Home Blog Page 421

PBI highlights the importance of the human rights to water and sanitation during COVID-19 pandemic

By
Brent Patterson
-

Various Peace Brigades International entities have highlighted in their social media posts the importance of upholding human rights during the coronavirus pandemic. Many of those posts have drawn attention to the rights to water and sanitation.

Mexico

On March 22, PBI-Mexico shared this post from Onudh Mexico that states, “Washing your hands is essential to contain the spread of #COVID19 and many other infectious diseases. Unfortunately, almost three billion people in the world have no way to wash their hands against coronavirus.”

Colombia

On March 23, PBI-Colombia posted, “Since the 21 March in prisons across Colombia inmates have been protesting demanding better conditions, particularly in light of the COVID-19 outbreak and the control measures being put in place within penitentiary centres by the government.”

Along with that post it shared this Open Letter to President Iván Duque from the Committee in Solidarity with Political Prisoners (CSPP), an organization it accompanies.

That letter states, “Many prisons do not have a constant water supply, which prevents routine cleaning of the body, common spaces and cells.”

On March 25, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet stated, “Authorities should examine ways to release those particularly vulnerable to COVID-19, among them older detainees and those who are sick, as well as low-risk offenders.”

Guatemala

On March 23, PBI-Guatemala shared this message from imprisoned human rights defender Bernardo Caal Xol who says, “Guatemalan families must have plenty of water so they can prevent this pandemic, also because it is a human right to have the vital liquid. Water is not business.”

PBI-Guatemala also shared this post from Colectivo Madreselva that says, “COVID-19 is leaving us great lessons as a society. One of them is the need to prioritize access to water for all people. …Let’s demand the role of environmental defenders, prioritize the human right to water for all, let’s boost solidarity and collective care.”

Kenya

On March 24, PBI-UK posted, “Our friends at the Social Justice Centre Working Group point out ‘that the government’s measures to tackle the coronavirus do not take into consideration the varying levels of need, especially those of vulnerable populations in’ Kenya.”

Among the measures the Social Justice Centre Working Group is seeking at this critical time is for “the government to restore water supply to all slums and to crack down on water cartels that extort Kenyans.”

PBI-UK comments, “PBI will always support human rights defenders standing up for the basic rights of vulnerable communities to water and sanitation.”

Human rights defenders at continued risk

PBI-Honduras posted this UN statement that states, “[Emergency declarations] should not function as a cover for repressive action under the guise of protecting health nor should it be used to silence the work of human rights defenders.”

And PBI-Mexico shared this post that says, “Without losing sight of the importance of adopting measures to contain the virus, the Inter-American Commission informs that it will continue to [monitor] the human rights situation in the region [while conforming to new guidelines].”

But at least four human rights defenders have been murdered in Colombia in recent days, including Marco Rivadeneira in Putumayo.

In response, PBI-Colombia has tweeted, “We express our concern about the murder of defender Marco Rivadeneira and about the serious risk situation experienced by communities and social leaders in Putuymayo, and Colombia. Our solidarity with your family.”

Deepening this concern, The Guardian has reported, “Activists fear that a nationwide quarantine – to be imposed on Wednesday [March 25] – has put them in a deadly bind. Moving around puts them at risk of infection, but staying in one place makes them sitting targets.”

Additionally, our Canadian ally the Maritimes-Guatemala Breaking the Silence Network has tweeted, “We remain greatly concerned for Guatemalans, including our organizational partners. The 4pm curfew, for instance, has already led to 1500 being arrested in Guatemala.”

At this time, PBI-Canada reiterates the message from the UN High Commissioner on Human Rights who stated on March 6, “COVID-19 is a test for our societies, and we are all learning and adapting as we respond to the virus. Human dignity and rights need to be front and centre in that effort, not an afterthought.”

United Nations calls for peace during the coronavirus pandemic, but war production continues

By
Brent Patterson
-

On March 23, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres called for “an immediate global ceasefire in all corners of the world.”

Guterres highlighted, “Let’s not forget that in war-ravaged countries, health systems have collapsed. Health professionals, already few in number, have often been targeted. Refugees and others displaced by violent conflict are doubly vulnerable.”

He pleaded, “The fury of the virus illustrates the folly of war. Silence the guns; stop the artillery; end the airstrikes.”

It would appear Guterres also needed to also say stop war production and the arms shows where weapons are marketed and sold.

Even with 69,176 cases of coronavirus and 6,820 deaths in Italy (as of March 24), the assembly plant in Cameri, Italy for F-35 fighter jets was closed for just two days (March 16-17) for “deep cleaning and sanitization.”

And despite 53,482 cases and 696 deaths in the United States (as of March 24), Defense One reports, “the Lockheed Martin factory in Fort Worth, Texas, which builds F-35s for the U.S. military and most overseas customers, has not been affected by COVID-19” and continues with the production of warplanes.

What is being built in these factories?

In its sales pitch to Canada, which is considering spending at least $19 billion on new fighter jets, Lockheed Martin boasts, “When the mission doesn’t require low observability, the F-35 can carry more than 18,000 pounds of ordnance.”

Furthermore, on March 23, the Canadian Association of Defence and Security Industries (CADSI) tweeted, “@GouvQc [the Government of Quebec] has confirmed defence manufacturing & maintenance services are considered essential services, may remain in operation.”

That same day, CADSI also tweeted, “We are communicating with the Province of Ontario & the Gov’t of Canada regarding the critical role of the defence & security sector with respect to national security during this unprecedented time.”

