Home Blog Page 346

PBI-Honduras notes at UN Canada’s call for Honduras to prevent the criminalization of human rights defenders

By
Brent Patterson
-

On March 16, Andrea Regina Pineda presented on behalf of Peace Brigades International to the UN Human Rights Council regarding the adoption of the report on Honduras by the Universal Periodic Review Working Group.

Pineda is a lawyer with the Honduran Centre for the Promotion of Community Development (CEHPRODEC), which has been accompanied by PBI since May 2014.

Pineda stated: “Peace Brigades International welcomes the important recommendations made to the state of Honduras.”

Criminalization of human rights defenders

Pineda highlighted: “We would like to underscore the following recommendations. …Belgium, Canada and Norway on investigating and convicting the crimes of defenders and specifically the murder of Berta Cáceres, a recommendation from Costa Rica. We remember the importance to also investigate the intellectual authors of these crimes.”

Among the recommendations from Canada noted in the UPR Working Group report:

“104.78 Increase efforts to ensure the independence of the judicial system, strengthening the investigation of and prosecution for acts of corruption and human rights violations, and prevent the criminalization of human rights defenders and community and Indigenous activists to ensure they are able to operate in a safe environment (Canada).”

Escazu Agreement

Pineda also noted that Ireland had called for the ratification of the Escazu Agreement.

While Canada did not make this recommendation to the UPR, Canada’s Ambassador to the UN Leslie E. Norton told the Human Rights Council earlier this month:

“Some states have established specific protection mechanisms to prevent risks and attacks against HRDs [human rights defenders] and to intervene when need be. Canada wants to stress these important milestones such as the Escazu Regional Agreement in Latin America and the Caribbean.”

Canada and mining in Honduras

This article by PBI-Switzerland (also posted by PBI-Honduras), notes:

“Pineda is concerned that more and more areas are being illegally occupied and used for mining and that the Honduran state is failing in this regard. According to the Observatory for Natural Resources and Human Rights created by CEHPRODEC in 2017, the Honduran state issued 302 concessions for mining over an area of ​​over 2,000 square kilometers. Most of these have been exhibited without prior free, informed consultations. The consequences are more land conflicts, arrests and the criminalization of people who rebel against mining companies that threaten their land.”

In April 2014, MiningWatch Canada’s then Latin America program coordinator Jennifer Moore spoke to a Canadian parliamentary committee about the Honduran mining law that was passed in post-coup Honduras in January 2013.

Moore stated: “This law was developed and passed with strong diplomatic support from the Canadian embassy, and with contributions from the Department of Foreign Affairs and the former Canadian International Development Agency.”

Next steps

In her presentation to the UN, Pineda concluded: “It is important that the UPR recommendations be followed.”

To watch her presentation, click here (chapter 16, 00:24:54).

PBI-Switzerland advocacy coordinator Kim-Mai Vu reports that Honduras received 223 recommendations during its UPR, accepted 203 of them, and took note of 20. It accepted all the recommendations regarding the protection of defenders.

On August 30, 2019, PBI-Honduras posted: “Yesterday we accompanied CEHPRODEC to an annual march in which hundreds of people from the communities protested against the extractivism that, they say, threaten the territories and natural resources.”

PBI-Guatemala accompanies lawyers at acquittal for Maya Q’eqchi’ leader Samuel Choc Ac criminalized by palm oil company

By
Brent Patterson
-

Samuel Choc Ac (in light blue shirt and white hat) at court today.

On March 16, PBI-Guatemala posted: “PBI accompanies the lawyers from the Human Rights Law Firm (BDH) in the last hearing of the Indigenous authority Samuel Choc Ac in Cobán. Samuel has been acquitted for the 3 crimes he was accused of.”

Choc Ac is a Maya Q’eqchi’ community leader.

