Photo: Erick Alexander Cano Roque/Prensa Comunitaria.

On November 5, the Peace Brigades International-Honduras Project posted: “We express our solidarity with the people affected by the tropical storm Eta in the country and we continue to monitor the situation in the most affected areas.”

Global News reports that torrential rains pummeled Honduras on November 5 damaging hundreds, if not thousands, of homes. Reuters adds that a UNICEF representative in Honduras has estimated that 1.5 million children will be affected.

Reuters also reports that “around 100 people were killed by a landslide” when the storm hit the village of Queja in the central Guatemalan region of Alta Verapaz and “mudslides swallowed around 150 houses.”

The PBI-Guatemala accompanied Verapaz Union of Campesino Organizations (UVOC), an Indigenous and peasant organization dedicated to the defence and promotion of access to land for peasants, has tweeted that Eta has left 50 Mayan Q’eqchi’ families homeless on the ancestral territory they seek to recover after a series of dispossessions, including by the Military Zone 21 army base built on their lands in 1968.

UVOC adds: “Resistance residents of Chicoyou have made it known that they need support with food, clothing, medicine, supplies and sheets to rebuild their homes.”

Rights Action has tweeted: “Hurricane Eta brings torrential rains, mudslides & flooding to Caribbean coasts of Honduras, Guatemala & Nicaragua, further devastating lives of already impoverished & discriminated Indigenous & campesino communities.”

Rights Action, which has worked in Guatemala for more than 25 years, has tweeted about their Emergency Fund that “channels your funds directly to dozens of community organizations implementing their own human rights, territorial, environmental, democracy and justice defense struggles and emergency relief projects.”

On November 3, iPolitics reported: “A new office formed by the Trudeau government to handle complaints of human-rights abuses perpetrated by Canadian companies operating overseas is set to go operational this month — but without the power to compel firms to hand over evidence.”

“The Canada Ombudsperson for Responsible Enterprise (CORE), which was first announced in January 2018, is close to finalizing its operating procedures, and expects to launch its complaints mechanism at the end of November.”

“As it was first envisioned, CORE would independently investigate, report on, and recommend remedies for complaints of bad conduct abroad. In April 2019, the government announced that lawyer Sheri Meyerhoffer would be CORE’s ombudsperson.”

“According to the [latest draft operating procedures], the complaints mechanism would offer both parties a collaborative dispute-resolution process before the ombudsperson reviews the allegations of bad conduct. The review would require both parties to act in good faith, including by: meeting the ombudsperson’s requests for evidence; participating in joint fact-finding exercises; and not retaliating against complainants.”

“The failure of companies subject to a review to do so could result in a recommendation that Ottawa stop any trade advocacy and financial support of the firms. But there would be no legal obligation for companies to provide information.”

The iPolitics article also notes: “After a review is completed, the ombudsperson would write a report and recommend changes, including to the company’s practices and policies, and whether to refer the matter to law enforcement.”

The most recent draft of the Operating Procedures for the Canadian Ombudsperson for Responsible Enterprise can be read here.

Section 5.1 of those Operating Procedures notes: “There is no required format for making a request to file a complaint.”

It adds: “A request may be made using the online form, by email to CORE-OCRE@core-ocre.gc.ca, by telephone at (number to be established) or by postal mail to the Canadian Ombudsperson for Responsible Enterprise at following address: (to be provided).”

A media release on UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet’s visit to Canada in June 2019 had 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.”

Emily Dwyer from the Canadian Network on Corporate Accountability (CNCA) has commented: “[CORE] does not have the basic minimum powers that are required for it to do anything meaningful for impacted communities and workers who’ve been harmed by the overseas operations of Canadian companies.”

The CNCA’s Approach with Caution document can be read here.

PBI-Canada is a member of the CNCA. We will provide a further update when the complaints mechanism is launched. Despite the limitations of CORE, we expect that PBI accompanied organizations are likely to submit complaints to this office.

Photo of the RCMP presenting an injunction against a blockade of the Keeyask hydro-electric dam construction site on May 20 by Cathy Beardy.

On May 15, First Nations on Treaty 5 territory in northern Manitoba set up blockades on access to roads to the construction site for Manitoba Hydro’s Keeyask dam. They did so to stop a shift change plan to replace 600 workers on site during the pandemic with 1,000 workers from Canada and the United States.

Then on May 18, the Manitoba Court of Queen’s Bench issued an injunction ordering the blockade removed.

By May 20, the RCMP served an injunction against the blockade.

The Winnipeg Free Press has reported: “The bands blockaded access roads until Hydro agreed to improve its protocols for out-of-province workers.”

Now the newspaper reports: “[Manitoba Hydro] said its private lab found 16 positives, while another 15 got a ‘not clear’ result. They’re among the 90 workers in isolation at the plant, while another 35 are self-isolating elsewhere.”

That article adds: “[Tataskweyak Cree Nation Chief Doreen] Spence is exasperated Hydro would not boost screening of employees coming from Winnipeg as the city’s case count exploded in mid-October, while health officials have asked other chiefs not to tell band members about presumptive-positive cases.”

Chief Spence says: “We’re not even given all the facts of what’s happening, and we’re taking on the role of providing information to everybody.”