Meanwhile, this country’s largest arms show, CANSEC, which is scheduled to take place on May 27-28 still has not been cancelled or postponed.

CADSI has said it will make an announcement about CANSEC on April 1, but there’s no explanation from them why a weapons show that boasts about bringing 12,000 people from 55 countries together at an Ottawa convention centre wouldn’t have already been cancelled given a global pandemic that has claimed 18,810 lives to date.

To encourage CADSI to cancel CANSEC, World Beyond War has launched an online petition that has generated more than 5,000 letters to Prime Minister Trudeau, CADSI president Christyn Cianfarani and others to cancel CANSEC.

The UN Secretary-General highlighted in his plea, “End the sickness of war and fight the disease that is ravaging our world.”

The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) reports that world military expenditures totalled $1.822 trillion in 2018. The United States, China, Saudi Arabia, India and France accounted for 60 per cent of that spending.

It doesn’t take much to imagine what $1.822 trillion could do to boost public health care systems, care for migrants fleeing violence and oppression, and income supports for the wider public so vital during a pandemic.

Peace Brigades International (PBI), an organization that accompanies at-risk human rights defenders as a way to open up political space for peace and social justice, is deeply committed to the task of building peace and peace education.

The struggle of the Peoples Front in Defence of Land and Water against the Proyecto Integral Morelos

By
Brent Patterson
-

On February 18, NACLA reported on The Legacy of Samir Flores, One Year Later. That article shares the following story:

Resistance to the Proyecto Integral Morelos (PIM)

At this time last year, the Nahua community of Amilcingo, Morelos was caught in a series of social struggles.

The government was about to implement a regional consultation vote on the Proyecto Integral Morelos (PIM), an energy megaproject involving a thermoelectric plant in nearby Huexca and a gas pipeline that would cross through Amilcingo.

Activists from the town had been particularly vocal in their opposition to the project, as part of the coalition Frente Nacional de Pueblos en Defensa del Territorio y Agua Puebla Morelos Tlaxcala (FPDTA-PMT), a group encompassing land struggles in three states.

Coincidentally, the referendum wouldn’t have voting booths in the town of several thousand. Local activists presumed this was because of Amilcingo’s vocal opposition to the project—and to the referendum itself.

On top of that, the town had spent months fighting for state accreditation of its primary school, which operated without state resources and on a teaching staff of volunteers.

The murder of Samir Flores Soberanes

Samir Flores Soberanes, a local community radio broadcaster and activist, played a central role in both of the fights. Early in the morning February 20, 2019, though—just days before the consultation vote—Flores was shot in the head outside his home.

Despite the widespread regional and national protests sparked by his murder, after the elapse of a year, authorities have yet to release any advances in the investigation of Flores’s death.

Flores was a vocal advocate for Indigenous rights and land protection, a member of the FDPTA and the Indigenous Governance Council (CIG), a Zapatista-affiliated organization of Indigenous groups across Mexico.

Despite suspicions that the murder could have been linked to the upcoming plebiscite, and demands for its cancellation, the vote took place as planned. On the day of the vote, Amilcingo residents burned ballot urns in neighboring towns in protest. The project was approved, with nearly 60 percent voting in favor.

Court injunction against the Morelos pipeline

This past July, though, a judge in Morelos’s 9th District ruled in Amilcingo’s favor on the injunction against the Morelos pipeline, due to the project’s execution having violated the community’s right for a free and informed prior consultation. The gas pipeline project has been suspended, and it won’t pass through Amilcingo.

Rerouting the pipeline

Now, though, the state is courting nearby towns to accept the rerouted pipeline’s passage through their region.

The state has recognized Amilcingo’s elementary school, which Amilcingo human rights defender Samantha César, also a member of the FDPTA, says is now fully operating. Amilcingo renamed the school: Escuela Primaria Samir Flores Soberanes.

Repression against the FPDTA

The human rights network Red de Todos Los Derechos Para Todos y Todas (RTDT) documented 21 murders of human rights defenders in Mexico throughout 2019.

In addition to demanding the cancellation of the PIM, the FPDTA continues to face repression as they fight against the incursion of megaprojects in Puebla, Morelos, and Tlaxcala.

To read the full NACLA article, please click on The Legacy of Samir Flores, One Year Later. You can also read the February 2019 rabble.ca article Indigenous land defender killed in Mexico days before referendum on controversial gas pipeline.

Canadian companies that impact human rights defenders accompanied by Peace Brigades International

By
Brent Patterson
-

There are numerous Canadian companies operating in Latin America whose operations have impacted human rights defenders accompanied or associated with Peace Brigades International field projects. An initial overview is as follows:

COLOMBIA

1- Colombian social leader concerned about Canadian company fracking near Puerto Patiño, Cesar (March 19, 2020)

Concerns have been expressed about the Calgary-based companies Canacol Energy and Parex Resources being involved in fracking pilot projects in Colombia.

Toronto-based Frontera Energy also co-owns a 236,000 barrel per day pipeline from the Magdalena Medio region to Coveñas on the Caribbean coast that could “move increased crude output” if fracking is approved beyond the pilot projects.

The Luis Carlos Perez Lawyers’ Collective (CCALCP) and the Regional Corporation for the Defence of Human Rights (CREDHOS) have highlighted concerns about these companies as well as the relationship between Canacol Energy and US based-ConocoPhillips (that also has an office in Calgary) as outlined in this article.

