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Help us continue our work next year

By
Brent Patterson
-

As 2025 draws to a close, there is much to do in 2026.

The ongoing tension in Honduras following the Trump administration’s interference in the November 30th election there, has us monitoring the situation in Honduras for the human rights defenders we accompany as well as preparing for the possibility of what could happen in Colombia in their May 2026 election.

As the Canadian government prepares to deepen economic ties with Mexico with pipelines, railways and mines, we will continue to push for a strengthening of the Protection Mechanism for human rights defenders and journalists (notably those who could be opposing and reporting on these megaprojects.

We will also be supporting our team in Guatemala as they continue to be present in court rooms for ongoing cases seeking justice for historic crimes against Indigenous peoples, trade union members and activists.

And as the push for the Prince Rupert Gas Transmission (PRGT) fracked gas pipeline has us attentive to the situation on Gitanyow territory as land defenders prepare to protect the land, waters and health of their lax’yip.

Three ways to donate to PBI-Canada

1- CanadaHelps.org

Click here to make a one-time or monthly donation. This platform automatically generates a charitable tax receipt for you.

2- Interac e-Transfer

You can make a donation by Interac e-Transfer by emailing  your donation to direction@pbicanada.org. In the “Message” field, please note if you would like a charitable tax receipt and include your mailing address.

3- Cheque

You can also mail a cheque to our mailbox at: Peace Brigades International-Canada, Bronson Centre, 211 Bronson Avenue, Ottawa, Ontario, K1R 6H5.

Your donation helps to sustain the work of the one staff person and twelve volunteers at PBI-Canada who accompany front line defenders through communications, advocacy, networking and support for our protection teams.

Thank you.

PBI-Colombia amplifies the Christmas wish of the Nydia Erika Bautista Foundation that Law 2364 be implemented

By
Brent Patterson
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Photo: PBI-Colombia was present when the Bill for a Comprehensive Law for the Protection of the Rights of Women Searchers was filed on October 19, 2022.

The Peace Brigades International-Colombia Project has amplified this call from the Nydia Erika Bautista Foundation on social media.

The image below says: “They have a commitment to the law on women searchers. Don’t forget it.”

The Foundation says:

“Urgent | Women Searchers

We want to raise awareness among institutions and the international community about the urgent need to implement Law 2364 of 2024, a law that protects the rights of Women Searchers and which has yet to be implemented.

While the law remains unimplemented, women searchers continue to be exposed to risks, violence, and institutional neglect.

The law exists. What is lacking is the will to implement it.

Share this message

Demand its implementation

Join the defense of the rights of Women Searchers

#Law 2364 Now #Women Searchers #Human Rights”

The Bill for a Comprehensive Law for the Protection of the Rights of Women Searchers was filed on October 19, 2022. Then Bill No. 242 was approved in the Senate on April 4, 2024. In an historic moment, Law 2364 of 2024, the Comprehensive Law  was ratified by President Gustavo Petro on June 18, 2024.

Yanette Bautista, who had championed this Law, died on September 1, 2025.

The Foundation had hoped that on October 23, 2025, the National Day of Women Searchers, the signed document would be delivered to them, but it never arrived. Since then, more than 50 days have passed without a response.

This past weekend, El Espectador reported: “Andrea Torres, director of the Nydia Erika Bautista Foundation, explained to Colombia+20 that the delay is due to changes in the ministerial portfolio. After the resignation of Eduardo Montealegre from the Ministry of Justice, the document has to be signed again with the new chief of staff. This has brought delays. …All the ministries – except for the Ministry of Agriculture – had already signed the decree, but the presidential sanction through the Ministry of the Interior was still pending. …’They say that they have changed their position a little now that they passed the decree again, when before they had already said yes to everything. We are very concerned about those challenges that they tell us are being imposed by the Ministry of the Interior and the Presidency,’ Torres said.”

That article continues: “In view of these difficulties, and with the aim that women receive ‘as a Christmas gift’ – says Andrea – the signed document, the organizations issued a joint statement addressed to President Gustavo Petro, in which they make an urgent call to fulfill the commitment.”

Accompaniment

Peace Brigades International has been accompanying the “Nydia Erika Bautista” Foundation (FNEB) occasionally since 2007 and in full since 2016.

Further reading: PBI-Colombia accompanies Nydia Erika Bautista Foundation as it honours Yanette Bautista, launches network and campaign on Law 2364 (PBI-Canada article, October 28, 2025).

