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PBI-Guatemala produces popular bulletin in Indigenous Q’eqchi’ language

By
Brent Patterson
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The Peace Brigades International-Guatemala Project has produced its 16-page Popular Bulletin No. 6 in the Q’eqchi’ language.

The bulletin can be read in Q’eqchi’ here.

World Atlas notes, “The Q’eqchi’ language is spoken by about 7.58% of the Guatemalan population. It is also a Maya language that is spoken in the Guatemalan departments of El Quiché, El Petén, Izabal, and Alta Verapaz.”

And this Mayan language immigration law website notes, “In Guatemala, there are 25 languages with protected status, including Spanish, 22 Mayan languages, and two other indigenous languages–Garífuna and Xinca.”

“While Spanish is the official language, as part of the peace accords that ended the 36-year armed internal conflict, indigenous communities fought for and obtained official recognition of their right to speak their own languages.”

That website cautions, “While great progress has been made on paper, the reality is that people who speak their own languages rather than Spanish are still subject to exclusion and discrimination.”

PBI first operated a project in Guatemala from 1983-1999, which closed following the Peace Accords. Unfortunately, the human rights situation soon began again to deteriorate, and local organizations asked PBI to return.

The current project opened in 2003.

As noted in PBI’s 2019 Annual Review, “In Guatemala, 22 volunteers stood beside those defending their territories against the imposition of large-scale economic projects. They have witnessed the criminalisation of these brave people and raised the issue with the Guatemalan government and diplomatic corps. Despite challenges, PBI continues to support movements of resistance against injustice.”

PBI-Guatemala accompanies 10 organizations, including the Cunén Communities’ Council, the ‘New Day’ Ch’orti’ Campesino Central Coordinator, the Peaceful Resistance Cahabón, and the Union of Campesino Organisations for the Verapaces.

For more on the bulletin in Q’eqchi’, please see the PBI-Guatemala website.

Canadian bank BMO supports human rights due diligence statement, but finances pipeline on Wet’suwet’en territory

By
Brent Patterson
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On April 21, the Investor Alliance for Human Rights released a statement that highlighted, “101 investors, representing over US$4.2 trillion in assets under management, believe that all business actors have a responsibility to respect human rights and that the process of continuously conducting human rights due diligence is a core requirement for companies in fulfilling that responsibility.”

The statement indicates that these investors “also believe that governments have a duty to protect against human rights abuse by business through effective regulatory measures, particularly where voluntary corporate measures continue to leave significant gaps in human rights protections.”

It then notes that those investors “call on all governments to develop, implement, and enforce mandatory human rights due diligence requirements for companies headquartered or operating within their own jurisdictions or, where appropriate, to further strengthen these regulatory regimes where they already exist.”

BMO Global Asset Management (BMO GAM) is one of the signatories of this statement.

The Toronto-based BMO Global Asset Management is the asset management arm of BMO (Bank of Montreal), one of Canada’s largest banks.

In February, Bloomberg News reported, “Much like their counterparts in the U.S. and globally, Canadian lenders are under pressure to show they’re doing their part in fighting carbon emissions and rising temperatures. They want to show they’re delivering on green promises they’ve made, yet they’re steadfast in supporting an industry that is key to Canada’s resource-heavy economy.”

That article adds, “Bank of Montreal more than doubled oil and gas lending in five years, peaking at $13.5 billion last year, driven up by the 2018 purchase of energy loans from Deutsche Bank AG and an overall corporate-financing surge.”

In March, the Rainforest Action Network, BankTrack, Indigenous Environmental Network, Oil Change International, Reclaim Finance and Sierra Club released this report that shows that 35 banks have poured a total of $2.7 trillion into fossil fuels in the four years since the Paris Agreement was adopted (2016-2019).

This financing included more than $481 billion from Canadian banks: the Royal Bank of Canada (at $140.6 billion), Toronto Dominion ($103.4 billion), Scotiabank ($97.7 billion), the Bank of Montreal ($82.1 billion) and CIBC ($57.7 billion).

More specifically, BMO is financing the TC Energy Coastal GasLink pipeline that lacks the free, prior and informed consent of the Wet’suwet’en peoples.

RAN has noted, “Bank of Montreal is the lead agent on a CAD$3 billion loan to TransCanada Pipelines Ltd. It’s also a lender on the two more recent loans and was a co-manager of the most recent bond issued by TransCanada Pipelines Ltd. in September 2019.”