2- Canadian owned dam on the Sogamoso River in Colombia impacts human rights (November 15, 2019)

When Colombian human rights defenders from the Luis Carlos Perez Lawyers’ Collective (CCALCP) and the Regional Corporation for the Defence of Human Rights (CREDHOS) were in Toronto they stopped at the office of Brookfield Assets Management.

That’s because in 2016 Brookfield bought a majority share in the Colombian power generation and distribution company Isagen.

Isagen owns five hydroelectric dams in Colombia, including the controversial Sogamoso Hydroelectric Dam which is located 30 kilometres west of Bucaramanga.

3- Concerns raised about Canadian oil company’s contract with Colombian army following community protests against its operations (March 6, 2020)

United Nations Special Rapporteur Michel Forst 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.”

Franklin Castañeda of the Committee in Solidarity with Political Prisoners (CSPP) says, “A few days after signing the first contract worth more than $1 million, a representative of this company filed charges and testified against the leaders of the protests.”

El Espectador further reports, “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.”

Three of the community leaders remain in prison and five are under house arrest while they await their trial more than 15 months after their arrest.

In September 2019, the CSPP and the Social Corporation for Community Counseling and Training (COSPACC) told the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention in Geneva, Switzerland “how Frontera Energy has influenced the investigation process against the social leaders who protested against it.”

4- PBI-Colombia accompanies Cahucopana in area with Canadian gold mines (August 8, 2019)

In August 2019, PBI-Colombia accompanied the Cahucopana organization in Puerto López (Bajo Cauca, Antioquia) who conducted a workshop with social leaders in the area in order to determine protection and self-protection measures.

According to the Colombian National Agency of Mining there are 27 Canadian companies operating in the country with 42 mining titles for copper, silver and gold.

In March 2019, Mining.com reported, “Antioquia Gold of Calgary has announced the successful start of production at its Cisneros gold mine 80 km northeast of Medellin, in Antioquia. [The mine] has now reached the planned commercial rate of 500 t/d.”

Furthermore, the website for Toronto-based Continental Gold says it “is the most advanced large-scale gold mining company in Colombia and is presently developing it’s 100%-owned Buriticá project in Antioquia for scheduled production in 2020.”

The Financial Post has reported, “In 2017, one of [Toronto-based Gran Colombia’s] mines faced protests by a local mining collective that lasted 42 days.”

5- Vancouver-based Eco Oro sues Colombia for $764 million through the Canada-Colombia Free Trade Agreement (November 15, 2019)

In 1994, Vancouver-based Eco Oro Minerals Corporation (then called Greystar Resources) acquired mining rights in the Santurbán Páramo and began carrying out exploration related to their proposed Angostura open-pit gold and silver mine. The Luis Carlos Perez Lawyers’ Collective (CCALCP) has worked to defend this ecosystem.

HONDURAS

6- PBI-Honduras shares report by CEHPRODEC on mining concessions that notes Canadian companies (March 19, 2020)

On March 13, 2019, PBI-Honduras posted, “According to the latest report on mining in Honduras by CEHRPODEC, in September 2019 there were 471 concessions for mining projects in the country.” That includes:

First Point Honduras S.A. (the report lists four names associated with the company who are Canadian and who live in British Columbia), page 44

Cobra Oro de Honduras S.A. (linked in the report with Glen Eagle Resources Inc., Quebec; Sociedad Mercantil Santa Barbara Mining Inc, Vancouver, British Columbia; Breakwater Resources Inc., Canada), pages 49-50

American Pacific S.A. (linked in the report with Morumbi Resources Inc. and Ascendant Resources in Toronto, Ontario), page 50

7- PBI-Honduras observes community consultation that rejects mines and solar power park (November 29, 2019)

PBI-Honduras has posted, “On November 17, PBI-Honduras observed a self-consultation of the municipality of Namasigüe, Choluteca, which was carried out with the technical support of our accompanied organization, CEHPRODEC.”

PBI-Honduras adds, “According to the final vote count, 97% of the residents rejected the installation of mining projects and photovoltaic plants.”

The mining projects appear to involve Montreal-based Glen Eagle Resources Inc. and its Honduran subsidiary Cobra Oro.

8- PBI-Honduras accompanies CEHPRODEC at annual march against extractivism (September 6, 2019)

PBI-Honduras has explained that CEHPRODEC (the Honduran Centre for the Promotion of Community Development) is focused on “the defence of human rights, in particular on economic, social, cultural and environmental rights.”

CEHPRODEC has previously raised concerns about the toxic legacy in the Siria Valley from the Vancouver-based Goldcorp San Martin mine that was closed in 2010. The water there is now polluted with heavy metals, including arsenic, lead, and mercury.

MEXICO

9- PBI-Canada Board member at information meeting on Canadian mine in Mexico (June 25, 2019)

In June 2019, PBI-Mexico accompanied the Civil Observation Mission to an information meeting about the Ixtaca mining project in the south-central Mexican state of Puebla. Vancouver-based Almaden Minerals Ltd. (through its Mexican subsidiary Minera Gorrion) owns the Ixtaca project.