Former Sandinista commander Dora María Téllez seeks the support of Mexican president Sheinbaum in the democratization of Nicaragua

By
Brent Patterson
-

Photo: Tellez holds banner that says: “Feminist sisterhood against Ortega’s sexist dictatorship Freedom for political prisoners Nicaragua”

Proceso reports: “Former Sandinista commander Dora María Téllez is certain that Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum can play a ‘decisive’ role in promoting a process of democratization in Nicaragua.”

Photo: The #DontLetDoraDie campaign when she was a political prisoner in 2022. She was released in February 2023 and now lives in exile in Spain.

Téllez tells Proceso: “I would expect that from President Sheinbaum, because I believe that she has the authority, capacity and possibility to play that role and because Mexico has a relevant leadership in Latin America and a tradition of solidarity with the peoples of the continent threatened by authoritarianism.”

“I feel that President Sheinbaum could play an extremely important role and contribute to Nicaraguans finding that path back to democracy.”

Téllez adds: “Mexico has a tradition of solidarity with peoples threatened by authoritarianism.”

She further notes that Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega and Co-President Rosario Murillo “are the ones who have violated the popular sovereignty and self-determination of the Nicaraguan people. …We are talking here about a state co-opted by a family mafia that has the Nicaraguan people in a state of terror and that also massively violates human rights.”

“Unfortunately, neither the United States nor Europe have withdrawn Nicaragua’s trade preferences [to access those markets].”

Téllez also highlighted: “When human rights are violated in any country, it does not matter if the regime is right-wing, left-wing, center-wing, above-wing or below. They are human rights violations and must be condemned. Period. …[In that sense], it must be said that the attacks that the Trump administration has ordered in the Caribbean completely violate international law.”

“We must be categorical and say that Nicolás Maduro’s regime in Venezuela has violated human rights and also lost the election in full view and patience of the whole world. And he has refused to hand over power. …A military intervention is neither desirable, nor possible, nor does it solve the problem. But that puts us in front of the fact that we have to look for political solutions to solve the problem.”

PBI-Nicaragua

After receiving requests from civil society organizations following the political crisis which began in Nicaragua in April 2018, PBI began an exploratory process in the region. In order to respond to this context and the needs expressed by local organizations, in 2020 PBI launched a new accompaniment project in Costa Rica focused on providing support to exiled Nicaraguan human rights defenders and social movements.

For more about PBI-Nicaragua and the organizations they accompany, visit their website and Facebook and Instagram.

The full article in Proceso can be read at “México debe liderar” lucha contra la dictadura en Nicaragua: excomandante sandinista Dora María Téllez (Proceso, December 8, 2025).

PBI-Mexico co-organizes panel on the defence of human rights with Indigenous Mixtec lawyer Yuteita Valeria Hoyos Ramos

By
Brent Patterson
-

The Peace Brigades International-Mexico Project has posted on social media:

“December 15, 2025

Yesterday, PBI Mexico, together with the German Embassy in Mexico City, organized the panel ‘The role of the international community in the defense of human rights,’ a space for dialogue and collective reflection on the current challenges for the defense of human rights.

We are grateful for the valuable contributions of Yuteita Valeria Hoyos Ramos, human rights defender from the National Network of Indigenous Women Lawyers; Jennifer Feller, from the General Directorate of Human Rights of the SRE [Department of Foreign Affairs]; Maia Campbell, Deputy Representative of the UN Human Rights Office in Mexico; and Gunnar Schneider, head of the economic department of the German Embassy, as well as to all those who participated in this exchange.”

This past January, Yuteita Valeria Hoyos Ramos, an indigenous Mixtec woman from Mexico and General Coordinator of the National Network of Indigenous Women Lawyers (RAI MX), told the International Service for Human Rights (ISHR):

“Mexico is a multicultural country, immensely rich in biodiversity and with a great sense of cooperation in its indigenous communities, but we are still immersed in a racist and colonial structure that is expressed in the exclusion of indigenous people from decision-making spaces and public opinion. The context in which we live continues to be a continuation of the colonialist project, as the State continues to dispossess us not only of our lands and identity, but also promotes the extractivism of our cultures, spiritual rituals, narratives, among others.”

To follow the work of Yuteita Hoyos and RAI MX, click here.