The Protection Unit for Human Rights Defenders – Guatemala (UDEFEGUA) has tweeted: “Judge Fidel Och, of the First Criminal Sentencing Court of Cobán, issued an acquittal in favor of defender Samuel Choc, freeing him from the crimes of aggravated usurpation, illegal detentions and instigation to commit a crime.”

The process against him had been initiated by the palm oil company Tecniservicios Agro Industriales SA.

Former UN Special Rapporteur Victoria Tauli-Corpuz has noted the “crime of aggravated usurpation is commonly brought against indigenous land rights defenders.”

She explains: “Disregard of indigenous rights of traditional lands ownership breeds tensions, subsequent violence and criminalization, as indigenous peoples become trespassers or illegal occupants of their own lands, subject to criminal charges such as ‘usurpation’ or illegal occupation, and liable to forced evictions and removal from the lands they rely upon for their livelihoods, social and cultural cohesion and spiritual traditions.”

UDEFEGUA had tweeted during the hearing earlier in the day: “Samuel Choc declares about how necessary it is to defend water for everyone; if the water runs out in your village, it runs out in the city too. If the peoples do not fight for water, no one else will, it is the water that gives them strength and life, he said.”

Choc Ac has also previously stated: “My parents, grandparents and families in the community have lived for several generations in that place. We are a family of farmers, merchants and fishermen on the Chiribiscal, Quimala, San Román and Negro rivers, which are being contaminated by palm planting waste these days. They have caused serious damage, many fish have died and many people have sprouted skin diseases, the pestilence of waste has increased and caused the increase in flies.”

PBI-Guatemala has accompanied the Human Rights Law Firm since 2013.

For more on this, you can also see the Prensa Comunitaria article: Samuel Choc Ac is innocent of aggravated usurpation.

ASMAC director Isela Gonzalez hopes judgement sets precedent for Indigenous communities defending ancestral territory

By
Brent Patterson
-

On March 11, Sierra Madre Alliance (ASMAC) director Isela Gonzalez participated in a webinar organized by Peace Brigades International and Amnesty International.

She spoke about the assassination of Rarámuri land and territory defender Julian Carrillo, a protector of the community of Coloradas de la Virgen in the Sierra Tarahumara region in the northwestern state of Chihuahua

Community members, including Otón Portillo and Celestino Carrillo (Julian’s son), also took part in this webinar.

The following day, on March 12, a court sentenced one of the two people who killed Julian Carrillo in October 2018 to 48 years in prison. Following that ruling, Gonzalez was interviewed for this article published by El Manana.

Gonzalez commented: “It is a trial that sets a very important precedent, a message of no impunity for the killing of environmental defenders of land and territory, because public prosecutors were sensitive and included the cultural perspective.”

She adds: “Finally, it was worked on and integrated in such a way into the interrogation with cultural relevance, public ministries were opened to the times and rhythms of witnesses, who are Indigenous people of the community or relatives of Julian. CEDEHM and the Alliance set a precedent in comprehensively documenting community and family damage.”

Both ASMAC and the Centre for Women’s Human Rights (CEDEHM) hope the judgment will serve as a benchmark for other Indigenous communities facing the same obstacles in their struggle for respect for their ancestral territory.

Their full statement of the “historic ruling” can be read here.

PBI-Mexico has accompanied ASMAC since 2018.

To see the video of Isela’s presentation, click here.

“We honour his legacy”

Educa Oaxaca expects decision on Canadian-owned San José mine permit this month

By
Brent Patterson
-

‘No to the San Jose 2 mine’

On our recent webinar, Neftali Reyes of Educa Oaxaca noted that a decision on the San José mine is expected by the end of this month.

Pedro Máximo Aquino, Efrén Jacinto Sánchez, and Rubén Flores, authorities from Magdalena Ocotlán, also spoke on this webinar.

This Educa Oaxaca report on the webinar highlights: “The representatives of the community located just a few meters from the San José mining project, owned by the FSM company, reiterated that ‘the mining company is affecting us a lot’ with water pollution, mine waste, constant noise and the shortage of water.”