10- The intersection between investor rights, Indigenous land defence and human rights in NAFTA 2.0 (February 7, 2020)

Commenting on the TC Energy (formerly TransCanada Corp.) Coastal GasLink fracked gas pipeline and the RCMP raid on Wet’suwet’en territory, Educa Oaxaca, stated:

“It should be remembered that TransCanada was the first private company to build and operate gas pipelines in Mexico, where it currently has more than 1,618 kilometers of gas pipelines. In November 2018, its planned Tuxpan-Tula and Tula-Villa de Reyes gas pipelines were suspended due to the resistance of indigenous peoples in Veracruz, Puebla, Hidalgo and the State of Mexico.”

Martha Pskowski has noted that the murders of Rarámuri land advocates [Isidro Baldenegro Lóperz, Juan Ontiveros Ramos and Julián Carrillo Martínes] in the Sierra Tarahumara region in Mexico “discouraged some Rarámuri people from speaking out when the energy company TransCanada began building a natural gas pipeline through the area.”

She comments, “Investors and companies in the U.S. and Canada have done little to ensure that their money isn’t driving criminalization and attacks on local advocates. Until the companies take clear steps to prevent the violence, they are complicit in — and benefit from — the weak rule of law in their partner countries.”

11- Fortuna Silver mine opposed by community of Santa Carina Minas in Oaxaca, Mexico (February 15, 2019)

In November 2018, PBI-Canada and PBI-Mexico brought two human rights defenders from Mexico to share their concerns about the intentions and impacts of Vancouver-based Fortuna Silver Mines in the south-eastern state of Oaxaca.

Salvador Martínez Arellanes and Neftalí Reyes Méndez visited Toronto and Ottawa with firsthand information and updates about the concerns being expressed by the residents of Santa Catarina Minas, a community in the Central Valleys Region of Oaxaca.

Martinez Arellanes is an Indigenous leader from Santa Carina Minas, while Reyes Méndez is with the Oaxacan Territorial Defense Collective and EDUCA, a non-governmental organization based in the city of Oaxaca that promotes justice, equality and social participation.

12- PBI-Mexico accompanies Focal Group that raises concerns about megaprojects (July 6, 2019)

Mexican human rights groups are raising concerns about the Mayan Train project that has attracted the interest of Canadian investors.

Members of the Focal Group include: The Mexican Centre for Environmental Law (CEMDA), the Business and Human Rights Resource Centre (BHRRC), the Economic, Social and Cultural Rights Project (ProDESC), and The Project on Organizing, Development, Education, and Research (PODER).

On January 15, 2019, Diálogo Chino reported, “Italian, Canadian and Chinese companies have shown great interest in the Mayan Train.”

GUATEMALA

13- PBI-Guatemala accompanies La Puya resistance opposed to a mine once owned by a Vancouver-based company (October 25, 2019)

Residents from the communities of San José del Golfo and San Pedro Ayampuc – an area known as La Puya – have been fighting against the Progreso VII Derivada-El Tambor mine located just north of Guatemala City since March 2010.

During this time, the mine was owned by Vancouver-based Radius Gold.

The Network in Solidarity with the People of Guatemala (NISGUA) has highlighted, “Although Radius Gold sold its shares in the local Guatemalan subsidiary Exploraciones Mineras de Guatemala S.A. (EXMINGUA) to KCA in August 2012, it retains an economic interest in the mine.”

NISGUA notes, “The company’s 2013 audited financial statements state that three quarters of the cost of the sale transaction will be paid to Radius once gold shipments commence from the property and that Radius also anticipates quarterly payments from KCA based on gold production.”

14- PBI-Guatemala accompanied Q’eqchi fisherman opposed to now suspended Fenix nickel mine (July 20, 2019)

On May 7, 2019, PBI-Guatemala reported that it had accompanied the case of Eduardo Bin Poou, a Q’eqchi human rights defender and vice president of the Fishermen’s Association of El Estor, Izabal, who had been unfairly criminalized by being charged with the crime of trespassing on protected areas.

Human rights defenders in the department of Izabal oppose the open-pit Fenix nickel mine in the municipality of El Estor because it is causing serious environmental damage and irreparable harm to Lake Izabal, Guatemala’s largest freshwater lake.

The mine was first developed by Toronto-based Inco, then owned by Toronto-based Hudbay and Vancouver-based Skye Resources, and is now operated by the Russian-owned Solway Group that is based in Zug, Switzerland.

PBI-Guatemala accompanies the Human Rights Law Firm (BDH) that represented Eduardo in court.

15- Indigenous rights defenders in Guatemala challenge logging, Canadian mining on their territory (February 11, 2019)

The K’iche’ People’s Council in Defense of Life, Mother Nature, Land and Territory was formed in 2008 by Maya K’iche’ Indigenous peoples of northern Guatemala.

The organization is led by Aura Lolita Chávez Ixcaquic, a Maya K’iche human rights defender based in the city of Santa Cruz in the region of El Quiché, which is predominantly Mayan.

In March 2013, the Montreal Gazette reported, “Chávez has been branded a threat to national security and a terrorist for speaking out against the development of Canadian-owned mines against the people’s will.”

In that article, Chávez states, “Canadian companies are the main protagonists in this invasion that brings only death and destruction. And when we say we don’t want it, they say we are ignorant, or brutes, or we don’t understand the benefits. But we have a right to say no.”

Also…

16- PBI-Guatemala accompanies community that seeks return of its land now occupied by a Canadian-backed military base (August 1, 2019)

On July 29, 2019, PBI-Guatemala posted, “Yesterday we accompanied the Chicoyogüito community [AVECHAV] in commemorating the eviction of their lands on July 28, 1968. The ceremony took place outside the Creompaz facilities.”