As a result, the Edmonton Journal reported this past February, “At least 200 protestors raised fists, signs and voices in the lobby outside the Bank of Montreal at Enbridge Centre in downtown Edmonton.”

“About 50 young Indigenous people read aloud a joint statement attributed to the group Indigenous Youth for Wet’suwet’en, saying they will continue protesting and occupying financial institutions until Coastal Gaslink, being built to move natural gas from northeast B.C. to the west coast, and the RCMP leave Wet’suwet’en territory.”

In Nelson, British Columbia, people also occupied a BMO bank branch.

The Nelson Daily Star quoted Ali Christie who said, “Investors and corporations need to hear the message that colonial business-as-usual cannot continue. We will stay and put pressure on BMO for as long as we can.”

These protests came just months after this resolution from the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination.

In December 2019, the Committee said it was “disturbed by forced removal, disproportionate use of force, harassment and intimidation by law enforcement officials against indigenous peoples who peacefully oppose large-scale development projects on their traditional territories.”

The Committee then called on Canada “to immediately halt the construction and suspend all permits and approvals for the construction of the Coastal GasLink pipeline in the traditional and unceded lands and territories of the Wet’suwet’en people, until they grant their free, prior and informed consent, following the full and adequate discharge of the duty to consult.”

Due diligence requires adherence to the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP), most notably its fundamental principle of the right to free, prior and informed consent, as well as a recognition of the impact of climate change on a wide range of interrelated human rights.

United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet has commented, “We call on leaders and governments to recognise that climate change and environmental degradation severely undermine the human rights of their people.”

While it is significant that BMO has signed a statement in support of due diligence, we call on it to align its investment practices with those principles.

For more, please also see: PBI-Canada supports the call for Canada to adopt due diligence legislation to protect human rights defenders.

To send a message to the Prime Minister asking him to take immediate action on a UN resolution in support of Wet’suwet’en land defenders, please go to this PBI-Canada Urgent Action.

Photo by Ali Christie of allies of Wet’suwet’en land defenders occupying the BMO branch in Nelson, British Columbia, February 12, 2020.

PBI-Guatemala notes Mayan lawyers’ article about unauthorized work at the Cantera Los Manantiales mine during the pandemic

By
Brent Patterson
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On May 3, the Peace Brigades International-Guatemala Project posted an article of concern on its Facebook page titled Mining harassment grows in Olopa Chiquimula, amid the Covid-19 health crisis.

The article is from the Association of Mayan Lawyers and Notaries of Guatemala website. They are “a community of professional Mayan men and women, united to defend, advise and promote the rights of indigenous peoples in Guatemala.”

The article notes, “On Monday, April 27, the Ch’orti ‘Indigenous Council of Olopa presented a memorial to the Municipality of Olopa, to denounce works that are carried out on the site of the Cantera Los Manantiales mining company.”

Since the COVID-19 containment measures began in Guatemala “company personnel carry out activities within the mine site, violating current decrees and the suspensions ordered by the provisional protection.”

“In the memorial, the communities also denounced that the COCODE of the El Carrizal community carries out work on the road that leads to the mine, without respecting the act signed in a community assembly, which agrees to close the road until there is a final resolution of the constitutional action.”

The article also notes, “They add to the document that they have been intimidated by people who come to watch houses of community authorities, when the curfew decreed by the central government begins.”

Background

A peaceful blockade of the Cantera Los Manantiales mine site was established in February 2019 because of concerns that the mine violated the Indigenous right to free, prior and informed consent and that its operations were polluting local water sources.

Prensa Comunitaria has reported that the mine was “provisionally suspended” in late November 2019 by the Supreme Court of Justice because the Guatemalan Ministry of Energy and Mines had granted a 30-year mining licence to the company in 2015, without consultation with the Ch’orti‘ Indigenous communities of Olopa.

Nuevo Dia, which is accompanied by PBI-Guatemala, says that the mine “illegally extracts antimony, contaminating water, cutting down forests, causing strange diseases that especially affect children and removing tranquility, the peace and joy of the communities.”

And it notes, “Leaders and authorities have suffered criminalization, persecution, slander and defamation for opposing the company ‘Cantera Los Manantiales’.”

