Photo of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau at the previous Summit of the Americas, Lima, Peru, 2018.

Americas Society/Council of the Americas recently reported: “One item early on [US Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s] agenda for 2021 will be when the United States will host a virtual Summit of the Americas in April.”

That virtual summit is expected to include US President Joe Biden, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, Colombian President Ivan Duque, Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández, Guatemalan President Alejandro Giammattei, and other leaders from the Americas.

What might be on the agenda of the Summit of the Americas?

A hemispheric free trade agreement

Ryan C. Berg of the American Enterprise Institute and Lauri Tähtinen of Americas Outlook already seem to be making the case for a renewed push for a Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) agreement (that faced massive protests at the summit in Quebec City in 2001). They have commented: “In 2021, the United States will once again host the triennial Summit of the Americas—and it must put free trade squarely back on the agenda.”

They add: “If Ottawa and Mexico City would welcome greater integration with other regional economies to balance the United States, and if Brasília is newly open to joining in, many other capitals would have good reasons to come to the party.”

Berg has co-authored another article that argues: “The Biden administration would be wise to revisit existing regional trade deals. The Central American Free Trade Agreement-Dominican Republic (CAFTA-DR) was passed in 2005 and, given the dire state of the Northern Triangle and the possibility of an imminent migration crisis, is ripe for renewal.”

Manuel Pérez-Rocha of the Washington, DC-based Institute for Policy Studies has stated: “Human rights in the broadest sense — including economic, social, cultural, and environmental rights — must have primacy over corporate and investor rights, and there needs to be legally binding obligations on transnational corporations.”

And Michel Forst, a former United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders, wrote in The Guardian several years ago that: “Trade agreements with countries where environmental defenders are under threat should contemplate measures to prevent, investigate and remedy violations against activists.”

Migration

Migration continues to be a pressing issue in the Americas.

Newsweek has noted: “Activists want Biden to honor his campaign promises, pointing to ending the Remain in Mexico policy, ending metering, which limits the number of people who can access the asylum system each day, and putting an asylum system in place that is safe and efficient and doesn’t leave people in limbo interminably.”

But Deutsche Welle has reported: “Two Biden advisers made that clear in a written interview with Spain’s EFE news agency at the end of December: ‘The migrants and asylum seekers should in no way believe that the border will suddenly open.’”

“Biden does, however, plan to process asylum cases more quickly and allow more applicants into the US than in the Trump era.”

That article adds: “The new administration also plans to do more to fight the root causes of mass migration by earmarking 4 billion US dollars for efforts to help Latin American countries fight poverty and crime within their own borders. The funds will go to specific projects and be made conditional on an adherence to recognized legal standards.”

Peace process and social leaders in Colombia

Just prior to the US election, CNN reported: “Experts believe a Biden administration would put more pressure on Duque to protect rights defenders. ‘Biden would be more supportive of the peace process and critical of the social leaders’ killings in Colombia’, said Adam Isaacson, director for defense oversight at the Washington Office on Latin America.”

On January 29, Biden’s Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with Colombia’s foreign minister Claudia Blum.

The readout from the meeting  between Blinken and Blum notes: “The Secretary expressed the United States’ strong support for peace in Colombia. He pledged to partner closely with the Colombian government as it extends the benefits of peace throughout the country, ensure the protection of human rights, and defeat the narcotraffickers and transnational criminal groups that threaten regional security.”

Based on that, Colombia Reports has commented: “A press release by Blinken’s spokesperson Ned Price made it clear that US President Joe Biden’s priorities would require major policy changes from his far-right Colombian counterpart Ivan Duque.”

Venezuela

Reuters has reported: “Biden’s administration will continue to recognize Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido as the South American country’s president, [says] Anthony Blinken. Blinken told members of the U.S. Senate that Biden would seek to ‘more effectively target’ sanctions on the country, which aim to oust President Nicolas Maduro.”

In early-January, Reuters also reported that the Lima Group (which includes Canada, Colombia, Guatemala and Honduras) does not “recognize the legitimacy or legality of the National Assembly installed on January 5” in Venezuela.

Canadian Foreign Policy Institute coordinator Bianca Mugyenyi has questioned Canada’s collaboration in the Lima Group with “Honduran president, Juan Orlando Hernández, with far weaker constitutional legitimacy than Maduro [and] Colombian president Ivan Duque, who oversees much greater human rights violations.”

Climate change

Michael Shifter, President of the Inter-American Dialogue, has commented: “Climate change will have a prominent place on the inter-American agenda.”