CREOMPAZ is a United Nations training base for peacekeepers, located about 220 kilometres north-east of Guatemala City.

In Canada Looks South (University of Toronto Press, 2012), it was noted that, “In 2009, Ottawa made a CAD$250,000 grant to CREOMPAZ to enhance Central American armed forces’ capacity to participate in UN peace missions.”

PBI-UK highlights the SJCWG’s concerns about the needs of Nairobi’s informal settlements during the coronavirus pandemic

By
Brent Patterson
-

Peace Brigades International-United Kingdom has posted on social media, “Our friends at the Social Justice Centre Working Group [SJCWG] point out ‘that the government’s measures to tackle the Coronavirus do not take into consideration the varying levels of need, especially those of vulnerable populations in’ Kenya.”

The Nairobi-based Daily Nation reports, “A human rights group is calling on the government to direct its focus on Kenyans living in the slums as the country grapples with the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic.”

“According to the organisation, densely populated informal settlements may be unable to observe the government’s guidelines ‘even if their lives depended on it’ owing to the structural challenges in the slums.”

“The rights group argues that while some Kenyans may work from home, for slum dwellers, a day away from work would mean no means to fend for their families.”

Among the measures the Social Justice Centre Working Group is seeking at this critical time is for “the government to restore water supply to all slums and to crack down on water cartels that extort Kenyans.”

The PBI-UK post notes, “In these challenging times, protecting defenders on the ground has never been more important. PBI will always support human rights defenders standing up for the basic rights of vulnerable communities to water and sanitation.”

Four Peace Brigades International-Kenya Project volunteers accompany members of two grassroots organisations and twenty-nine human rights defenders working in the Nairobi’s urban settlements and the Mount Kenya region.

On February 20 of this year, PBI-Kenya posted, “The delegation from the Alliance for Lawyers at Risk and PBI-UK met with International Justice Mission and joined the Women Human Rights Defender (WHRD) Toolkit Organizers for a community town hall meeting on SGBV [sexual and gender-based violence] in Mathare. This year the WHRD Toolkit Organizers will launch a campaign to address the low conviction rate of rape and defilement perpetrators.”

The Feminist for Peace Rights and Justice Centre also posted, “Thank you PBI-UK for visiting our office and learning from each other on how to strengthen our working relationship as toolkits organisers in Kenya.”

Human rights and Canada’s possible $15 billion bailout package for the oil and gas industry

By
Brent Patterson
-

On March 19, The Globe and Mail reported, “The federal government is preparing a multibillion-dollar bailout package for Canada’s oil and gas sector [that has been “hammered by the COVID-19 crisis” and the price of Alberta crude dropping to US$13 a barrel] that is expected to be unveiled early next week, sources say.”

This could reportedly involve a program similar to the U.S. Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) that would see the Canadian government purchase shares in oil and gas companies. It could also include the “suspension of the federal carbon tax and all income tax at every level and urged the banks to provide no-interest loans and loan guarantees.”

Geoff Dembicki has commented in The Tyee, “The federal government should do everything possible to help oil and gas workers clobbered by the economic meltdown caused by coronavirus. But bailing out fossil fuel companies unable to survive one of the worst oil price drops in the industry’s history is a terrible idea.”

Current subsidies for the oil and gas sector

A large amount of public funding is already provided to this sector.

The Narwhal has reported, “According to a new International Monetary Fund (IMF) report, Canada subsidized the fossil fuel industry to the tune of almost $60 billion in 2015 — approximately $1,650 per Canadian.”

UN call to halt three energy megaprojects ignored

Social media reports – from the Unist’ot’en Camp and Secwepemc land defender Kanahus Manuel – indicate that construction on the Coastal GasLink fracked gas pipeline and Trans Mountain tar sands pipeline (purchased by the Canadian government for $4.5 billion in 2018) have continued during this pandemic.

This is happening despite the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination calling for a suspension of the construction of the Trans Mountain and Coastal GasLink pipelines and the Site C hydroelectric dam until those megaprojects have received the free, prior and informed consent of Indigenous nations.

Grand Chief Stewart Phillip and Wilderness Committee climate campaigner Peter McCartney have commented, “For generations, Canada has proudly supported human rights on the international stage at the United Nations forums while consistently failing to apply the same moral compass here at home. …We must heed the call [from the UN] and stop Trans Mountain, Coastal GasLink and Site C.”

Risks for human rights defenders

The ongoing construction of megaprojects without free, prior and informed consent also has an impact on Indigenous land defenders.

As the UN Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation Léo Heller has observed in his thematic report, “Human rights defenders [around the world] advocating the rights of those affected by megaprojects have faced harassment, physical assault, bodily injuries, and even death.”

Megaprojects and gender-based violence

Concerns about gender-based violence have also been raised in relation to these three megaprojects that should not be forgotten during this pandemic.

For instance, the Terrace Standard, reporting on the construction of the Coastal GasLink pipeline, noted, “There will be 14 of these camps along the route, each accommodating between 500 and 800 workers at the height of construction and responsible for construction of approximately 50 to 100 km of pipeline.”

The Unist’ot’en Clan of the Wet’suwet’en Nation in northern British Columbia has stated, “The culture and work conditions of ‘man camps’ exacerbate isolation, drug and alcohol abuse, violence, misogyny, hyper-masculinity, and racism among the men living there. These are exactly the kind of traumatic experiences, and colonial legacies, that our people are trying to recover from at the Unist’ot’en Healing Center.”