Earlier this year, the UN Special Rapporteur on the rights of Indigenous peoples, José Francisco Cali Tzay, stated: “Governments worldwide should support indigenous peoples to implement their own plans to protect their communities and participate in the elaboration of nationwide initiatives to ensure these do not discriminate against them.”

The Chair of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, Anne Nuorgam, had also noted that Indigenous peoples are “at disproportionate risk in public health emergencies” and that in response some are “sealing off their territories”.

PBI-Canada has signed this civil society statement that calls on all levels of government to ensure that Indigenous knowledge-keepers are active participants in bodies established by governments to coordinate responses to the pandemic.

From October 26-30, the United Nations open-ended intergovernmental working group (IGWG) held its 6^th session discussions on the Second Revised Draft of the Binding Treaty on transnational corporations and human rights.

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.”

Earlier this year, the Brussels-based Equal Times news website reported: “Progress is very slow, with countries such as the United States, Russia, China and Brazil doing everything they can to block the process.”

Following the 6^th session, the Global Campaign of 250 social movements supporting the Binding Treaty highlighted “the countries whose economies rely heavily on transnational corporations with overseas operations who have always opposed this UN process, such as the United States, Japan, Canada and Australia…”

The statement by the Global Campaign on Canada’s opposition to the Binding Treaty provides us with an update on Oxfam Canada’s comment that: “Canadian government officials have been largely absent from the process so far.”

Additionally, the European Coalition for Corporate Justice (ECCJ) reported: “The United Kingdom was the only state to echo the position of the International Chamber of Commerce and the International Organisation of Employers by calling the scope of the draft ‘too vague to be workable’ and the draft text ‘inconsistent with principles of international law’, without providing further explanation.”

The Global Campaign further notes: “As in previous negotiation rounds, the European Union – whose member states voted in block against resolution 26/9 [the UN resolution that launched the Binding Treaty process in 2014] – failed to contribute to the text negotiations.” The ECCJ adds: “The participation of the EU as a bloc was unsurprisingly disappointing. Even after six years, the EU still does not have a negotiating mandate, even though the revised text addresses most of the EU’s previously raised concerns.”

The ECCJ also reports that “various states, such as Cuba, the Philippines, Pakistan, Venezuela, Mozambique and Egypt, spoke in support of the legally binding process” with cautions about its scope, while “many states (Brazil, Namibia, Iran, Russia, Mozambique, Panama, Mexico, Philippines, Ecuador, Armenia, Ethiopia, Holy See and Palestine) engaged with the text with specific proposals for changes.”

The Global Campaign adds that supportive countries include South Africa, Cuba, Egypt, Azerbaijan and Namibia.

PBI & the Binding Treaty

Speaking in March 2018, prior to the 4th session on the Binding Treaty, PBI-Switzerland stated: “PBI reiterates the importance of the participation of civil society and human rights defenders as crucial to the success of the process.”

In June 2018, PBI-UK launched a Human Rights Defenders Toolbox with PBI-Colombia accompanied CCAJAR “to address the fact that, despite the existence of [the UN’s Guiding Principles], gaps in their implementation mean that human rights defenders confronting corporate interests still face escalating violence.”

In September 2018, PBI-Mexico commented: “After 7 years of the Guiding Principles being in force, PBI has not witnessed an improvement in the situation of risk for human rights defenders on the ground. PBI believes that a Binding Treaty … could potentially lead to greater protection of human rights defenders working on business and human rights cases.”

PBI-Canada is following the Binding Treaty process with great interest. This past September, we launched an Urgent Action petition calling on the Prime Minister and Canada’s representatives at the UN to support the creation of a legally-binding Treaty that recognizes the important role played by human rights defenders.

On November 2, United Nations Secretary General António Guterres called on UN member states to support the Peacebuilding Fund.

Guterres stated: “I call on every Member State to make a voluntary contribution to the Peacebuilding Fund, reflecting our mutual recognition that peacebuilding and sustaining peace are core mandates of our Organization, and are inseparable from sustainable development recovery, particularly in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic.”

The UN media release on this highlighted: “During the pandemic, Fund projects have supported the protection of female health personnel, women leaders and human rights defenders in Colombia.”

It also notes: “The Peacebuilding Fund is seeking $180 million for this year, and demands are outpacing resources.”

The Chair of the UN Peacebuilding Commission is Bob Rae, the recently appointed Canadian Ambassador to the United Nations.

On November 3, this Government of Canada media release noted: “The Honourable François-Philippe Champagne, Minister of Foreign Affairs, today announced that Canada will co-host the UN Peacebuilding Fund (Fund) Replenishment Conference in January 2021.”

“The conference aims to support the UN Secretary General’s funding appeal for the Fund, securing predictable and sustained commitments for the duration of its strategy (2020-24).”

That media release adds: “The 2021 conference will be co-hosted by the UN Secretary-General, Canada, and other Fund leaders to be identified at a later date.”

Given the reference made by the United Nations media release about the role the Fund has played in protecting defenders in Colombia, Peace Brigades International-Canada will be following this conference with interest given the increased dangers faced by defenders this year during the pandemic.