Mi’kmaw land defenders denounce arson attack on cabins at Tqamuoeye’katik (Hunter’s Mountain) in Nova Scotia

By
Brent Patterson
-

Video still from APTN: Land protector cabin before the fire.

APTN News reports: “Two cabins were torched over the weekend at the Mi’kmaw Land Protectors Hunter’s mountain camp. One burnt to the ground while the other sustained major damage. According to the land protectors, this was an alleged hate crime.”

The APTN News video report quotes Mi’kmaw land protector Michelle Carmelina Bernard saying: “This is a hate crime.” Chris Googoo, a member of the We’koqma’q First Nation, who had donated the two cabins on behalf of the Micmac Rights Association also says: “I feel like it was a hate crime.”

The Cape Breton Post also reports: “The two main buildings at the Hunter’s Mountain cultural revitalization camp in Cape Breton burned down early Saturday [December 13] morning. The camp has been the site of a Mi’Kmaw logging protest in Nova Scotia since early September. There are no reports of any injuries, and it is believed no one was staying in any of the buildings overnight at the time of the fire.”

“The camp was built in early September in response to logging practices on the mountain by pulp and paper companies that the Mi’kmaw consider are harming the mountain’s ecology, traditional medicines, and sacred spiritual places.”

The article also notes: “Earlier this month [on December 3, 2025], according to a sub-page of the Nova Scotia Forest Matters group called Wabanaki Forest, the land defenders at Tqamuoeye’katik (Hunter’s Mountain) made the decision to close up parts of camp but maintain a minimal presence there until the thaw and renewed logging threats of late winter/early spring began again.”

“[Prior to that] tents and a couple of log buildings were built as housing during the first month as a steady stream of visitors and defenders from across the province came to support the land defenders and protectors. Many elders, women and children from all five Unama’ki communities spent time staying at the camp.”

A statement from the Mi’kmaq People of Mi’kma’ki posted on Facebook notes: ““[The current provincial government of Nova Scotia—under Premier Tim Houston has] stood by while Mi’kmaq land protectors at Hunter’s Mountain were vilified, criminalized, surveilled, and pushed aside for defending unceded land. …Now, in the wake of that government inaction and inflammatory rhetoric, we see the predictable result: non-Native members taking it upon themselves to burn property left behind at Hunter’s Mountain—property belonging to land protectors. Let us be clear: this is not a random act. This is what happens when governments dehumanize Indigenous people, dismiss Treaty rights, and send a message that Mi’kmaq resistance is disposable. When leaders speak recklessly, others act violently.”

And Nina Newington has commented on social media: “When someone burns the cabins of those land defenders, those water protectors, it is both a hate crime and an economic crime. That’s how it seems to me, as a settler.”

One month ago, the Halifax Examiner reported: “Mi’kmaq land defenders and members of non-Indigenous environmental advocacy groups held a solidarity rally attended by several hundred people in Halifax on Saturday [November 15, 2025] to protest Premier Tim Houston’s resource extraction policies. The event was called Shoulder to Shoulder — We are All Treaty People. It was supported by several dozen environmental groups, along with Mi’kmaq land defenders and water protectors protecting Hunter’s Mountain, known as Tqamuoweye’katik in Mi’kmaq.”

That article noted that the speakers at the rally in Halifax included Mi’kmaq elder Albert Marshall; event organizer Nina Newington; Michelle Paul, a Mi’kmaq land defender and one of the event’s key organizers; Madonna Bernard (Kukuwes Wowkis), a Mi’kmaq grandmother and land defender; and Donald Marshall, 17, the son of Mi’kmaq activist Donald Marshall Jr.

We continue to follow this.

Donate to support PBI-Canada’s work in 2026

By
Brent Patterson
-

In 2025, we helped amplify the struggles of PBI accompanied organizations, defenders and communities through daily articles, webinars, and social media. We observed the sentencing hearing of Indigenous land defenders in Smithers, British Columbia, and hosted Mexican human rights defenders in Ottawa and accompanied their meetings with Members of Parliament to call for a strengthened Protection Mechanism for human rights defenders and journalists in Mexico.

We also created the space or Indigenous West Papuan land defenders to share their experiences with a large global audience while they were at the UN COP30 climate summit in Brazil; highlighted PBI’s accompaniment of labour movement activists in Latin America; and researched the links between arms shows in Canada and the UK and the repression of human rights defenders around the world.

For more about what we did this year: “Making space for peace”: Peace Brigades International-Canada annual review 2025.