Rarely used tool to evaluate the impact of megaprojects on women

The Discourse has explained, “The federal government has a tool — called Gender-Based Analysis Plus (GBA+) — that can be used to identify and mitigate the impacts resource extraction could have on women. GBA+ is designed to measure how gender — in combination with other identity factors such as race, physical location, social class, religion and sexuality — has an impact on the way we experience industries, policies and projects.”

That article comments, “The problem? It rarely gets used properly.”

To date, there has been no indication from the Canadian government that the GBA+ screen would be applied to the proposed $15 billion bailout package.

Climate change and human rights

Government bailout packages to the oil and gas sector and subsidies (along with $481 billion in financing from Canadian banks since the signing of the Paris Agreement) run counter to the imperative of limiting a global temperature increase to 1.5 degrees Celsius.

UN 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.”

Given the twin crises of the coronavirus pandemic (that has already seen the Canadian border closed to asylum seekers) and climate breakdown, it is all the more essential for Canada to uphold its human rights obligations.

Twitter photo by Secwepemc land defender Kanahus Manuel.

Criminalized human rights defenders and inmates face new risks in prison from the coronavirus

By
Brent Patterson
-

On March 20, the Committee in Solidarity with Political Prisoners (CSPP) tweeted, “A complaint from CSPP warns that the officials of the [Colombian National Penitentiary and Prison Institute] have not taken preventive measures to prevent the spread of Covid-19 in some prisons, which is why, they say, it creates a risk for inmates.”

Conditions for inmates

An article in El Pais adds, “The Committee collected the complaints made by the inmates in the El Buen Pastor and La Picota (Bogotá), Acacías (Meta), Bellavista (Medellín), Palogordo (Santander) and Chimitá (Bucaramanga) prisons…”

“…They found inconsistencies regarding treatment that occurs inside the detention centers as part of the contingency that the country is suffering due to the pandemic that has already left 93 infections in the territory.”

“In the Palogordo and Chimitá prisons in Santander and Norte de Santander, respectively, the inmates reported that they do not have basic cleaning and personal hygiene implements, such as soap, antibacterial gel, face masks, among others. This is added to the lack of drinking water service [now restricted to 5 minutes three times a day].”

“For the Committee, ‘these situations make people incarcerated in prison structures in the country especially vulnerable, since the sanitary control of a possible contagion is not in their hands but is the responsibility of the prison staff.’”

Riot at La Modelo prison in Bogota

Now Reuters reports, “A prison riot in Colombia’s capital Bogota late on Saturday [March 21] left 23 prisoners dead and 83 injured, the justice minister said on Sunday [March 22], as detainees protested sanitary conditions amid the global outbreak of coronavirus.”

Following this news, COSPACC tweeted, “The prison crisis in Colombia is serious and people deprived of liberty have rights. We demand that their requests be met and that the government take real measures for this vulnerable population.”

The Peace Brigades International-Colombia Project accompanies both the CSPP and COSPACC, the Social Corporation for Community Advice and Training Service.

Human rights defenders now in jail

CSPP and COSPACC have previously raised concerns about the arrest of eight human rights defenders who challenged the impacts of Toronto-based Frontera Energy on the community of San Luis de Palenque, which is located north-east of Bogota. Three of those community leaders remain in prison at this time.

Peace Brigades International accompanies other human rights groups that defend the rights of political prisoners in Guatemala, Honduras and Mexico, including:

– Q’eqchi’ leader Bernardo Caal Xol of the Peaceful Resistance of Cahabón who was criminalized for opposing hydroelectric dams that lack free, prior and informed consent;

–  Agustín Ramírez and Timoteo Súchite de Rosa of Nuevo Dia criminalized for opposing a hydroelectric dam in the municipality of Jocoteco;

– Eduardo Bin Poou criminalized for opposing the open-pit Fenix nickel mine (first developed by Toronto-based Inco) for the harm it caused Lake Izabal;

– the Guapinol water defenders criminalized for opposing the Inversiones Los Pinares mine for harming the Guapinol River, the source of drinking water for about 42,000 people;

– the Cerezo Committee, which was formed after brothers Alejandro, Héctor and Antonio Cerezo were imprisoned in maximum-security penitentiaries in Mexico.

Human rights protections

The Basic Principles for the Treatment of Prisoners, adopted by the United Nations General Assembly, affirms, “Except for those limitations that are demonstrably necessitated by the fact of incarceration, all prisoners shall retain the human rights and fundamental freedoms set out in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights” and other covenants.

The International Committee of the Red Cross has warned, “An outbreak of COVID-19 in prison could be devastating to the population there, especially an overcrowded prison where general health is already low.”

Calls for political prisoners and low-risk offenders to be released

The Center for Justice and International Law (CEJIL), the Guatemala Human Rights Commission (GHRC/USA) and others have requested the revocation of the preventive detention measure faced by defenders of Guapinol and the San Pedro sector in the context of the health emergency caused by the coronavirus outbreak.

Furthermore, the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) Local 1949, the union that represents Legal Aid lawyers and administrative staff in Saskatchewan, has asked the Canadian government and the provincial government to release as many inmates as possible from jails and prisons to slow the spread of COVID-19.

The Independent has also reported that the former Chief Inspector of Prisons in the United Kingdom has stated that low-risk prisoners should be freed so that prisons do not become “incubators” for coronavirus.

