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PBI-Colombia accompanies CCAJAR lawyers collective at Inter-American Court of Human Rights hearing

By
Brent Patterson
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On May 16, PBI-Colombia tweeted: “Last week PBI accompanied @Ccajar during the public hearing held in @CorteIDH [the Inter-American Court of Human Rights] in the case Members of the “José Alvear Restrepo” Lawyers Corporation v. Colombia. See more information about the audience here.”

The hearing took place on May 12-13 in San Jose, Costa Rica.

On May 11, PBI-Colombia also tweeted:

“@CorteIDH [the Inter-American Court of Human Rights] calls #Colombia to judge surveillance and illegal intelligence against human rights defenders @Ccajar whom we have accompanied since 1995. We express our deep admiration and solidarity for their tireless work in defense of human rights and search for justice so that #NoSeRepita [there is no repetition].”

Last month, CCAJAR explained:

“For the first time, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACHR) will try a case involving illegal surveillance and intelligence on human rights defenders.

This is the case brought by the José Alvear Restrepo Lawyers’ Collective (Cajar), which has denounced being a victim of persecution practices for more than 30 years, in which its members have been the focus of illegal intelligence activities by different State agencies, stigmatizing speeches, threats, attacks, exiles, smear campaigns, psychological torture and harassment.”

On the first day of the hearing, CCAJAR tweeted:

“In the worst years of persecution we felt that the organization was going to end. Half of the lawyers of @Ccajar had to go into exile. We always appeared on lists of threats from paramilitary groups.”

“The hearing begins with the intervention of the @CIDH. In its merits report, the IACHR found that the persecution of the @Ccajar occurred in a context of impunity and harassment against defenders in Colombia.”

In that article noted in the PBI-Colombia tweet, Rafael Barrios Mendivil, a founding member of CCAJAR, lists seven outcomes they hope from the court, including:

“To provide for the adoption of a comprehensive public policy for the protection and guarantee of defenders, which takes into account the provisions of the Peace Agreement, the proposals of the human rights networks and the guidelines indicated in the written expertise of Lourdes Castro and Leonardo Díaz.”

“If those of us who defend human rights are not protected, what democracy are we talking about?”

To read CCAJAR’s tweets about this hearing, click here.

David Castillo, co-author of the murder of Lenca environmental defender Berta Cáceres, to be sentenced on May 18

By
Brent Patterson
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COPINH has tweeted: “Attention: 11 months after the ruling against David Castillo, the sentence of the co-author of the murder of our compañera #BertaCáceres will finally be read. The sentence must be consistent with what was shown in court and should not leave an opportunity for impunity.”

The sentencing in this case has been long delayed.

On July 5, 2021, The Guardian reported: “[Castillo] a US-trained former Honduran army intelligence officer who was the president of an internationally-financed hydroelectric company [Desarrollos Energéticos Sociedad Anónima/DESA] has been found guilty over the assassination of the indigenous environmentalist Berta Cáceres.”

That article adds: “Cáceres, winner of the Goldman prize for environmental defenders, was shot dead two days before her 45th birthday by hired hitmen on 2 March 2016 after years of threats linked to her opposition of the $50m Agua Zarca dam.”

Others could be implicated in the murder

Last week, EFE reported: “Nina Lakhani, author of Who Killed Berta Cáceres?, has affirmed in an interview with EFE that the change of Government in Honduras ‘could represent an opportunity’ to reopen the case and look for more responsible for his death, among which he does not rule out some ‘high officials’ of the previous executive.”

COPINH has maintained that Castillo is but one of the intellectual authors of the murder.

Berta’s daughter Bertha Zúñiga Cáceres has previously stated: “We will continue to demand the investigation and conviction of the intellectual authors.”

Cáceres family lawyer Víctor Fernández has also stated Berta’s family faces “a power structure, the economic structure that murdered Berta Cáceres, who is not only David Castillo, but the company DESA, the national and international financial system that financed and even continues to benefit the entrepreneurs” who benefited from the concession of the hydroelectric dam” on the Gualcarque River sacred to the Lenca people.

Concession not revoked

Open Democracy has also reported: “[COPINH continues to seek] the revocation of permission for the [Agua Zarca] hydroelectric project. It wants the state to be held accountable for failing to protect Cáceres and to investigate the investment in initiatives premised on such massive human rights violations.”