RIO Medios Independientes adds, “The direct concern is about the pollution of the Jupilingo River, as well as the appearance of skin diseases of children and elderly people.” The Belizean newspaper Amandala has reported that locals opposed to the mine say that it is also polluting the Zacapa River.

To watch a 5-minute video produced by PBI-Guatemala (and released this past February) about the struggle against the mine, please click here.

Top photo by Norma Sancir/ The Association of Mayan Lawyers and Notaries of Guatemala. Below photo, PBI-Guatemala at the 1-year anniversary of the blockade of the mine site on February 26, 2020.

Colombian military has 200 cooperation agreements with corporations, including Toronto-based Frontera Energy

By
Brent Patterson
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On May 3, the Comisión de Justicia y Paz (an organization accompanied by the Peace Brigades International-Colombia Project) tweeted a July 2019 article about cooperation agreements between the Colombian military and energy-mining corporations.

The article, titled Oil and mining companies finance the Public Force and the Prosecutor’s Office, notes that there are more than 200 such agreements.

The article reports:

“After reviewing 200 cooperation agreements, Rutas del Conflicto [Routes of Conflict] and La Liga Contra el Silencio [The League Against Silence] found questionable aspects in the way companies deliver money to the Military and Police. Resolution 5342 of 2014 of the Ministry of Defense warns that collaboration agreements between private and state are only possible when they favor national security.”

“However, the documents available in this database show that the money was invested in activities that are not directly related to protecting the territory, nor to national security, nor to the actions of the company stipulated in the objects of the 200 agreements.”

“In Colombia, more than 70 national and international companies, mainly in the mining-energy sector, celebrate cooperation agreements with public institutions such as the Ministry of Defense, made up of the Military Forces; with the Police and even with the Attorney General’s Office.”

“These agreements have existed since 1996 but were only regulated by the Ministry of Defense in 2014, through resolution 5342.”

“The lawyer for the José Alvear Restrepo Collective, Rosa María Mateus [an organization also accompanied by PBI-Colombia, is] concerned about aspects of these agreements that may lead to the violation of human rights.”

“Environmental and union activists from territories where there are agreements in force, such as Meta and Casanare, say they have been victims of abuse of force and persecution by the security forces. In addition, social leaders have been prosecuted as alleged terrorists, after criticizing the companies’ actions.”

“The hydrocarbons sector also welcomes the agreements. In 2013, Alejandro Martínez, from the Colombian Petroleum Association, stated that ‘the oil sector looked with great satisfaction at these agreements because better conditions of public order and security are being reached for the industry, which the country has today to accelerate their economic development’.”

“Although Colombian law establishes that all contracting with state entities must be public through the Electronic System for Public Procurement (Secop), accessing the documentation on these agreements is a difficult task. To search for an agreement in the Secop, it is necessary to have the filing number, a data that can only be found in the same agreement. Added to this difficulty is that the navigation of the web tool is not user-friendly, and that these documents have a degree of confidentiality and secrecy given by the Ministry of Defense.”

“To contribute to the transparency of public information, Routes of Conflict and The League Against Silence developed the project ‘ Agreements of Force and Justice’, a tool that seeks to offer organized and detailed information on these collaboration agreements, the municipalities where they are in force and the companies involved.”

That interactive tool can be found here.

While not mentioned in the article, the now former United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders, Michel Forst, has raised the matter of an agreement between the Ministry of Defence and Toronto-based Frontera Energy concerning its operations in San Luis de Palenque, Casanare.

Forst’s report noted (on page 9, points 29 and 30), “Social protests [took place] between 2016 and 2018 in response to the failure of Canadian public company Frontera Energy to fulfil its obligation to compensate communities affected by environmental damage and to repair damaged roads.”

It then highlights, “In November 2018, Frontera Energy signed two agreements with the Ministry of Defence for a total of US$1,343,106 to secure army protection for its activities.”

El Espectador has reported, “On November 27, 2018, at 2:45 in the morning, an operation of 200 men, between members of the Police and the National Army, who landed in two helicopters, captured [eight social leaders who raised concerns about Frontera Energy] in San Luis de Palenque.”

Forst notes that on December 4, 2018, the army and the police accused the aforementioned leaders of being members of an illegal armed group.

PBI-Colombia and PBI-Canada are organizing a series of meetings on this situation with Alexandra González Zapata from the Committee in Solidarity with Political Prisoners (CSPP) and Fabian Laverde from the Social Corporation for Community Advisory and Training Services (COSPACC).