The permit for this mine expires this year.

On July 7, 2020, the Compañía Minera Cuzcatlán, a subsidiary of Vancouver-based Fortuna Silver Mines (FSM), submitted an environmental impact assessment (MIA) for approval by the Ministry of the Environment and Natural Resources (SEMARNAT).

That MIA seeks a 10-year extension for the mine. The San José II mine would reportedly be a 7,000-hectare expansion of the existing 700-hectare mine.

By October 2020, twelve communities held a media conference to highlight that 10 more years of the mine would “generate irreversible contamination.”

Then in December 2020, a blockade was established on Highway 175 in Oaxaca to demand a meeting with SEMARNAT and a rejection of the permit for the mine.

Now, we may be less than two weeks away from a decision by SEMARNAT.

This decision falls on the same month as two anniversaries.

In March 2009, residents set up an encampment outside the newly established mine to protest it being built without free, prior and informed consent. And in March 2012, Bernardo Vásquez, a vocal opponent of the mine, was assassinated.

PBI-Mexico has accompanied Educa Oaxaca since May 2013. PBI-Canada hosted Neftali Reyes and Salvador Martínez Arellanes (an Indigenous leader from Santa Carina Minas) at public meetings about this mine in Ottawa and Toronto in November 2018.

Neftali and Salvador during advocacy tour in Canada, November 2018, and at a media conference demanding a rejection of the mine, July 2020.

Ombudsperson for Responsible Enterprise opens complaints process, Canadian civil society advises “approach with caution”

By
Brent Patterson
-

Photo: Sheri Meyerhoffer.

On March 15, this media release highlighted: “Sheri Meyerhoffer, the Canadian Ombudsperson for Responsible Enterprise (CORE), announced today that her office is open to receive complaints of possible human rights abuses arising from the operations abroad of Canadian companies in mining, oil and gas, and garment sectors.”

The online form to file a complaint (in Spanish) can be found here.

In response, the Open for Justice campaign coordinated by the Canadian Network on Corporate Accountability (CCNA) tweeted:

“As the @CORE_ombuds opens to receive complaints, it still lacks independence & #power2compel. The CNCA has had to advise its global partners & impacted communities to approach the office with caution.”

The “approach with caution” background can be read (in Spanish) here.

The fundamental concern is that without the ability to compel the cooperation of entities against which a complaint is made or others who may hold relevant information, the Canadian Ombudsperson for Responsible Enterprise will need to rely on voluntary compliance which is seen to compromise its effectiveness.

A media release on UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet’s visit to Canada in June 2019 noted: “[Bachelet] encouraged the authorities to ensure the Ombudsperson will have sufficient powers to independently and effectively investigate allegations of human rights abuses under its mandate.”

Commenting on the opening of the complaints process, CNCA coordinator Emily Dwyer says: “Canada is failing to live up to its human rights commitments by refusing to act on its own legal advice and give the CORE real powers. Today, the world takes note: Canada is not the leader on human rights that it claims to be.”

Above Ground director Karyn Keenan has also stated: “The CORE, as it stands right now, is not a meaningful mechanism for people to seek justice.”

And former Amnesty International-Canada secretary-general Alex Neve noted yesterday in this series of tweets: “I so much want to wish Sheri Meyerhoffer well as the CORE opens its door to receive complaints and take action. But without those powers this feels so much like where we have been before. And that went nowhere other than letting down the frontline communities around the world who have experienced human rights abuse associated with the operations of Canadian extractive companies.”

That said, The Globe and Mail has reported: “John Packer, an associate professor of law and director of the Human Rights Research and Education Centre at the University of Ottawa, said while the power to compel witness testimony and documents would be useful for Ms. Meyerhoffer, it is not a silver-bullet solution.”