And Vice reports: “DESA owns the concession for 50 years, [COPINH general coordinator Bertha Zúñiga Cáceres] says, meaning the company has the exclusive right to work the land [without free, prior and informed consent] until 2059.”

Zúñiga Cáceres has highlighted: “They have not given up and apparently have no intention of abandoning the project altogether.”

PBI-Honduras has accompanied COPINH since May 2016.

Guatemalan judge who ordered nine former police and military officers to stand trial receives death threats

By
Brent Patterson
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Plaza Pública reports: “On Friday, May 6, Judge Miguel Ángel Gálvez ruled that nine retired military personnel, including a former Minister of National Defense, must face oral and public trial for the crimes of forced disappearance, murder, attempted murder and crimes against the duties of humanity.”

It explains: “The nine accused soldiers worked for the Army, in the General Staff of Defense or the Presidential General Staff, a state entity that was linked to the Army, but that answered directly to the Presidency. The Public Prosecutor’s Office accuses them of participating in an alternative, clandestine organization within the military structure, which generated intelligence to mount illegal operations of search, kidnapping and torture.”

Now, the Associated Press further reports: “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.”

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

The article continues: “Last week’s case stemmed from a document from Guatemala’s civil war recovered in 1999 known as the Military Diary. Inside, military officials logged forced disappearances, extrajudicial killings and the torture of 183 people.”

“The men on trial were high-ranking military and police officers arrested last year and implicated in the cases described in the document by nature of the command positions they held when the crimes occurred between 1983 and 1986.”

The article further notes: “Gálvez fears the government is trying to build a case against him, as has been the case with other judges and prosecutors who have worked on sensitive corruption cases, which are also sometimes part of his docket.”

Juan Pappier of Human Rights Watch says: “This case follows a pattern of intimidation against independent judges and prosecutors who investigate and criminally prosecute corruption and human rights crimes in the country.”

And the Guatemalan Judges for Integrity Association says the threats are a “direct attack against judicial independence.”

Military Diary and Canada

Last year, the CBC reported about three women who moved to Canada whose loved ones are named in the Military Diary.

Wendy Mendez was nine years old when her mother Luz Haidee Mendez Calderon was disappeared on March 8, 1984. Maria Consueleo Pérez’s husband Orencio Sosa Calderon was disappeared on October 25, 1983. And Annabella Jiménez’s husband Hector Rolando Valdez Guzmán was also disappeared that same month.

Luz Haidee Mendez Calderon, Orencio Sosa Calderon and Hector Rolando Valdez Guzmán.

PBI-Guatemala accompaniment

The Peace Brigades International-Guatemala Project accompanied the Human Rights Law Firm (BDH) and Édgar Pérez Archila at an early stage of these proceedings last year.

PBI-Guatemala accompanied eight days of hearings that concluded on June 10, 2021, as well as the four days of hearings that resulted in the indictment of former Defense Minister Marco Antonio González Taracena on June 25, 2021.

PBI-Guatemala began to accompany BDH lawyer Édgar Pérez Archila in August 2010 due to several security incidents he 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 of the BDH who work in high-profile trials to fight against impunity and in defending criminalized human rights defenders.

PBI-Guatemala volunteer testimony: Mélisande Séguin

By
Brent Patterson
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My name is Mélisande Séguin. I am from Canada, I am a lawyer and a PhD candidate in political science. I work on issues such as indigenous women’s resistance to extractivism, legal pluralism, indigenous legal traditions and the decolonization of knowledge. I have a strong commitment to human rights and dedicate my life to learning and unlearning ways to decolonize my thoughts, my practices and my daily life.

I have been a member of the Committee of Peace Brigades International since February 2021. Before joining the committee, I was a volunteer with the PBI fi eld team between 2015 and 2016. After returning to Canada in 2016, I participated as a volunteer, board member, project manager and coordinator of the Quebec Guatemala Accompaniment Project, an organization which has been accompanying human rights defenders in Guatemala since 1995.

I became familiar with the work of the GP committee when I was part of the team on the ground in 2015 and it has been a great pleasure to be able to work with its members again over the past year. The commitment, knowledge and dedication of this team of volunteers is impressive and I have a lot to learn from my colleagues on both a human and professional level. In this last year, I have been able to reacquaint myself with PBI’s ways of doing things.