It’s not clear the specific date of the Summit of the Americas, but Deutsche Welle has reported: “Biden [has] also said the United States will host a climate assembly [also reported as a world leaders’ summit] on April 22 where it is expected to strengthen its carbon reduction pledges under the Paris Agreement on climate change.”

PBI-Canada will continue to follow news reports about the Summit of the Americas and provide/share analysis on its implications for human rights.

Photo: Protests against the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) at the Summit of the Americas in Quebec City, Canada in April 2001.

This coming October, the United Nations open-ended intergovernmental working group (OEIGWG) will hold a 7^th session to negotiate a third revised draft of a proposed Binding Treaty on transnational corporations and human rights.

Peace Brigades International has long supported a Binding Treaty as an instrument that would offer more leverage and protection to human rights defenders, notably land and environmental rights defenders in Latin America.

PBI-Mexico has stated: “PBI believes that a Binding Treaty could potentially lead to greater protection of human rights defenders working on business and human rights cases.”

But the Binding Treaty faces obstacles.

On a PBI-United Kingdom webinar this past July, PBI-Colombia accompanied Yessika Hoyos from the Jose Alvear Restrepo Lawyers Collective (CCAJAR) commented: “Many companies together with the states have been blocking this issue.”

Those countries reportedly include Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, Japan, Australia, Brazil, Russia and China.

To begin to address this, PBI-Canada has been asking Members of Parliament to endorse the call for a Binding Treaty.

So far, Leah Gazan (Winnipeg Centre), Matthew Green (Hamilton Centre) and Paul Manly (Nanaimo-Ladysmith) have done so.

We hope other MPs will do so via this Global Interparliamentary Network webpage.

With the 10th anniversary of the voluntary Guiding Principles on business and human rights in June and the Binding Treaty in October, PBI-Canada will continue to support a legally-binding Treaty that helps protect human rights defenders.

Photo: Environment Minister Jonathan Wilkinson and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau joined with other leaders to sign the Paris Agreement on April 22, 2016. By October 5, 2016, his cabinet had approved the ratification of the deal and the House of Commons had voted 207 to 81 to endorse the Paris Agreement.

The United Nations COP26 this coming November is widely recognized as the most significant climate summit since COP21 in December 2015 (where the Paris Agreement was reached) and it will be an opportunity for leaders to report on their progress since then and to strengthen their commitments to address climate change.

As the Canadian government determines its priorities for COP26, PBI-Canada is calling on it to affirm the Human Rights Council resolution on environmental human rights defenders and their role in supporting states to fulfil their obligations under the Paris Agreement.

We believe language from that resolution should be reflected in the Canadian government’s policy statements and that it should advocate for A/HRC/40/L.22/Rev.1 to be acknowledged in the final declaration from COP26.

That Human Rights Council resolution can be read in full here. The main sponsor of the resolution was Norway and its 71 co-sponsors included Canada.

In the 28-point resolution, the Human Rights Council:

– Expressed grave concern at the situation of environmental human rights defenders around the world, and strongly condemns the killing of and all other human rights violations or abuses against environmental human rights defenders, including women and indigenous human rights defenders, by State and non-State actors

– Stressed that human rights defenders, including environmental human rights defenders, must be ensured a safe and enabling environment to undertake their work free from hindrance and insecurity, in recognition of their important role in supporting States to fulfil their obligations under the Paris Agreement and to realize the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development

– Urged all States to take all measures necessary to ensure the rights, protection and safety of all persons, including environmental human rights defenders, who exercise, inter alia, the rights to freedom of opinion, expression, peaceful assembly and association, online and offline, which are essential for the promotion and protection of human rights and the protection and conservation of the environment

– Urged States to acknowledge, through public statements, policies, programmes or laws, the important and legitimate role of human rights defenders in the promotion of all human rights, democracy and the rule of law as essential components of ensuring their protection, including by respecting the independence of their organizations and by avoiding the stigmatization of their work, including with regard to the environment.

Prior to the Human Rights Council adopting this resolution, 197 organizations – including Peace Brigades International – signed this letter that outlined 13 key points that should be noted in the resolution including:

– Naming the industries most dangerous to defenders, such as the mining industry, natural resource exploitation, agribusiness and large-scale development projects

– Calling on States to guarantee the right to free, prior and informed consent for indigenous peoples

– Calling on States to adopt legislation that creates due diligence obligations for companies registered in their jurisdictions and those of their subsidiaries.

The International Service for Human Rights has commented: “While the resolution was adopted by consensus [by the Human Rights Council on March 21, 2019], the unity came at the price of a lack of specificity in certain areas.”