Packer says: “It would place her in a more adversarial position vis-à-vis commercial actors. She needs co-operation. That comes in various ways – not only through coercion.”

Two PBI accompanied organizations submitted a complaint to the CORE in May 2020 (a full year after Meyerhoffer was appointed to the position). They were informed that complaints were not being received at that time.

PBI-Canada and civil society allies recently participated in a virtual meeting with Meyerhoffer and Global Affairs Canada officials on this complaints mechanism as well as the annual human rights review process for the Canada-Colombia Free Trade Agreement.

The CORE currently has 10 staff, who will be able to travel to investigate complaints, and a budget of $992,000 plus a one-time allocation of $650,000 for 2020-21.

The “Approach with caution” document in Spanish here.

Canada’s new fighter jets could be stationed at a “forward operating location” in Iqaluit

By
Brent Patterson
-

Photo: A CF-18 on an air training exercise out of Iqaluit this past January.

When Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and US President Joe Biden met on February 23, they committed to modernizing NORAD.

It’s not exactly clear what this means.

But Nunatsiaq News recently reported: “Part of what’s contemplated is an expansion of northern Canada’s forward operating locations, known as FOL sites. The FOL site in Iqaluit includes three hangars capable of housing F-18 fighter jets, as well as a large barracks located off the road to the causeway.”

In that article, University of Manitoba political studies professor James Fergusson says: “You need more of them up there potentially. So that’s going to be a major investment and development project as well.”

This also fits with the Canadian government’s stated rationale: “A modern fighter jet fleet is essential for defending Canada and Canadian sovereignty and contribute to our NORAD and NATO commitments, now and in the future.”

Furthermore, on January 18-20 of this year, the Royal Canadian Air Force “conducted High Arctic air training involving two CF-18 Hornet fighters and one CC-150T Polaris air-to-air refueling aircraft operating from Iqaluit, Nunavut.”

The stated reason for this exercise: “It enhances the RCAF’s ongoing support to operations and exercises and showcases the Canadian Armed Forces’ ability to project force into the region so that we can work cooperatively with our partners.”

Nunatsiaq News also notes that 47 radar stations that run from Labrador to Alaska are now obsolete and their lifespan expires in 2025. Replacing that system could cost an estimated $11 billion. The maintenance contract for these stations is held by Raytheon.

Fergusson says there could be new radar stations located further north of where they are now as well as “space-based assets” and more naval surveillance.

That naval surveillance in the Arctic is also driving Canada purchasing 15 Type 26 warships from Lockheed Martin and BAE that a recent report from the Parliamentary Budget Officer says could cost an estimated $77 billion.

Climate change is also driving this militarization of the North.

The Globe and Mail has reported: “In frank comments to the Ottawa Conference on Security and Defence, deputy minister Jody Thomas said that Beijing is turning its attention to the Northwest Passage as melting ice opens up Arctic sea lanes to shipping and resource exploitation, including fish, petroleum and critical minerals.”

The No Fighter Jet Coalition recently released this report that estimates the actual cost of Canada purchasing 88 new fighter jets could total $76.8 billion.

Please also see our articles: The struggle of Innu land defenders against NATO low level flight training over Nitassinan and Dene land defender Brian Grandbois and the struggle against the Cold Lake air force base.

Photo: A protest at the Goose Bay air force base in 1988 in opposition to NATO low level flight training over Nitassinan.

PBI-Mexico accompanied FPDTA-MPT opposes aqueduct that could draw 50 million litres of water daily from Cuautla River

By
Brent Patterson
-

PBI-Mexico accompanied the FPDTA-MPT at a march on November 28, 2020, just days after the National Guard raided the Cuautla River blockade.

Jacob Alabab-Moser reports in Latino Rebels: “Operations at the newly constructed thermoelectric plant in Huexca, Morelos could begin in the near future, despite years long delays caused by vocal opposition and unresolved legal issues.”