Both the CSPP and COSPACC have raised concerns about this situation including with the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention.

Canada should act on UN resolution on Wet’suwet’en land defenders

By
admin
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Wet’suwet’en land defenders

Canada should act on UN resolution on Wet’suwet’en land defenders

Add your name to this petition and an email will automatically be sent to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

The Trudeau government is stepping up its efforts to win a vote on June 17th for a seat on the United Nations Security Council.

And yet it has ignored a resolution by the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination calling on Canada to stop construction on the Coastal GasLink fracked gas pipeline until the Wet’suwet’en people give their free, prior and informed consent for this megaproject.

Construction on the pipeline has even continued during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Please call on the Prime Minister to act immediately on this United Nations resolution.

Take action to support Wet’suwet’en land defenders! You can also add your own message in this email to the Prime Minister!

[emailpetition id=”4″]

Lee Stern, Quaker pacifist and co-founder of Peace Brigades International

By
Brent Patterson
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Lee Stern was one of the co-founders of Peace Brigades International.

Daniel N. Clark writes that Stern was at the founding meeting on Grindstone Island (on unceded Algonquin territory in Ontario, Canada) in August-September 1981 when he held the role of “Peace Secretary of New York Yearly Meeting of Friends”

Clark also notes in his overview of the early years of PBI that in late 1981, “Lee Stern was also working to establish a local brigade in New York City to respond to Ku Klux Klan activities and other violence there through the Alternatives to Violence Project.”

Stern’s effort was in accordance with the founding statement of PBI that included the line: “We call upon individuals and groups to enlist their services in the work of local, regional and international peace brigades.”

Stern’s biographical overview can be found on the Lee Stern Papers webpage of the TriCollege Libraries Archives and Manuscripts website:

“Lee Donald Stern, born in 1915 at Cleveland, Ohio, was a Quaker pacifist. While studying at Case Institute of Technology, he joined the Ahimsa Farm Nonviolence Training Center near Cleveland [some sources say he was a founder in 1940 of Ahimsa Farm], which promoted pacifism and racial integration.

Stern was a conscientious objector during World War II. He refused to report to Civilian Public Service as ordered, and was imprisoned as a result, in Milan (Michigan) from December 1942 through January 1946.

While in prison, he refused to follow rules on racial segregation and sat with black prisoners during meals. His actions, along with those of other conscientious objectors eventually led to integration in the federal prison system.

Stern was with the Bruderhof in Paraguay in 1948-1950, then with Pendle Hill in Pennsylvania in 1951-1956, and the Winterbrook Community in Ontario (Canada) in 1956?-1957. He worked for the Fellowship of Reconciliation in Nyack (New York) as an administrative assistant in 1958?-1968, where he led, circa 1960, a successful campaign against fall-out shelters in that city (he was also jailed for refusing to take cover during an air raid drill).

In 1962 he was jailed for participating in integration in Baltimore (Maryland). Stern was a prominent member of New York Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers), serving as administrator of its Peace and Social Action Program from 1968 to 1980, and as its Peace Secretary in 1980-1981.

Stern was active in protesting the Vietnam War. He undertook an 84-day fast in 1965 to protest the U.S bombings in Vietnam. Stern participated in a 1967 Easter Sunday pilgrimage to Canada to deliver medical supplies destined for both North and South Vietnam.

His interest in nonviolence led him to participate in many peace groups and actions, including the Quaker Project on Community Conflict, through which he trained hundreds in peacekeeping and conflict resolution skills. Stern was one of the originators of the Children’s Creative Response to Conflict and a founder of Alternatives to Violence and of Peace Brigades International in 1981.

From 1989 he taught alternatives to violence in Maryland prisons.

Stern was married to Ruth Hoeniger; the couple had two children. Stern died of cancer in 1992 in Sandy Spring, Maryland.”

As Peace Brigades International approaches its 40th anniversary in 2021, we remember the key role Lee Stern played in our founding.

Norway’s resolution on the protection of human rights defenders adopted by UN Human Rights Committee

By
Brent Patterson
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In October 2019, Norway announced, “A year after the 20th anniversary of the Declaration on Human Rights Defenders, Norway will introduce a General Assembly resolution focusing on implementation. Protection as well as creating a safe and enabling environment is key for human rights defenders.”