The committee is involved at various levels of PBI: with the team of volunteers in the field, providing accompaniment in the decisions they make regarding the functioning of the team and the accompaniment of human rights defenders in Guatemala; supporting the office in Guatemala with training, communication, advocacy and administration tasks; providing advice on advocacy, coordination and administration issues to the coordination office in Spain; and finally, within the larger international structure where the committee participates or supports decisions related to the functioning of the global organization.

PBI works horizontally and by consensus. Therefore, the committee team is committed to participating in the decision making process of all these sections of the organization through constant communication.

Given that the committee members live in different parts of Europe and America, and that the pandemic has greatly reduced face-to-face meetings, most of the exchanges have been virtual. This has been challenging, but at the same time it has made us more resilient and has allowed us to improve our communication channels. We hope that it will be useful in the future and in the constant work of solidarity with the people and organizations we accompany.

Mélisande’s testimony is from the PBI-Guatemala Project 2021 annual report. To read the full report, click here.

Gidimt’en land defender Sleydo’ on the UN CERD’s call for construction of Coastal GasLink pipeline to stop

By
Brent Patterson
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“When I read the third letter from CERD, I felt overwhelmed by the recognition that our experiences are a violation of international human rights and Indigenous rights, the construction of the Coastal Gaslink pipeline project and the RCMP treatment of me and other land defenders is a violation of our humanity as Indigenous people.” – Sleydo’ Molly Wickham, Gidimt’en Access Point spokesperson.

On April 29, 2022, the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) called on Canada to stop the construction of the Coastal GasLink fracked gas pipeline and the Trans Mountain tar sands oil pipeline.

The UN Committee previously asked Canada to stop the construction of these projects on December 13, 2019, and November 24, 2020.

This most recent letter from Verene Shepherd, the Chair of the Committee, to Leslie E. Norton, the Ambassador of Canada to the United Nations in Geneva, states:

“I write to inform you that in the course of its 106th session, the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination considered information received under its early warning and urgent action procedure, related to the situation of the Secwepemc and Wet’suwet’en communities, in relation to the Trans Mountain Pipeline and the Coastal Gas Link Pipeline in the Province of British Columbia.

According to the information before the Committee, the Governments of Canada and of the Province of British Columbia have escalated their use of force, surveillance, and criminalization of land defenders and peaceful protesters to intimidate, remove and forcibly evict Secwepemc and Wet’suwet’en Nations from their traditional lands, in particular by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), the Community-Industry Response Group (CIRG), and private security firms. The information received specifies in particular that the Tiny House Warriors, a group of Secwepemc women, have been the target of surveillance and intimidation, and that numerous Secwepemc and Wet’suwet’en peaceful land defenders have been victims of violent evictions and arbitrary detentions by the RCMP, the CIRG and private security personnel in several occasions since the Committee’s letter to the State party, dated 24 November 2020.

The Committee recalls that in its Decision 1 (100) of 13 December 2019, it urged the State party to immediately cease forced evictions of Secwepemc and Wet’suwet’en peoples. It also urged the State party to guarantee that no force will be used against Secwepemc and Wet’suwet’en peoples, and that the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and associated security and policing services will be withdrawn from their traditional lands.

The Committee profoundly regrets and is concerned that despite its calls to the State party, the information received points rather to an increase of the above-mentioned acts against Secwepemc and Wet’suwet’en peoples.”

The letter concludes with the UN Committee calling on Canada to provide a response to several concerns by July 15, 2022, including measures to: “Prevent and duly investigate the allegations of surveillance measures, practices of arbitrary detention, instances of excessive use of force against protesters, in particular those belonging to the Secwepemc and Wet’suwet’en peoples, by the RCMP, CIRG, and private security firms.”

The full letter can be read here.

UN COP27 climate summit Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt nears as extractivism, military spending increases

By
Brent Patterson
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PBI statement: “At PBI, we are committed to a concept of security linked to protecting human rights and respecting life, ecosystems and common goods.”

Six months from now, on November 7-18, the United Nations COP27 climate summit will take place in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt.

This is the follow-up to the COP26 talks that took place in Glasgow last year.

It was emphasized at that time that 1,540 land and environmental defenders were killed between 2012 and 2020.

We now know that another 358 human rights defenders were killed in 2021.

The Guardian notes: “Most countries [left the COP26 talks in November 2021] with [aspirational] targets that would imply heating of about 1.9C – a ‘historic’ achievement compared to the 6C of heating we were heading towards a decade ago, but still far off 1.5C, the figure scientists say is the threshold of safety.”

The Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 24 has deeply influenced this situation.