Alabab-Moser continues:

“Grassroots resistors forming the Frente de Pueblos en Defensa de la Tierra y el Agua de Morelos, Puebla y Tlaxcala (Peoples’ Front in Defense of the Land and Earth of Morelos, Puebla and Tlaxcala) have protested outside of the facility since December.”

“To cool the turbines at the plant, the adjoining aqueduct must draw 50 million liters of water daily from the Cuautla River, despite a statement by the state-owned electricity utility Comisión Federal de Electricidad (Federal Electricity Commission) that said that the plant would only draw from only treated sewage.”

“The river sustains 32 ejidos, or communal agriculture lands. Many of the ejidatarios —who collectively regulate use of increasingly scarce water supplies for irrigation through the Asociación de Usuarios del Río Cuautla (Cuautla River Users Association)— warn that the project will deplete remaining supplies and return to the river contaminated water.”

“Although the government approved the Manifestación de Impacto Ambiental (Environmental Impact Statement) necessary for the thermoelectric plant to be constructed, that assessment took into account neither the aqueduct’s full impacts on the Cuautla River nor [the Cuautla Rivers Users Assocation] members’ water rights, said Juan Carlos Flores Solís, a lawyer representing the FPDTA-MPT.”

PBI-Mexico began to accompany the FPDTA-MPT in early 2020.

On November 23, 2020, PBI-Mexico posted: “We express concern about the eviction by the National Guard of the Apatlaco blockade which they had maintained for 4 years in opposition to the Huexca thermoelectric plant and PIM.”

PBI-Canada has also taken note that after the eviction of the blockade of the aqueduct, the FPDTA-MPT stated: “[Mexican President] Lopez Obrador betrays the peasant and the promise of change of his government, to favour transnational corporations [including] Canadian miners like Alamos Gold, among others.”

This likely refers to the Esperanza open-pit gold mine near Tetlama, Morelos reactivated by the Toronto-based mining company last year.

To read the full article by Alabab-Moser, go to Indigenous, Rural Mexicans in Morelos Fight Against Energy Project That Threatens Their Water Supplies.

Nine more PBI-Canada articles about the FPDTA-MPT can be found here.

PBI-Honduras and PBI-Guatemala now seeking field volunteers!

By
Brent Patterson
-

Given you registered for our recent webinar, we wanted to let you know that both PBI-Honduras and PBI-Guatemala announced today that they are seeking volunteers to be field brigadistas.

Honduras

The deadline to apply with PBI-Honduras is April 19.

The other key dates in the application process are interviews (May 3-30), online self-training (May 31-August 15) and the virtual training week (late-August).

The application forms can be found here.

Among the organizations accompanied by PBI-Honduras: Arcoíris LGTB Association of Honduras, National Union of Rural Workers (CNTC), and Civil Council of Grassroots and Indigenous Organizations in Honduras (COPINH).

If you have further questions, you can also contact formacion@pbi-honduras.org.

Guatemala

The deadline for PBI-Guatemala is August 1.

The key dates in this application process noted by PBI-Guatemala are when application process opens (March 31) and the training and selection week (December 5-11).

The application forms can be found here.

PBI-Guatemala accompanies organizations including the Peaceful Resistance La Puya, the Network of Ancestral Healers of Community Feminism, the Human Rights Law Firm, and the Union of Campesino Organizations for the Verapaces (UVOC).

For more information, you can email formacion@pbi-guatemala.org.

Requirements

Key requirements to volunteer with both projects include a working proficiency in Spanish; a commitment to at least 12 months of field work; an ability to work in a horizontal structure where decisions are made through consensus; and experience working and living in groups, especially in stressful situations.

Volunteers are also normally over 25 years of age.

Both projects also offer round trip tickets for the placement, accommodation, medical insurance, and a monthly stipend ($175 to $220) for personal costs.

We hope that you are able to apply and/or help spread the word about these opportunities!