“For instance, the resolution does not clearly recognize all of the root causes of the insecurity facing environmental human rights defenders, as documented by UN experts, nor comprehensively name the perpetrators or the most dangerous industries. It also fails to clearly spell out the human rights obligations of development finance institutions, and to detail the corresponding necessary steps to consult, respect and protect the work of environmental human rights defenders.”

PBI-Canada is working in collaboration with other PBI entities and allies around the world to highlight the relationship between climate change and human rights in the lead-up to the UN COP26 climate summit in Glasgow this coming November 1-12.

Colombian human rights defender Victor Hugo Moreno Mina is currently in the Netherlands because of multiple threats against him. For a short PBI-Netherlands video about Victor and the Shelter City Network initiative in Utrecht, please click here.

In response to the dangers faced by human rights defenders (HRDs), temporary international relocation initiatives have been established in which a defender spends a period of time abroad, often as a measure of last resort, for their protection.

The need for such programs is clear. In 2019, 304 human rights defenders were killed and hundreds more were threatened. 13% of those killed were women, while 40% of those killed worked on land, Indigenous peoples and environmental issues.

Germany

In June 2020, the Federal Foreign Office of Germany launched the Elisabeth-Selbert-Initiative (ESI) for the protection of threatened human rights defenders.

The initiative includes:

1- temporary admittance of threatened HRDs into Germany for a period of 4-6 months

2- temporary stays at safe places within their home countries or regions

3- support on the ground through the German embassy (notably monetary assistance for legal support, security measures).

The Institute for Foreign Relations (Institut fur Auslandsbezihungen/ifa) outlines the programme in more detail in English here.

It explains: “The initiative provides temporary relocation grants for those who, due to their peaceful commitment to human rights, are threatened with physical and psychological violence, arrest, occupational disqualification, and even murder.”

“These include e.g. ethnic minority groups fighting for land rights, women defending themselves against discrimination and violence, LGBTIQ+ activists campaigning for their right to sexual identity, or journalists exposing cases of corruption.”

And it notes: “The Elisabeth-Selbert-Initiative organises temporary relocation with host organisations which integrate and accompany the human rights defender. The initiative is implemented by ifa with funds from the German Federal Foreign Office.”

The Netherlands

The Shelter City initiative began in 2012 in The Hague, Netherlands. There are now 12 cities in the Netherlands that provide support, a safe space, and protection to human rights defenders for a three-month period.

As explained on the Shelter City website (in English): “The Shelter City Network is an initiative founded by Dutch human rights organisation Justice and Peace Netherlands, and is powered by the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, civil society organisations, universities, municipalities, and embassies. Each Shelter City is coordinated by local organisations.”

PBI-Netherlands has been part of the Shelter City project since 2015. It has welcomed 16 human rights defenders from around the world to Utrecht.

Ireland

And Human Rights First has noted: “Ireland has a dedicated humanitarian visa scheme for human rights defenders” for three month stays in Ireland.

In 2011, the Irish Minister of Foreign Affairs Eamon Gilmore explained: “The aim of the scheme is to provide a quick response to facilitate recognised human rights defenders to travel to Ireland for short stays for the purpose of respite, and because of temporary acute threats to their safety. This further underlines the commitment of the Irish people to supporting human rights defenders.”

Canada?

At present, the Canadian government does not support short term stays for human rights defenders needing to escape risk/persecution. PBI-Canada will be consulting with allies about the possibility of a relocation program in Canada for human rights defenders and hopefully initiate an advocacy strategy in this regard.

On February 2, PBI-Colombia posted on their Instagram page: “During the last year PBI Colombia has adapted the way we accompany within the restrictions in place in Colombia due to the Covid-19 pandemic.”

“This meant a huge increase in virtual and telephone accompaniment and meetings with organisations.”

PBI-Colombia adds: “Although we are now able to accompany organizations physically, many processes are still being carried out online. [In the photo above] a field volunteer accompanies a judicial audience virtually from our office in Bogotá.”

Similarly, PBI-Guatemala posted in their most recent monthly information package:

“We continue to accompany human rights defenders through phone calls and virtual meetings. We have also resumed some face-to-face activities where possible, always assessing the necessary health protection measures to ensure the safety of both the people accompanied and the PBI team. We have also held virtual meetings with civil society organizations and the diplomatic corps.”

PBI-Mexico has also resumed some in-person accompaniments (including at this march) and highlighted in their January 2021 e-newsletter:

“PBI Mexico continues to provide remote accompaniment to human rights defenders, conducting permanent monitoring and analysis, and informing the international community and relevant authorities about the situation of human rights defenders in Mexico.”