The Guardian highlights: “Before the invasion, Germany depended on Russia for about two-thirds of its gas supplies, and the EU for about 40%.”

Given those energy exports help to fund the Russian military, efforts are underway to reduce European dependence on Russian fossil fuels.

But rather than this creating the conditions for a rapid transition to renewable energy, it has sparked the conditions for other countries to export fossil fuels to Europe.

For instance, Canada, the world’s fourth largest oil producer, announced on March 24 that it had the capacity to increase its oil and gas exports by up to 300,000 barrels per day with the intention of displacing Russian oil and gas.

Beyond this, The Guardian adds: “Fossil fuel companies are enjoying a bonanza when they were supposed to be dying out. World leaders, who six months ago were pledging net zero carbon emissions, are now licensing new oil and gas drilling.”

Notably, on April 6 the Canadian government approved the $12 billion Bay du Nord megaproject to extract up to 800 million barrels of crude in the Atlantic Ocean.

Newfoundland and Labrador premier Andrew Furey argues the war in Ukraine has heightened the importance of the Bay du Nord.

The Russian invasion of Ukraine has also been cited in recent Canadian announcements about military spending.

On March 28, the Canadian government announced that it had entered final negotiations with Lockheed Martin to purchase 88 (carbon-intensive, jet fuel burning) F-35 warplanes.

Then on April 7, the government announced in its federal budget an additional $8 billion in spending on the military over the next five years.

This is on top of its prior commitment to spend $553 billion (more than half a trillion dollars) on the military over a 20 year period.

Similar military budget increases are being seen in Europe.

This includes Germany (whose government announced a €100 billion increase this year), Spain (that could see an increase of €7.2 billion to its annual budget), France (that has pledged to increase military spending to €50 billion from €41 billion by 2025), Belgium (that will see a €1 billion increase), and Italy (now considering a €1.5 billion increase).

In the United Kingdom, the Opposition is now calling for an increase in the current £46.2 billion military budget.

Meanwhile, the war in Ukraine has been a windfall for the Swiss arms industry.

Rather than building toward peace and climate justice, the world is seeing an entrenchment of militarism and extractivism.

The Peace Brigades International statement on the war in Ukraine highlighted: “In a global scenario marked by the climate emergency, the desire to stop financing the Russian military by stopping Russian oil and gas exports to Europe must not result in more extractivism instead of climate action.”

Our statement also noted: “The dominant security discourse associated with the militarization of societies is a setback. Billions more spent on weapons will not make the world safer.”

As COP27 approaches amid concerns about the ability to protest in Egypt, PBI continues to accompany frontline social and environmental justice defenders and expresses concern about militarism and the billions being spent on arms.

Please join us on Tuesday May 31 at 2:30 pm EST (8:30 pm CEST) when PBI accompanied defenders Berenice Celeita of the Association for Research and Social Action (Colombia) and Quetzalli Villanueva of the Tlachinollan Human Rights Centre (Mexico) along with Rachel Small (World Beyond War) and  Tunkwa Dene Uldai (Denesuline land defender) will talk about Canadian arms exports, militarization of territory and the imperative of social and environmental justice.

You can register here now.

PBI accompanied human rights defenders Berenice Celeita and Quetzalli Villanueva.

PBI-Mexico accompanied Espacio OSC calls for comprehensive plan for the protection of journalists and human rights defenders

By
Brent Patterson
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Photo of Mario Hurtado by Article 19.

On May 11, the ‘Forum for the construction of a comprehensive public policy for the protection of defenders and journalists’ was held in Mexico City.

It was convened by the Delegation of the European Union in Mexico and the organizations of the Espacio OSC (civil society organizations/CSO space) for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders and Journalists.

Three journalists have been killed in Mexico just this past week. On Monday, El Veraz news website director Yessenia Mollinedo Falconi and reporter Sheila Johana García Olivera were killed in the municipality of Cosoleacaque, Veracruz Last Thursday, Fuentes Fidedignas journalist Luis Enrique Ramírez Ramos was killed in the state of Sinaloa.

At the forum, Mario Hurtado Cardozo , a representative of Espacio OSC, condemned the recent murders of Luis Enrique Ramírez, Yesenia Mollinedo and Johana García.

Hurtado said: “There is an obligation of state authorities to operate effective protection systems. The great challenge: the creativity to implement them. We must demand the right to defend.”