PBI-Honduras & PBI-Guatemala now seeking field volunteers!

By
Brent Patterson
-

PBI-Honduras and PBI-Guatemala announced today that they are seeking volunteers to be field brigadistas.

Honduras

The deadline to apply with PBI-Honduras is April 19.

The other key dates in the application process are interviews (May 3-30), online self-training (May 31-August 15) and the virtual training week (late-August).

The application forms can be found here.

Among the organizations accompanied by PBI-Honduras: Arcoíris LGTB Association of Honduras, National Union of Rural Workers (CNTC), and Civil Council of Grassroots and Indigenous Organizations in Honduras (COPINH).

If you have further questions, you can also contact formacion@pbi-honduras.org.

Guatemala

The deadline for PBI-Guatemala is August 1.

The key dates in this application process are when application process opens (March 31) and the training and selection week (December 5-11).

The application forms can be found here.

PBI-Guatemala accompanies organizations including the Peaceful Resistance La Puya, the Network of Ancestral Healers of Community Feminism, the Human Rights Law Firm, and the Union of Campesino Organizations for the Verapaces (UVOC).

For more information, you can email formacion@pbi-guatemala.org.

Requirements

Key requirements to volunteer with both projects include a working proficiency in Spanish; a commitment to at least 12 months of field work; an ability to work in a horizontal structure where decisions are made through consensus; and experience working and living in groups, especially in stressful situations.

Volunteers are also normally over 25 years of age.

Both projects also offer round trip tickets for the placement, accommodation, medical insurance, and a monthly stipend ($175 to $220) for personal costs.

Also…

This past February 28, PBI-Canada collaborated with PBI entities in the US, Colombia and Mexico on this webinar that addresses what it’s like to be a field volunteer.

PBI-Guatemala accompanies Human Rights Law Firm at court hearing on Hogar Seguro shelter fire

By
Brent Patterson
-

On March 15, PBI-Guatemala posted: “PBI accompanies the lawyers of the Human Rights Law Firm (BDH) in the hearing to advance evidence of the survivors of the fire at the Hogar Seguro state orphanage. Given that the judge declared total confidentiality of the testimonial statements of the adolescents, the hearing is held behind closed doors.”

La Hora further reports that three survivors of the fire would testify.

On March 8, 2017, 56 girls between the ages of 13 and 17 were locked in a room at the Hogar Seguro shelter. 41 died in that fire, 15 were seriously injured.

By November 2017, The Guardian reported: “Initially, three people – the former minister of social welfare, his deputy and the director of the shelter – were charged with negligent homicide, abuse of power and mistreatment of minors. In June, three government officials and two police officers were also charged.”

Earlier this month, EFE reported: “At least eight people including police officers and authorities have been charged with the deaths of minors.”

CNN has reported that five are accused of breach of duties, wrongful death, mistreatment of minors and wrongful injuries.

One of those is Lucinda Marroquín, the former deputy inspector of the National Civil Police, is accused of not opening the locked room for 9 minutes after the fire started.

That CNN article adds that Santos Torres, the former director of Hogar Seguro, also faces five criminal charges, including abuse and homicide.

Al Jazeera has reported: “Some of the victims of the March 8, 2017 fire in the Hogar Seguro Virgen de la Asuncion shelter had run away from home, fleeing abuse and sexual assault by relatives. But many faced more of the same inside the shelter.”

That article adds: “For years, girls reported being raped and forced into prostitution inside the state-run facility, but their protests were ignored.”

And The Guardian has reported: “More than 700 children lived at the home, which had capacity for 400-500.”

BDH lawyer Edgar Pérez had also sought then-President Jimmy Morales to stand trial. Pérez says: “The president contributed to the explosion. He lit the match.”

PBI-Guatemala has accompanied Pérez since August 2010 and then extended that accompaniment to the other lawyers at BDH in 2013.

1...345346347...476Page 346 of 476