Some of this is already happening in the United States. The Wall Street Journal has reported, “Local governments across the U.S. are releasing thousands of inmates in an unprecedented effort to prevent a coronavirus outbreak in crowded jails and prisons. Jails in California, New York, Ohio, Texas and at least a dozen other states are sending low-level offenders and elderly or sickly inmates home early due to coronavirus fears.”

For additional context, please see the PBI-Mexico publication Human Rights Defenders Behind Bars (2010). Photo from the PBI-Mexico publication: Members of the Comité Cerezo accompanied by PBI on the 16th of February, 2009, the day Héctor and Antonio Cerezo were released from prison.

Canada closes its border to asylum seekers during coronavirus pandemic

By
Brent Patterson
-

On March 20, CBC reported, “Canada will now turn back asylum-seekers attempting to enter the country outside of official border points.”

“The reciprocal agreement [with the United States] on irregular migrants, which [Prime Minister Justin] Trudeau called an ‘exceptional’ and temporary measure, was signed earlier today [Friday March 20].”

“The development comes just one day after the government announced all border-crossers would be under quarantine for 14 days upon arrival, and that the federal government was looking for space to shelter the arrivals.”

In response to the closing of the border to asylum seekers, the Canadian Council for Refugees has commented, “During a pandemic, we must uphold our commitments to protecting the rights of refugees and vulnerable migrants. This includes our fundamental legal obligation to not turn refugees away at the borders.”

Canada is a signatory to the 1951 Refugee Convention which carries with it a legal and moral responsibility to provide asylum to those who seek it.

The situation in the United States

The asylum seekers turned away by Canada would face the policies now being implemented by the Trump administration in the United States.

It’s not clear what will happen to them from that point, other than widely expressed concerns that the United States should not be considered a “safe” country as stipulated in the Canada-US Safe Third Country Agreement.

Additionally, on March 20, NPR reported, “The administration wants $567 million ‘to fund up to nine migrant quarantine facilities along the Southwest border, including repurposed soft-sided facilities originally used for the migrant surge in 2019’.”

For the migrants trapped in camps on the Mexico side of the US border, there are serious concerns about their vulnerability to the coronavirus.

Al Jazeera has reported, “Doctors working at a makeshift migrant and refugee encampment along the US-Mexico border are treating the potential arrival of the novel coronavirus, now declared a worldwide pandemic, as a certainty, not a possibility.”

“A doctor at the camp in Matamoros, Mexico, said when COVID-19 arrives here, it will be ‘catastrophic’, and people will die. About 2,500 migrants and asylum seekers live in the encampment, which consists of thousands of tents.”

Matamoros is located about 400 kilometres east of Saltillo where the Peace Brigades International-Mexico Project accompanies the Saltillo Migrant Shelter.

Human rights obligations

Human Rights Watch has noted, “International human rights law, notably the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), requires that restrictions on rights for reasons of public health or national emergency be lawful, necessary, and proportionate.”

It adds, “Freedom of movement under international human rights law protects, in principle, the right of everyone to leave any country… Restrictions on these rights can only be imposed when lawful, for a legitimate purpose, and when the restrictions are proportionate, including in considering their impact.”

The CBC reports, “Public Safety Minister Bill Blair said asylum seekers do not represent a higher public health risk, but monitoring and isolating them would present a challenge in unprecedented circumstances.”

Human rights at risk

Michelle Bachelet, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, and Filippo Grandi, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, have warned, “People on the move, including refugees, may be particularly targeted.”

And UK-based Guardian columnist Afua Hirsch has commented, “Our human rights protections – long maligned by many of the politicians now running our pandemic-stricken nation – were designed for moments such as this.”

She highlights, “The continuing shutdown caused by coronavirus doesn’t make them less relevant, it makes them more important than ever.”

PBI-Canada remembers Oscar Romero on the 40th anniversary of his assassination

By
Brent Patterson
-

Today, March 24, marks the 40th anniversary of the assassination of Oscar Romero, the Archbishop of San Salvador.

Jon Lee Anderson reported in The New Yorker, “In a homily that Romero delivered on the day before he was assassinated, which was broadcast on the radio, he issued an appeal to soldiers to disobey their orders: ‘In the name of God, in the name of this suffering people whose cries rise to Heaven more loudly each day, I implore you, I beg you, I order you in the name of God: Stop the repression!’”

“That appeal was his death sentence. The next day, a small group of men drove a hired sniper to the chapel. The moment of Romero’s death—his final words and the sound of the single gunshot that killed him—was recorded.”

“Those responsible for Romero’s murder have not been brought to justice, though the identities of some of the suspects have long been known.”

“A United Nations–backed ‘Truth Commission’ investigation, published in 1993, concluded that the mastermind of the assassination was Roberto d’Aubuisson, a former National Guard major who, in collusion with wealthy businessmen and Salvadoran security forces, had set up the anti-communist death squads that had begun to murder suspected leftist sympathizers.”

Alfredo Barahona writes in rabble.ca, “Romero was murdered because of his unequivocal opposition to the violation of human rights in El Salvador, the government’s violent military repression and the country’s extreme poverty.”

“On the day of his funeral, the Salvadoran army attacked the crowd gathered around San Salvador’s cathedral, killing several hundred people.”

Barahona notes, “The day after Romero’s funeral, in Guatemala City, a group of Indigenous people occupied the Spanish embassy. In response, the Guatemalan government security forces burned the embassy.”

