apparatus of repression and to foster accountability for human rights violations means that human rights defenders are still not safe in the Philippines.”
The protest began on the steps just south of the US Embassy in downtown Ottawa, then made its way a short distance along Sussex Drive to the Embassy of the Philippines at 30 Murray Street. The protest took place in the afternoon that saw +44°Celsius heat then up to 118 millimetres of rain.
Photo: The house where it all began. The founding meeting for PBI took place on August 31 to September 4, 1981, on Grindstone Island, 110 kilometres south of Ottawa, Algonquin territory, Canada.
As the 45th anniversary of the founding of Peace Brigades International (PBI) approaches this coming August 31 to September 4, 2026, we compile here our past articles on the founding and early years of PBI:
First and foremost, it is extremely concerning that the number of human rights defenders killed in Mexico has increased compared to the previous period, rising from 32 to 43, surpassed only by Colombia and matching the figures for Palestine.
Special attention should be paid to the fact that, alongside the murders, the criminalization and use of criminal law was the second greatest threat faced by human rights defenders in the region.
Finally, the communities, organizations, and individuals defending the land and territory, along with those defending the rights of indigenous peoples and communities, are the areas of rights defense most under threat.
From @PBI_Mexico, we call for reversing these trends by strengthening national and international protection frameworks, addressing the structural impunity of crimes against human rights defenders, and publicly recognizing the legitimate right to defend rights.”
Peace Brigades International-Canada shares the concerns of our colleagues at PBI-Mexico and continues to collaborate with them to call on the Government of Canada to help the Government of Mexico to strengthen the Protection Mechanism for human rights defenders and journalists in Mexico.
“Andrea Torres Bautista, director of @fundacionnydiaerikabautista and coordinator of the National Network of Women Searchers, speaks with MEP @cristina_guarda about the lack of protections that women searchers still face, such as murders, threats, sexual violence, and stigmatization.
It is urgent to implement the Law on Women Searchers and provide real safeguards for their work.”
Cristina Guarda is an Italian Member of the European Parliament (MEP) representing the Group of the Greens/European Free Alliance. She is the vice-chair of Delegation for relations with the countries of the Andean Community and a member of Delegation to the Euro-Latin American Parliamentary Assembly.
PBI-Colombia has also posted on social media about meeting with Verena Mertens, a German Member of the European Parliament representing the Group of the European People’s Party (Christian Democrats).
On June 19, 2026, Torres Bautista told the publication El Salto: “[If the extreme right wins the election, the Comprehensive Law for the Protection of the Rights of Women Searchers] is not going to be implemented, it is going to remain on paper and there will be no guarantee of protection or recognition of women seekers.”
Bautista further stated: “But also, I think our lives are at stake. In other words, I am personally afraid that if the right wing wins, they will kill us, they will continue to physically attack us, they will continue to persecute us, they will continue to harass us, forced disappearances will increase and the security situation and guarantee to continue doing our work will no longer exist. …[We] feel that there will be no guarantee for the organizations, much less for the women searchers who have denounced the State, who have denounced the military, the paramilitaries, the guerrillas.”
On June 24, 2026, Colombian electoral authorities declared conservative presidential candidate Abelardo de la Espriella the winner of the June 21 runoff election.
On June 25, 2026, Global Affairs Canada posted on social media: “Congratulations to Colombia’s new president Abelardo De la Espriella. Canada values its longstanding partnership with Colombia. Canada looks forward to continued cooperation on shared interests such as stable economic growth, expanding trade under our existing free-trade agreement, and peace and security.”
De la Espriella will be sworn into office on August 7 for a four-year term.
Peace Brigades International has been accompanying the “Nydia Erika Bautista” Foundation (FNEB) occasionally since 2007 and in full since 2016.
“Last week, #PBI accompanied journalist Carlos Choc to Puerto Barrios for a session of the ‘Citizen Voices’ project, coordinated by the Stella Maris Church in collaboration with the organization Guatemalta. Carlos discussed the mining-related problems faced by the community of El Estor, in Izabal, and the threat looming over journalists’ right to freedom of expression.”
The Fenix Nickel mine in El Estor
On May 27, 2026, El Pais reported: “Fenix Nickel, the mining giant and one of Guatemala’s largest nickel extractive companies — accused of bribery, environmental destruction, and violence against Maya communities in the country’s north — has resumed operations after a three-year suspension, Indigenous leaders in the area and local media confirmed this week. …A member of the ancestral Q’eqchi’ Maya authorities in Izabal, speaking on condition of anonymity, said they are waiting for the government to take action and that if it does not they could take to the streets again.”
In 1960, Toronto-based INCO Ltd. began negotiations with the military dictatorship of Guatemala to establish the Fenix mine. By 1965, EXMIBAL, a joint venture between INCO and the Guatemalan state, was granted a 40-year mining licence.