In 2026, we want to continue to work with the PBI-Mexico team and Espacio OSC to strengthen the Protection Mechanism that could better help keep human rights defenders and journalists alive; accompany Indigenous land defenders resisting major projects on their territories in Canada; and work with PBI teams globally who recognize the connection between increased military spending worldwide, the mining of critical minerals for weapons systems, and the risks faced by land and environmental defenders protecting their land and waters from this extractivism.

Three ways to donate to PBI-Canada

1- CanadaHelps.org

Click here to make a one-time or monthly donation. This platform automatically generates a charitable tax receipt for you.

2- Interac e-Transfer

You can make a donation by Interac e-Transfer by emailing  your donation to direction@pbicanada.org. In the “Message” field, please note if you would like a charitable tax receipt and include your mailing address.

3- Cheque

You can also mail a cheque to our mailbox at: Peace Brigades International-Canada, Bronson Centre, 211 Bronson Avenue, Ottawa, Ontario, K1R 6H5.

Your donation helps to sustain the work of the one staff person and twelve volunteers at PBI-Canada who accompany front line defenders through communications, advocacy, networking and support for our protection teams.

Thank you.

PBI-Colombia accompanies the 38th anniversary ceremony of the founding of CREDHOS in Barrancabermeja

By
Brent Patterson
-

The Regional Corporation for the Defence of Human Rights (CREDHOS) has posted on social media:

“In an ecumenical, cultural and deeply symbolic ceremony, we paid tribute to our fellow human rights defenders, those who paved the way and those who today are the living seed of that persistence for a country with social justice and peace.

There, in front of the old office where this persistent project for life was born, we remembered their names and their struggles, but above all, their firm commitment to continue defending life and human dignity.”

CREDHOS was formed in 1987.

Peace Brigades International has accompanied CREDHOS since 1994.

The 1994 Peace Brigades International Annual Report notes that the request for PBI accompaniment came from CREDHOS following the murders of CREDHOS members Blanca Valero de Duran in January 1992, Julio César Berrio Villegas in June 1992, and Ligia Patricia Cortez (who worked on a CREDHOS backed educational project) along with two trade union members in July 1992.

Years later, in 2002, Human Rights Watch noted: “Blanca Cecilia Valero de Durán, CREDHOS: This human rights defender belonging to CREDHOS was shot and killed on January 29, 1992, in Barrancabermeja, Santander.  The then-Colonel Rodrigo Quiñones Cárdenas, director of intelligence for Colombian Navy Intelligence Network 7, was believed responsible for her murder and scores of other political killings by government investigators.”

Iván Madero Vergel joined the CREDHOS Board of Directors in 1993 and assumed the presidency of CREDHOS in 2012 after ten years of exile in Spain (with some time spent in Canada during that period).

Ivan in 2012: “The political deterrence that PBI creates is fundamental. Receiving the accompaniment of Peace Brigades has been important in the life of CREDHOS. It allows you to move, it allows you to continue doing this work.”

PBI-Canada remembers Ivan Madero’s visit to Canada in November 2019 and our visit with them in Barrancabermeja in July 2022.

We continue to follow, with respect and affection, the work of CREDHOS.

PBI-Canada monitors House of Commons legislation that impacts human rights, the safety of Indigenous land defenders

By
Brent Patterson
-

Photo: Rally on Parliament Hill against Bill C-5, July 2025

CBC News reports: “The House [of Commons] only passed four bills this fall sitting — that includes the supplementary estimates, which need to pass every sitting to keep the government operating. [Members of Parliament] quickly got two bills through the third reading shortly after question period on Thursday [December 11]: C-12, the government’s border security bill, and C-4, which primarily would bring the Liberals’ income tax cut officially into law. Both will now head to the Senate. The government was able to pass the ‘Lost Canadians’ legislation last month.”

The Migrant Rights Network opposes C-12, the Strengthening Canada’s Immigration System and Borders Act. They highlighted: “This bill would allow mass deportations, deny refugees protection, and share sensitive info with foreign governments.” They had also noted: “[This bill] threatens migrant and refugee rights and expands government surveillance.”

It does not appear that Bill C-9, the Combatting Hate Act, passed. Today, The Canadian Labour Congress stated: “Parliament should not pass this Bill without considerable amendment. As drafted, the Bill threatens labour rights, fundamental freedoms, the right to protest, and public accountability.”