He further noted: “There is an obligation of state authorities to operate effective protection systems. The great challenge: the creativity to implement them. We must demand the right to defend.”

Espacio OSC also presented the 44-page document ‘Priority points to guarantee the Right to Defend human rights and freedom of expression’.

Eleven reporters have been killed in Mexico since the start of 2022. In 2021, seven reporters were killed in Mexico, making it the most dangerous country for journalists for the third year in a row, according to Reporters Without Borders.

Espacio OSC is accompanied by the Peace Brigades International-Mexico Project.

The media release about the forum can be read here.

PBI-Guatemala accompanies CCDA Verapaz, expresses concern about the safety of several Q’eqchi’ communities

By
Brent Patterson
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On May 12, PBI-Guatemala posted: “PBI accompanies CCDA Verapaz. We are concerned about the security situation of several of its member communities.”

PBI-Guatemala has explained: “The Campesino Committee of the Highlands (CCDA) accompanies 150 Q’eqchi communities, supporting them in the resolution of conflicts related to the possession of the land they inhabit.”

On May 11, the CCDA tweeted: “Indigenous Q’eqchi’ communities carry out a peaceful demonstration to denounce the criminalization, persecution generated by the landed oligarchy in complicity with the State of Guatemala, dispossessing their ancestral lands.”

That tweet highlights: “Freedom for Jorge and Marcelino!”

The German newspaper Junge Welt has explained: “Jorge Coc Coc and Marcelino Xol Cucul, local indigenous authorities from the Choctun Basilá community in Cobán County and members of the CCDA, were sentenced to 35 years in prison in 2019 on fabricated charges of murder and attempted murder.”

Junge Welt has also noted: “The CCDA speaks of a total of 962 arrest warrants against its members and other agricultural workers in connection with resistance to land grabbing and major projects.”

PBI-Guatemala began to accompany the Campesino Committee of the Highlands (CCDA) of the Verapaces in July 2018.

PBI-Colombia accompanied José Alvear Restrepo Lawyers’ Collective (CCAJAR) at historic IACHR hearing, May 12-13

By
Brent Patterson
-

Photo by CCAJAR.

On May 11, PBI-Colombia tweeted:

“@CorteIDH [the Inter-American Court of Human Rights] calls #Colombia to judge surveillance and illegal intelligence against human rights defenders @Ccajar whom we have accompanied since 1995. We express our deep admiration and solidarity for their tireless work in defense of human rights and search for justice so that #NoSeRepita [there is no repetition].”

Last month, CCAJAR explained:

“For the first time, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACHR) will try a case involving illegal surveillance and intelligence on human rights defenders.

This is the case brought by the José Alvear Restrepo Lawyers’ Collective (Cajar), which has denounced being a victim of persecution practices for more than 30 years, in which its members have been the focus of illegal intelligence activities by different State agencies, stigmatizing speeches, threats, attacks, exiles, smear campaigns, psychological torture and harassment.”

And this morning CCAJAR tweeted:

“On May 12 and 13, the hearing @Ccajar against the Colombian State for persecution against our organization is held at the @CorteIDHl.”

Once the hearing began, CCAJAR tweeted:

“In the worst years of persecution we felt that the organization was going to end. Half of the lawyers of @Ccajar had to go into exile. We always appeared on lists of threats from paramilitary groups.”

“The hearing begins with the intervention of the @CIDH. In its merits report, the IACHR found that the persecution of the @Ccajar occurred in a context of impunity and harassment against defenders in Colombia.”

We are following CCAJAR’s tweets about this hearing here.

The hearing is also being web-cast on CCAJAR’s Facebook page.

Arms exports webinar, May 31

By
Brent Patterson
-

Please join us on Tuesday May 31 at 2:30 pm ET for our next webinar: Canadian arms exports and the militarization of territory.

On the eve of the Canada’s largest arms show, CANSEC, happening in Ottawa (June 1-2), this webinar will build awareness about the business of Canadian arms exports and how that is interconnected with the militarization of territory in Mexico, Colombia and Dene lands in northern Alberta.

The speakers will be:

– Berenice Celeita, Association for Research and Social Action (Colombia)

– Quetzalli Villanueva, Tlachinollan Human Rights Centre (Mexico)

– Tunkwa Dene Uldai, Denesuline land defender

– Rachel Small, World Beyond War

The webinar will be moderated by Seb Bonet of PBI-Canada.

This webinar will have simultaneous translation in English and Spanish.

Register now, by clicking here.

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