Professor Shin Imai has written: “Colonel Carolos Arana Osorio was responsible for clearing the Indigenous people out of the INCO region in Zacapa-Lake Izabal. He launched what has been referred to as a ‘reign of terror’ in the region, in which the number of people killed is estimated to be between three and six thousand.”
Professor Imai adds: “Major construction began on the El Estor mine in 1974 aided by a $20 million loan from the Canadian Export Development Corporation.”
Vancouver-based Skye Resources bought the mine from INCO in 2004. Skye Resources then merged with Toronto-based Hudbay in 2008. The mine was purchased by Solway Investment Group in 2011. In May 2026, El Pais reported: “The project ceased to be owned by Solway, of Russian origin, and shifted its parent company to Nickel Company LLC, registered in New York, which it intends to use to export the extracted material, local media said.”
Accompaniment
The Monthly Information Package (April 2025) from the Peace Brigades International-Guatemala Project noted:
“At our twice-yearly assembly this April, we completed our analysis of the accompaniment request that we received from Carlos Choc, a Q’eqchi’ Maya journalist, human rights defender, and environmentalist known for his important work in journalism, his reporting on human rights violations, and his support for communities that are victims of violations, environmental injustices, and evictions. He works in Q’eqchi’ territory, in the departments of Izabal, Alta Verapaz, and Petén. Carlos was involved in a lengthy legal process in which he was criminalized but ultimately acquitted. However, because he has continued his work, he remains at risk, which led him to request our accompaniment. After reviewing his request, we decided to begin accompanying him this April.”
PBI-Canada coordinator Brent Patterson met with Choc in Guatemala City in May 2023 and then did a follow-up webinar with him on August 18, 2023.
“The @cntctegucigalpa [the National Union of Rural Workers], accompanied by PBI, visited the peasant communities of Bendición de Dios and 15 de Septiembre in Yoro.
During the visit, they shared their concerns about land disputes and changes in legislation with the ‘Law for the Strengthening and Protection of the Agro-industrial Sector,’ which, they say, could lead to the criminalization of their communities.
According to the latest socio-territorial conflict report from @cespadhonduras [Centro de Estudio para la Democracia / the Centre of Study for Democracy], which analyzes 77 cases, Yoro is the second most affected department after Colón. The document states that this is a ‘structural crisis of the territorial accumulation regime’ in which the State ‘does not operate from a position of absence, but rather as an active mediator that facilitates dispossession.’”
On June 24, 2026, Telesurtv.net reported: “A massive front made up of more than 217 peasant, indigenous, Garifuna, feminist and social movements organizations appeared before the Constitutional Chamber of the Supreme Court of Justice of Honduras to file a preventive habeas corpus. The legal action seeks to stop the application of the recently approved Law for the Strengthening, Protection of the Agroindustrial Sector and Energy Projects, under the argument that it puts at serious risk the communities settled in disputed territories and areas of high productive interest.”
That article further highlights: “From the Honduran capital, the social movements warned that they will not stop their agenda of resistance and announced the design of new legal actions, accompanied by mobilizations in defense of territories and natural resources at the national level.”
Avispa Midia also reports: “[Lawyer Edy Tábora, the director of the law firm Justicia para los Pueblos / Justice for the Peoples] explained that the legal appeal is directed against authorities of the three branches of government, including Nasry Asfura, who assumed the presidency recently in January of this year.”
That article adds: “It is also aimed at the heads of the National Police, Armed Forces, the National Congress, the Public Prosecutor’s Office and the Supreme Court of Justice, ‘for their direct or indirect responsibility in the eventual implementation of measures that could lead to arbitrary detentions, forced evictions and serious violations of fundamental rights,’ the organizations maintain in a public statement.”
Accompaniment
On March 3, 2026, PBI-Honduras, PBI-Canada coordinator Brent Patterson met with Franklin Almendares, General Secretary, and Rosa Santamaría, member of the National Board of Directors, of the CNTC at their office in Tegucigalpa.
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.
Peace Brigades International has accompanied the CNTC since May 2018.
Photo: The Central Union of Workers (CUT) is the largest union federation in Colombia representing about 600,000 workers. Nearly 800 members of CUT were murdered between 1987 and 1992.
In a country that has been historically dangerous for human rights defenders, PBI-Canada is following commentary on the implications of Colombia’s new president, Abelardo de la Espriella, for union activists.
In May 2025, the BBC reported: “The Labour Ministry says that since the early 1970s, well over 3,000 trade unionists have been murdered in Colombia. And even though the nation is more peaceful than it once was, the attacks continue.”
The Brussels, Belgium-based International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) recently reported that two Colombian trade union activists were killed in 2025: Walberto Quintero Medina (the Vice President of the Central Union of Workers/CUT departmental committee in Cesar and an Executive Committee member of the SINALTRAINAL union for food industry workers) and Campo Elías Urrutía Vargas (a member of the National Board of Directors of Fedearroz, the national federation of rice growers, and the National Executive of the Aguazul committee of rice farmers).