Prior to this fall sitting, Bill C-5, the One Canadian Economy Act, passed the House of Commons in June 2025. We continue to watch C-5 as well as the yet-to-be-passed Bill C-2, the Strong Borders Act.

Ecojustice has commented: “Bill C-5 sets a dangerous precedent. It gives sweeping and potentially unconstitutional powers to the federal Cabinet to bypass environmental laws and legal safeguards. The Bill allows decisions to be made about ‘national interest’ projects with little public participation, without robust environmental impact assessments, and without the free, prior and informed consent of Indigenous Peoples.”

Greenpeace Canada has also explained: “Bill C5 (the Building Canada Act) is likely going to result in a new round of grassroots opposition from Indigenous land defenders and environmental activists to resource extraction projects fast-tracked under the new legislation.”

And they noted: “Bill C2 (the Strong Borders Act) grants the federal government new warrant-less surveillance powers that are not restricted to border-related issues, but can be used any time there is even a suspicion that any Act of Parliament might be contravened.”

Greenpeace further highlights: “The history of RCMP [Royal Canadian Mounted Police] surveillance and repression of land defenders (particularly but not exclusively Indigenous) suggest that these powers will be misused.”

We are also watching MP Jenny Kwan’s Bill C-233.

The Canadian Press has reported: “Her private member’s bill C-233, which she’s calling the “No More Loopholes Act,” would add new oversight requirements to exports of parts and components, end permit-free access to the United States for military goods and require companies to obtain end-use certificates from foreign governments. …Debate on the bill is expected to resume in the new year, likely in February.”

PBI-Canada has commented that Bill C-233 would complement the Berta Cáceres Human Rights in Honduras Act in the protection of defenders that is backed by the PBI-Honduras accompanied Lenca organization COPINH.

Members of Parliament are scheduled to be back in Ottawa to resume sitting in the House of Commons on January 26, 2026.

Additional reading: Here’s all the legislation CFSC is tracking right now (Canadian Friends Service Committee, October 21, 2025).

PBI-Nederland and Shelter City Utrecht hosts Palestinian human rights defender Badee Dwaik

By
Brent Patterson
-

PBI-Nederland has published this article about Shelter City Utrecht and Palestinian human rights defender Badee Dwaik.

Shelter City Utrecht

They explain: “Shelter City Utrecht is a project that provides a temporary safe haven for human rights defenders who are at risk in their country of origin. Peace Brigades International – in collaboration with Justice & Peace – receives human rights defenders for periods of three months. During these three months, the human rights defenders rest and recover but they also build their network, learn new skills, and raise awareness about human rights issues.”

Two days ago, PBI-Nederland also posted on social media: “Yesterday we celebrated the tenth anniversary of our Shelter City Utrecht project at the city hall in Utrecht. What a great milestone, and what a beautiful event! Together with our partners, we looked back on everything we have achieved over the past ten years. Since the start of the project, we have already been able to offer 34 human rights defenders from 20 different countries a safe haven in beautiful Utrecht!”

Badee Dwaik

PBI-Nederland further notes: “Current Palestinian Shelter City guest Badee Dwaik recited a beautiful poem written by him.”

Front Line Defenders tells us more about him:

“Badee Dweik is a human rights defender who organises campaigns for the protection of human rights defenders in Hebron and calls for an end to Israeli occupation. The human rights defender has established many NGOs that organise peaceful actions calling for the Palestinian right to self-determination. He is a leading member of Human Rights Defenders in Palestine. Badee Dweik also collaborates with the Hebron team of human rights observers brought by the Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and Israel. His work involves documenting and providing information on violations committed against Palestinians. He also provides training on protection for human rights defenders, particularly in the Hebron governorate.”

On June 23, 2025, Human Rights Defenders posted:

“Israeli occupation soldiers detained activist Badee Dwaik at the entrance of the Old City in Hebron. They searched him, abused him, and forced him to the ground. The Israeli occupation soldiers searched his mobile phone and deleted its contents after he  attempted to document the soldiers’ detention of passersby, their prevention from entering the Old City, and the abuse they were subjected to.”