Norway’s Ambassador to the United Nations Mona Juul stated, “It is important to support human rights defenders currently facing unprecedented pressure.”

Juul then highlighted “the need to step up the implementation of the Declaration, including by providing a safe and enabling environment for human rights defenders and strengthening protection measures.”

The Zero Draft of that resolution lists 21 recommendations including (#12): “Calls upon States to take concrete steps to prevent and put an end to arbitrary arrest and detention, including of human rights defenders, and in this regard strongly urges the release of persons detained or imprisoned…”

On November 19, 2019, Norway announced, “A Norwegian-led resolution on human rights defenders has been adopted by consensus in the UN Human Rights Committee.”

This International Service for Human Rights statement notes that the final resolution passed “following weeks of negotiation” included acknowledgement of “the need for improved data on killings, kidnappings, enforced disappearances, arbitrary detentions, torture and other harmful acts against HRDs.”

Canadian tools for human rights defenders

The primary tools the Government of Canada has for the protection of human rights defenders are the voluntary guidelines for Canadian missions outlined in Voices at Risk: Canada’s Guidelines on Supporting Human Rights Defenders as well as the Canadian Ombudsperson for Responsible Enterprise.

Voices at Risk

Human rights organizations in Canada have noted, “For Canada’s new guidelines to be effective in helping to protect and support human rights defenders, they will need to be accompanied by a comprehensive implementation plan and increased Canadian funding going directly to human rights defenders and the movements they represent.”

Canadian Ombudsperson

The lack of investigatory powers for the Ombudsperson prompted the resignation of fourteen civil society and labour union representatives from the government’s Multi-Stakeholder Advisory Body on Responsible Business Conduct Abroad.

Emily Dwyer of the Canadian Network on Corporate Accountability has commented, “Without independence and investigatory powers, the CORE amounts to nothing more than a broken promise. A powerless CORE won’t serve impacted communities.”

Furthemore, a United Nations media release noted, “[UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle] Bachelet welcomed Canada’s continued commitment to advancing responsible business conduct abroad and the recent appointment of an Ombudsperson for Responsible Enterprise. She encouraged the authorities to ensure the Ombudsperson will have sufficient powers to independently and effectively investigate allegations of human rights abuses under its mandate.”

And just last month, Canadian civil society groups released this Approach with Caution notice to communities about the Ombudsperson.

That notice highlights, “The CORE’s mandate is similar to Canada’s National Contact Point for the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises (NCP), which is listed on the CORE’s website as a ‘partner’.”

It adds, “Communities and workers have found that complaints to Canada’s NCP yield no improvement to their situation and sometimes even make their situation worse, after consuming months or years of community time and resources.”

Canada seeks a UN Security Council seat

The CBC now reports, “Canada is in a tight fight with Norway and Ireland for the two non-permanent seats out of 10 on the 15-member council that are reserved for Western countries.” The vote for the seat that the Trudeau government has spent more than $1.5 million to win is set to take place on June 17.

To send a message to the Prime Minister asking him to take immediate action on a UN resolution in support of Wet’suwet’en land defenders, please go to this PBI-Canada Urgent Action.

Eva Scarfe, a Peace Brigades International volunteer for more than 30 years!

By
Brent Patterson
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Eva Scarfe has made an invaluable contribution to Peace Brigades International (PBI) and is a key part of our history.

PBI-Honduras has highlighted in a recent post: “Eva Scarfe is one of the longest-serving Peace Brigades International volunteers.”

“She was part of the PBI team in El Salvador in 1989-1990, field volunteer with PBI-Colombia in 2000-2001, part of the PBI-Guatemala Project Exploratory Committee (PEC) from 2001-2003, a member of the PBI-Guatemala Project Committee from 2003-2015 and continues on as an advisor. She currently serves on the committees for Honduras and Nicaragua.”

Canadian PBI volunteer Scott Pearce tells this story of an experience he had with Eva in Colombia in 2000-2001:

“There was one instance in Uraba. We were walking up from the town center of San Jose up towards the outlying hamlet of La Union, which is also part of the peace community, and one of the local farmers came running towards us and told us that further up the trail there was a group of soldiers that had captured two youths and were questioning them, and he was worried that they might be disappeared.”