“Thirty-seven people, mostly Indigenous people died [in that fire], including Vincente Menchú, father of Nobel Peace Prize recipient Rigoberta Menchú Tum [who Peace Brigades International accompanied in the late 1980s].”

In May 1982, Daniel N. Clark, one of the founders of Peace Brigades International in September 1981, along with Fr. Jaime Diaz (another founder of PBI) and Julio Quan, met with Arturo Rivera y Damas who succeeded Romero as the Archbishop of San Salvador.

The PBI delegation also met with Jesuit priest Ignacio Ellacuría, who was assassinated seven years later (on November 16, 1989) by Salvadoran soldiers.

Reflecting on that trip, Clark writes, “On May 25, we flew to San Salvador to learn more about refugee and other problems within El Salvador itself. There were at the time 300,000 displaced persons within El Salvador, approximately 160,000 of them in internal camps. We first visited the 1400 refugees crowded into the grounds of San Jose de Montana Seminary. We were told that visits such as ours gave the residents a greater sense of security since it is more difficult for the government to harass them when they receive international attention.”

Peace Brigades International began accompaniment in El Salvador in 1987 at the invitation of Lutheran Bishop Medardo Gomez.

PBI made regular visits to villages of returned refugees and accompanied popular organizations including COMADRES (Committee of Mothers and Relatives of the Disappeared), UNTS and FENASTRAS (trade unions), CRIPDES (Christian Committee for Internal Refugees), and AMS (a women’s organization).

In November 1989, Karen Ridd, a 28-year-old PBI volunteer from Canada, was abducted in El Salvador along with four other PBI volunteers Marcela Rodriguez (from Colombia) and Ester Domenech, Francesc Riera, and Luis Perez (from Spain).

Josephine Beecher, an American religious worker, and Zea Melendez, a Guatemalan, were also among the seven abducted that day.

The story of what happened is told in this PBI-Canada article, 30th anniversary of PBI volunteer Karen Ridd’s remarkable act of courage.

Peace talks began in El Salvador in 1990. Those talks were mediated by the United Nations and involved representatives of the Salvadoran government, the FMLN rebel movement, political parties, along with the Roman Catholic Church as observers.

The Chapultepec Peace Accords were signed in January 1992 in Mexico City.

The Accords included a 70 per cent reduction of the armed forces, the dissolution of the rapid deployment forces, the National Guard, the National Police, the Treasury Police and the transfer of the state intelligence agencies to the Presidency of the Republic. All armed FMLN units were also demobilized.

The ceasefire took effect on February 1, 1992.

Following that ceasefire, the Peace Brigades International presence in El Salvador also came to an end later that year.

—

The Massachusetts-based The Peace Abbey Foundation in conjunction with the Life Experience School honours individuals and organizations for their peace activism.

Peace Brigades International received their Courage of Conscience Award in 1990. It features the bust of Oscar Romero.

Other recipients of the award have included Daniel Berrigan, Helen Caldicott, Rigoberta Menchu, Dave Dellinger, Howard Zinn, Roy Bourgeois, and Noam Chomsky.

PBI-Canada now holds that award pictured below.

PBI-Kenya highlights virtual campaign that commemorates the International Day for the Right to Truth

By
Brent Patterson
-

On March 24, the Peace Brigades International-Kenya Project posted, “Missing Voices, the Mothers of Victims and Survivors Network, National Victims and Survivors Network and the Kenya Transitional Justice network, today carry out a virtual campaign to commemorate the International Day for the Right to the truth regarding gross human rights violations and for the dignity for victims.”

“They seek to honour the memory of victims of gross and systematic human rights violations and promote the importance of the right to truth and justice; and pay tribute to Kenyans who have devoted their lives to, and lost their lives in the struggle to promote and protect human rights for all.”

PBI-Kenya adds, “The partners expressed concern at the delay of justice for victims of extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances. They have urged the government to fully operationalise the Prevention of Torture Act, the National Coroners Service Act and the Victim Protection Act, that will be help eliminate EJEs, torture and enforced disappearances perpetuated by state agencies.”

On February 14, Missing Voices, a group of organizations whose mission is to end enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings in Kenya, released its 2019 Annual Report on the State of Police Killings and Enforced Disappearances in Kenya.

That report found that police killed 107 Kenyans in 2019 and that most of those killed were young men mostly in informal settlements.

On February 20, Human Rights Watch stated, “Since December 25, 2019, police in Kenya have shot dead at least eight people in Nairobi’s Mathare, Kasarani, and Majengo settlements. The police continue to kill crime suspects and protesters in cold blood despite persistent calls to end the killings and the use of excessive force.”

PBI-Kenya is a partner organization to Missing Voices, works with the Mathare Social Justice Centre, the Ghetto Foundation and Saferworld on the Ushirikiano Mwema kwa Usalama (Good relationships for safety) projects, has provided trainings for the recently-formed Network of Mothers of Victims and Survivors of extra judicial killings, and convenes the monthly WHRD (Women Human Rights Defenders) Toolkit Organizers meetings.

In 2018, four PBI-Kenya international volunteers accompanied members of two grassroots organizations and twenty-nine human rights defenders working in the Nairobi’s urban settlements and the Mount Kenya region.

For more on the International Day for the Right to the Truth Concerning Gross Human Rights Violations and for the Dignity of Victims, please click here.

1...420421422...474Page 421 of 474