And almost ten years ago, the American Ethical Union also noted:

“[Badee is from] Al-Khalil (Hebron). Badee is the co-founder of Human Rights Defenders; a grassroots, anti-colonial organization on the front line of media justice in a context of militarized occupation. The Human Rights Defenders use their own video equipment to document IDF raids, attacks, and human rights abuses by soldiers and settlers so they can release these reports online for a global audience. Palestinian people in Al-Khalil live in an extremely high-tension urban context of apartheid with normalized military presence, checkpoints and close proximity to Israeli settlements. Badee is a media justice organizer and Palestinian father who is dedicated to the Palestinian people and an end to occupation of his traditional territories.”

You can read more from Badee Dwaik on Instagram here.

For more about his organization Human Rights Defenders تجمع المدافعين عن حقوق الانسان – فلسطين click here.

Prior to arriving in Utrecht, Dwaik gave this speech in Barcelona.

We continue to follow his work.

The ongoing call for an arms embargo

The Dublin-based organization Front Line Defenders (the International Foundation for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders) has also documented the killing of at least 31 Palestinian human rights defenders in 2023 and 2024.

They recognize the actual numbers are higher. They explain: “In some regions and countries, including Palestine, the documentation of cases is highly challenging, if not virtually impossible.”

And they state that “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.”

UN experts have stated that “continuing to support Israel materially or politically, especially via arms transfers, and the provision of private military and security services risks complicity in genocide and other serious international crimes.”

Peace Brigades International-Canada continues to call on Prime Minister Mark Carney and the Canadian government to immediately suspend any transfers of weapons, ammunition and military components to Israel and to stop any military assistance or support that is likely to violate international humanitarian law.

PBI-Colombia participates in Justice and Peace meeting with the international community, including the Embassy of Canada

By
Brent Patterson
-

The Peace Brigades International-Colombia Project has posted on social media:

“We participated in the meeting-discussion of the Inter-Church Justice and Peace Commission with the participation of diplomatic corps and cooperation organisations. The meeting was attended by leaders from different Colombian territories who expressed their concern about insecurity in their areas and asked for the support of the international community to move forward and comply with the agreements reached at the various negotiating tables held by the Colombian government with the different armed groups within the framework of the Total Peace Policy, as well as to accelerate the implementation of the 2016 Peace Agreement. We would like to thank the embassies of Canada, the Czech Republic, Switzerland, Ireland and Germany, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner and the Somos Génesis Network for their participation and for the commitments made to the JyP Commission and the communities.”

The Inter-Church Commission for Peace and Justice (J&P) has also posted on social media:

“J&P, the SomosGenesis Network and PBI welcomed the international community to a breakfast for peace.

The voice of hope from the territories most affected by violence and the lack of human rights guarantees draws the world’s attention to the reality of their territories and their proposals for peacebuilding.”

Yesterday (December 10), the World Organization Against Torture (OMCT) expressed “its deep concern over the humanitarian and human rights crisis in southwestern Colombia, and condemns the recent attacks against members of the Inter-Church Commission for Justice and Peace.”

Their article highlighted: “In the course of a single week, the Inter-Church Commission for Justice and Peace recorded four armed attacks and acts of intimidation against its collaborators in the region, particularly in the urban area of Buenaventura, the rural area of Bajo Calima and Bajo San Juan, as well as in areas of Putumayo and Cauca, where they carried out their work. All the people attacked are beneficiaries of the precautionary measure MC-629-03 of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, in addition to having protection schemes from the National Protection Unit.”

The OMCT has made several requests of the Colombian state in this regard including: “Strengthen and immediately adjust the protection schemes of the National Protection Unit for the members of the Inter-Church Commission for Justice and Peace, ensuring that they respond to the risks documented in the territories and incorporate complementary actions to guarantee their safety.”

Accompaniment

Members of Justice and Peace have been the target of many security incidents since 1996, including serious threats to their personal integrity, being illegally followed and subjected to illegal wiretapping and surveillance, assassination plots, kidnappings and smear campaigns.

PBI-Colombia has previously noted: “On November 21, 2019, the day of the nationwide National Strike, the organisation denounced that during morning hours a drone of the National Police harassed the headquarters of the Commission in Bogotá, despite the fact that the government did not authorize the use of drones in the sector. J&P stressed that these events occurred at a time when ‘several raids against unions, leaders and social organisations have been staged by the Colombian State, thus limiting and violating the right to physical and symbolic protest and constituting an intimidating act that hinders our organisation’s work.’”

Peace Brigades International has been accompanying the Inter-Church Justice and Peace Commission since 1994.

Photo: Justice & Peace breakfast for peace, December 11, 2025.

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