“We continued up the trail, and we came across the soldiers, we didn’t see the youths. We started talking to the soldiers very amicably, wished them a good day and started chatting with them. My PBI colleague was Eva Scarfe, one of the longest serving PBI members, she was in Guatemala for years, remarkable woman, she said in the middle of chatting that ‘We heard there was trouble in the area, a couple of youths, what can you tell us about this?’”

“The soldiers looked a little stunned and went to talk to their commander and came back, and we kept talking with them, but we weren’t going to leave until we found out how those youths were. Five minutes later, they just released these two boys, and we hadn’t made any demands at all. We found out later that they’d had one of them tied to a tree blindfolded and were waving a machete in front of his face, threatening him. People said, if you hadn’t been there, something bad could have happened.”

Various monthly information packages, bulletins, newsletters and posts tell us a little bit about Eva’s history with PBI.

This May 2006 PBI-Guatemala monthly information package reported, “This month, Kerstin Reemtsma and Eva Scarfe, both members of the Project Committee, with support from the Project Coordinators Office in Madrid, have been finalising the details of the European representatives delegates trip to Guatemala.”

That entry adds, “The objective of the trip was to enlighten Europeans and European institutions of how the situation is for Human Rights defenders in Guatemala and strengthen the links between Europeans and Guatemalans in order to get more support for the Human Rights defenders.”

In August 2006, the PBI-Guatemala monthly information package highlighted, “Eva Scarfe, member of the Project Co-ordinating Committee, held meetings in Ireland with Adrian Fitzgerald, Michelle Moylan and Richard Daly, of the Civil Society Section, Irish Aid, Department of Foreign Affairs; Sarah McCan and Colette Craven of Trocaire, and Catriona Rice and Natasha O’Brien of Frontline.”

In this March 2007 bulletin, PBI-Guatemala notes, “Eva Scarfe worked as a volunteer in the PBI Salvador and Colombia Projects. She has also worked for many years in the Communities of Populations in Resistance in Ixcán, Guatemala.”

PBI-Guatemala adds, “In 2001 she joined the project’s exploratory committee. She has been working on the committee since then and feels really good about it.”

That bulletin quotes Eva saying: “I hope the project continues to contribute in the most relevant way, and that one day the Guatemala project will be able to close down, when human rights are properly protected.”

In August 2008, this PBI-Guatemala monthly information package noted, “In Australia, Eva Scarfe, member of the project committee and PBI Australia link, met with members of PBI Australia on August 3, to bring them up to date with the work of the project, and to assist in the preparation of an advocacy tour around Canberra.”

In October 2011, Eva, as a member of the Honduras working group, spoke in Bern, Switzerland about her participation in the PBI human rights clarification mission in Honduras that took place in May of that year.

In 2012 Eva helped produce this project committee exploratory report on a September-October 2012 visit to Honduras.

In February 2015, Eva also helped produce this PBI-Honduras briefing for the Universal Periodic Review of the human rights situation in Honduras.

When PBI-USA visited Guatemala in 2015, they reported in this newsletter: “Maripaz Gallardo de la Torre and Eva Scarfe joined us for the afternoon to share their reflections on PBI’s work as well as the current threats facing human rights defenders in the country.”

They add, “Although there was tremendous concern for the rate of killings of human rights defenders, Eva shared her assurances that her experience (of which she has plenty after her 80+ years on this earth and 30+ years in Guatemala) informed her that a state of emergency was not imminent in Guatemala. The power and resolve exhibited by the people of Guatemala during the Presidential scandals of 2015 is still present and it will prevail, she shared.”

In 2016, Eva helped produce this PBI-Honduras annual report.

In late 2019, Eva was in Honduras for the project’s General Assembly. She can be seen in the photo at the top in an informal moment at that meeting. Eva took sick at that time and is now doing well in Australia. The photo below is from when she was recovering in Guatemala with her daughter Isabel and PBI friends.

PBI-Canada sends our solidarity and gratitude to Eva for her many years of invaluable work with Peace Brigades International.

PBI-Canada amplifies concerns raised about Toronto-based Frontera Energy in Colombia

By
Brent Patterson
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Peace Brigades International-Canada is working to amplify concerns being raised by defenders, a United Nations special rapporteur and civil society about the human rights impacts of the Toronto-based oil and gas company Frontera Energy in Colombia.

San Luis de Palenque, Casanare

In his presentation to the Human Rights Council on March 4th of this year, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders, Michel Forst, presented this report on his country visit to Colombia.