Sintracarbón, Sintracerrejón and F23
During the election, the RAYA Magazine Research Unit reported: “An inspection visit by the Ministry of Labor to the facilities of Carbones del Cerrejón, the subsidiary of the multinational Glencore that operates the largest open-pit coal mine in the world in La Guajira, responded to a union complaint for political propaganda by presidential candidate Abelardo de la Espriella in the company’s residential sector. The discovery took place on May 28 and triggered a preventive protection measure against the company for possible electoral constraint on its workers.”
The complaint was made, reports RAYA Magazine, by members of the company’s unions, Coal Industry Workers’ Union (Sintracarbón), the National Union of Coal Workers of Cerrejón (Sintracerrejón) and F23.
CUT, CGT, CTC
Just after the first-round presidential vote, Caracol Radio reported: “A strong rejection has generated among the labor unions of Tolima the proposal of presidential candidate Abelardo de la Espriella to eliminate up to 700,000 positions in the State, in a possible budget cut of an eventual government of his. This announcement led trade union organizations such as the Central Union of Workers (CUT), the General Confederation of Labor (CGT), the Confederation of Workers of Colombia (CTC) and the Union of Teachers of Tolima to call a social mobilization for Thursday, June 11.”
CUT
After the second-round vote, the Central Union of Workers (CUT) expressed their rejection of de la Espriella.
Their statement highlights: “[The next government] would be marked by a policy of stigmatization and open persecution against those who oppose its postulates and decisions. This refers to painful episodes in our recent history, such as the 7,837 false positives that occurred during the government of Álvaro Uribe Vélez, as well as the repressive response of the government of Iván Duque to the social outbreak, which left about 86 people murdered, hundreds injured and more than 100 young people with permanent eye injuries.”
Their statement further notes: “This policy of stigmatization is already being announced by Mr. Abelardo De la Espriella against trade unionism, Fecode, journalists and other social and political sectors. In one sentence: eviscerating the left and persecuting the opposition, characteristic features of fascism.”
Fecode
As noted above, CUT states that de la Espriella has stigmatized FECODE, the Colombian Federation of Education Workers.
The Hindustan Times reports: “[De la Espriella] has called for limitations of FECODE, which is the country’s main union for teachers. With these limits, De la Espriella hopes to propose reforms to the education system that would be more active in teaching religious values to students.”
InfoNacion has also reported: “President-elect Abelardo De la Espriella proposed a profound transformation of the Colombian education system and asserted that Fecode (the Colombian teachers’ union) must leave the classroom, while advocating for a model based on technological training, vocational education, and the strengthening of values. ‘Colombia’s education needs a transformation. We have to get Fecode out of the classrooms and put God back where he never should have left,’ the political leader stated.”
On June 23, 2026, Peace Brigades International presented at the “Interactive Dialogue with Special Rapporteur on peaceful assembly and association” during the 14th Meeting of the 62nd Session of Human Rights Council in Geneva, Switzerland.
The PBI presentation (starting here at 1:03:29) noted concerns our concerns in Guatemala, Nicaragua, Mexico, Kenya, Colombia and Canada.
The portion that was read about the situation in Canada noted: “Indigenous land defenders resisting extractive megaprojects experience digital surveillance and open-source intelligence.”
Our fuller statement included: “In Canada, Indigenous land defenders resisting extractive megaprojects have experienced digital surveillance through open-source intelligence monitoring and drone surveillance by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP). They have also experienced surveillance by the RCMP when participating in civic activism, including National Energy Board hearings on a pipeline. We additionally have the concern that the RCMP are using predictive algorithm technology to surveil Indigenous land and environmental defenders in Canada.”
On September 28, 2023, PBI also noted concerns during the Interactive dialogue with the Special Rapporteur on the rights of Indigenous peoples, José Francisco Calí Tzay. At that time, we stated: “In Canada, we draw your attention to the continued harassment of Wet’suwet’en land defenders opposed to the Coastal GasLink pipeline by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police Community-Industry Response Group. The Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination has repeatedly called on Canada to remove the Mounted Police and private security from Wet’suwet’en territory.”
On September 28, 2022, PBI also noted Canada during the Interactive Dialogue with the Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. At that time, we stated: “The Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination [CERD] has called on Canada to stop construction of the Coastal GasLink pipeline on Wet’suwet’en territory. Canada ratified this International Convention in 1970 and said in 2016 that it supported the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, however, the construction of this gas pipeline without consent continues as does the criminalization of land defenders.”
Canada seeks seat on Human Rights Council
Canada is continuing to seek a seat on the United Nations Human Rights Council for the 2028 to 2030. Canada has previously stated that its candidacy is based on six priorities including: “Seeking justice and accountability for those on the frontlines of defending human rights”.
The UN General Assembly vote on what countries will participate in the 47-member Human Rights Council is expected in October 2026.