And this past summer, PBI-Honduras posted on their Facebook page:

“At PBI Honduras we continue working from the field. Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic we have strengthened our telephone accompaniment to organizations that defend human rights in Honduras. We constantly monitor the current situation and we are always alert to act in case of need.”

To register for a PBI-USA/PBI-Canada webinar on Sunday February 28 that will provide information and answer questions about how to volunteer with PBI’s frontline projects in Colombia, Guatemala, Honduras and Mexico, please click here.

Recent accompaniments during the pandemic

On February 2, PBI-Honduras noted that it had accompanied CEHPRODEC to court the previous week to support an anti-dam activist planning to file a legal action against defamatory comments made about her by a journalist.

On January 20, PBI-Colombia noted that it had accompanied the Peace Community of San José de Apartadó during a day of collective work the previous week.

On January 12, PBI-Kenya attended a Missing Voices planning meeting.

On January 11, PBI-Guatemala accompanied the Human Rights Law Firm at a court hearing in the high-profile case of the Hogar Seguro shelter fire.

On December 11, 2020, PBI-Colombia accompanied Argemiro Bailarín Bailarín from the Embera community of Alto Guayabal to a meeting at the Irish Embassy.

On November 28, 2020, PBI-Mexico accompanied the People’s Front in Defence of Water and Land at a march against the PIM energy megaproject. On January 21, PBI-Mexico also accompanied the Tlachinollan Human Rights Centre at a virtual meeting with representatives from seven embassies.

On February 2, the Feminist Foreign Policy Working Group released Be Brave, Be Bold: Recommendations for Canada’s feminist foreign policy.

We have taken note of the recommendations within it specifically related to human rights defenders and encourage you to read the full 26 page report:

1- Strengthen implementation of the Voices at Risk Guidelines on supporting human rights defenders, make funds more easily accessible to support human rights defenders at risk, implement a relocation mechanism for human rights defenders at risk (including those unable to register with UNHCR), and create a mechanism to support human rights defenders once they have relocated to Canada.  

– Jacqueline Hansen, Amnesty International Canada

2- Allocate specific resources to remove obstacles inhibiting the effective and meaningful participation of marginalized groups, including but not limited to women and girls, LGBTI people, people living with disabilities, youth, Indigenous people, racialized people, ethnic and religious minorities, and human rights defenders in negotiations, conversations and processes in trade, defense, aid, diplomacy, peace and security.

– Odette McCarthy & Libertad Benito Torres, Equitas

3- Develop innovative strategies to protect the space for civil society organizations (including women human rights defenders and LGBTI rights defenders) and movements around the world, by building alliances with like-minded governments and following the lead of civil society organizations.

– Beth Woroniuk, Equality Fund

4- At minimum, Canada must be conscious of the safety concerns of human rights defenders and must offer them residency status in Canada. At best, Canada would support and protect human rights defenders in Canada, thus strengthening its foreign policy and commitment to human rights globally.

– Nadia Abu-Zahra, Joint Chair in Women’s Studies, Carleton University & University of Ottawa

5- Human rights defenders advocating for environmental protection and in support of their rights to territory, land, and water- often in the face of intensive resource development projects – face increasing criminalization, threats, and violence around the world. Women, Indigenous women and LGBTI peoples who defend land and water are disproportionately targeted. Climate financing initiatives must recognize the threats to these activists and must include direct support to them. Canada’s actions in support of human rights defenders must address the increasing risks to territory, land, and water defenders in Canada and around the world, the human rights abuses committed by Canadian companies, and must include concrete measures, including funding, to enable these courageous activists to carry out their work in safety and dignity.

– Feminist Foreign Policy Working Group

There are other key recommendations in the report including “adopt measures to prevent and remedy harm caused overseas by Canadian companies and their affiliates” (Laura Macdonald, Carleton University & Karyn Keenan, Above Ground) and “reduce military spending and redirect resources toward education, health, human rights, environmental protection, and housing, among other initiatives that promote human security” (Allison Pytlak Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom).

It is also noted within the companion document What We Heard: “Recognize climate change’s disproportionate impacts on women and support the feminist and women’s rights organizations leading this work.”

This extends to the risks faced by women environmental human rights defenders. Last year, a study by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature noted that: “There have also been numerous examples of gender-based violence directed against environmental defenders and activists, who try to stop the destruction or degradation of their land, natural resources and communities. Sexual violence is used to suppress them, undermine their status within the community and discourage others from coming forward.”

We welcome the recommendations of the Feminist Foreign Policy Working Group and encourage you to read the full report at Be Brave, Be Bold: Recommendations for Canada’s feminist foreign policy.