Forst notes (on page 9, points 29 and 30 of that report), “Social protests [took place in San Luis de Palenque, Casanare] between 2016 and 2018 in response to the failure of Canadian public company Frontera Energy to fulfil its obligation to compensate communities affected by environmental damage and to repair damaged roads.”

He highlights, “In November 2018, Frontera Energy signed two agreements with the Ministry of Defence for a total of US$1,343,106 to secure army protection for its activities.”

El Espectador adds, “On November 27, 2018, at 2:45 in the morning, an operation of 200 men, between members of the Police and the National Army, who landed in two helicopters, captured them in San Luis de Palenque.”

On February 25, Frontera Energy responded to these concerns in this 3-page statement.

Putumayo

On May 1, Amnesty International Canada noted in their Urgent Action 67/20 that human rights defender Jani Silva has “denounced the socio-environmental effects of oil operations, including those of Amerisur.”

Amnesty International then explains, “Amerisur is a hydrocarbon exploitation company operating mainly in Putumayo basins [whose partners include] Pacific Exploration & Production (Frontera Energy, Canada).”

Magdalena Valley, Antioquia

In August 2019, Reuters reported that the CEO of Oleoducto de Colombia said that the pipeline company is “ready to move increased crude output from the center of Colombia to the Caribbean if the use of fracking is approved in the Andean country.”

In that article, Frontera Energy is named as a minority owner of that pipeline.

The online journal Colombia Report has noted the historical context that when the Magdalena Valley to Coveñas oil pipeline was built by BP {British Petroleum) in 1990, its construction negatively impacted peasants in the Zaragoza region of northern Antioquia, including the destruction of 150 water sources.

Meta

In August 2015, Pacific Rubiales changed its name to Frontera Energy.

In December 2011, Colombia Reports reported, “The president of Colombian oil union USO, which has been striking over pay and conditions at Canadian-owned oil company Pacific Rubiales, said members have received death threats from paramilitaries.”

“The president of the oil workers union said union leaders had received verbal, email and pamphlet threats of death, torture, and kidnap, for their “activities” protesting conditions at Pacific Rubiales, Colombia’s largest privately-owned oil company.”

And Vice has reported, “On Dec. 4, 2013, Campo Elías Ortiz, José Dilio Naranjo, and Héctor Sánchez — political activists, members of the oil-sector union Unión Sindical Obrera, and key witnesses in a criminal suit against Colombia’s largest private oil company, Pacific Rubiales Energy — were arrested.”

“The charges against the men stemmed from a massive strike they helped organize against their former employer, Pacifico Rubiales, in the summer of 2011 in Meta, an oil-rich department in the center of the country.”

“Ortiz, Naranjo, and Sánchez stood accused of a number of charges, including conspiracy to commit a crime, blocking roads, and—most incredible of all—aggravated kidnapping and hostage-holding of hundreds of their fellow union members.”

Puerto Gaitan, Meta

In November 2018, the Above Ground report Bringing Accountability and Transparency to Export Development Canada’s Practices noted (on page 7): “Frontera (formerly Pacific E&P) received an EDC loan in 2014 for its oil operations in Colombia. The following year its operations at one oilfield were suspended by Colombia’s Constitutional Court, which found that the company had violated the rights of an indigenous community.”

This International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) media release further explains, “On February 23, 2016 the Colombian Constitutional Court ordered the suspension of exploration and extraction activities being carried out by Pacific E&P and subsidiary Meta Petroleum Corp., in joint venture with Ecopetrol, in Puerto Gaitan, Meta due to effects caused in the Sikuani indigenous territory Vencedor Piriri.”

That FIDH media release notes, “The court considered that operations in the Quifa concession violate the fundamental rights of the indigenous community, specifically its right to prior consultation.”

Indigenous reserves and Afro-Colombian lands

In March 2019, Frontera Energy explained in this Annual Information Form report (on page 41), “Despite the fact that the Company is committed to operating in a socially responsible manner, the Company may face opposition from local communities with respect to its current and future projects, which could adversely affect the Company’s business, results of operations and financial condition.”

That section continues, “In Colombia, the Company currently carries out and plans to carry out activities in areas classified by the government as indigenous reserves (resguardos) and Afro-Colombian lands (territorios colectivos).”

Peace Brigades International uses the tools of protective accompaniment, education, research and advocacy for conflict transformation and to assist with the construction of a new discourse that recognizes the legitimacy of human rights concerns.

Photo: A December 14, 2018 protest in San Luis de Palenque demanding the release of the eight social leaders arrested on November 27, 2018.

What does the PBI tagline “making space for peace” mean?

By
Brent Patterson
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The tagline and Twitter hashtag for Peace Brigades International is #MakingSpaceForPeace. What does that mean? It may seem obvious, but it’s worthwhile to take a moment to try to reach a working and shared definition of the word peace.

The Quaker peace activist Ursula Franklin has stated, “Peace is not the absence of war but the absence of fear and the presence of justice.”

Novelist Arundhati Roy has further noted: “What does it mean to the millions who are being uprooted from their lands by dams and development projects? What does peace mean to the poor who are being actively robbed of their resources? For them, peace is war.”

And Martin Luther King, Jr., in a sermon given in March 1956 titled When Peace Becomes Obnoxious, said, “If peace means a willingness to be exploited economically, dominated politically, humiliated and segregated, I don’t want peace. In a passive non-violent manner, we must revolt against this peace.”

The founding statement of Peace Brigades International appears to echo these understandings of peace: “We are building on a rich and extensive heritage of nonviolent action, which no longer can be ignored. This heritage tells us that peace is more than the absence of war.”

How do we then make space for this peace?

The Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom has noted, “A feminist approach to peace and security is one that defines true human security not by stockpiling weapons or issuing threats, but by dismantling structures of oppression and injustice through negotiation, cooperation and redistribution of resources.”

That implies challenging militarism.

Militarism can be seen as the antithesis of feminist principles, as it represents both the threat and use of power over others, the valuing of hierarchy over consensus, the negation of consent, the normalization of aggression, and a rationalization of violence.

We have seen this in the militarized responses used – by the state through its armed force or by the police – to quash Indigenous resistance to extractive megaprojects that lack consent and to assert power over those who defend the land, water and Mother Earth.

There is arguably then an intersection between militarism, structures of oppression, environmental conflicts and ecological destruction.

This is in part why Phyllis Bennis from the Institute for Policy Studies has stated, “The Green New Deal must have anti-militarism at its core.”

She writes, “Wars and the military render impossible the aspirations contained in the Green New Deal. And slashing the out-of-control military budget is crucial to provide the billions of dollars we need to create a sustainable and egalitarian economy.”

As such, if militarism is the prioritization of arms over the social good, the analytical links can also be made from there to the heavy carbon footprint of the world’s militaries and the militarization of borders to stop those displaced by climate breakdown.

Michel Forst, the now former United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders, further makes the link to the threats experienced by the land defenders who Peace Brigades International accompanies.

At a forum co-organized by PBI, Forst highlighted, “States must go to the root of environmental conflicts, such as imbalance of power, making nature into a commodity, impunity and the current development model.”

PBI’s principles speak of resistance to structures of violence, including socio-economic exploitation, and note, “PBI, with its experience and international presence, endeavours to overcome injustice and violence in order to build a humane society” and “create space for peace and to protect human rights.”

That concept of making space for peace has been further described by PBI as: “International accompaniment is used as a tool for conflict transformation, fulfilling the dual role of both protecting victims of human rights violations as well as encouraging human rights defenders to continue their activities in the face of threat.”

That articulation says that those who seek “to protect and perpetuate their sphere of power” will “stigmatize and neutralize” the social movements that challenge their power, and that our accompaniment “can contribute to the construction of a new discourse that recognizes the legitimacy of these human rights concerns.”

Within this understanding of making peace, we can see how human rights defenders create a positive tension in society as they advocate for change.

As King, in many ways a criminalized human rights defender himself, wrote in a Birmingham jail cell in April 1963, “I am not afraid of the word ‘tension’. I have earnestly opposed violent tension, but there is a type of constructive, nonviolent tension which is necessary for growth.”

Twenty years ago, PBI-Canada also described our work as follows: “Through protective accompaniment to organizations and communities, PBI seeks to reduce violence and open up political space for social change.”

Therefore, from our history and these quotes, making space for peace can be understood as making space for social change, making space for nonviolent action, and making space for economic justice, human rights, solidarity, equality, feminism, Indigenous rights, and living in harmony with the Earth.

Top photo of Ursula Franklin by Mark Neil Balson.

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