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PBI-Honduras observes the March 6th International Women’s Day march in Tegucigalpa

On March 23, the Peace Brigades International-Honduras Project posted, “On March 6 we observed the women’s march in Tegucigalpa.”

PBI-Honduras adds, “There was an impressive number of women of all ages, very diverse groups, from the network of sex workers to groups from different native peoples from all parts of the country. About 700 women participated. The topics for which they showed presence on the street included: Impunity for sexual crimes, rapes and femicide, and the machismo of Honduran society that has many faces.”

Prensa Latina reported, “Women’s advocacy organizations protested demanding the State to declare a national emergency state due to the high rate of femicides.”

“To remind prosecutors they are obliged to investigate crimes against women, they marched – in the context of International Women’s Day on March 8 – from Morazan Boulevard to the Public Prosecutor’s Office [the Public Ministry].”

That article notes, “The number of femicides in Honduras exceeds 50 crimes this year, and on the first day of 2020 five women were reported dead, according to official data.”

The Agencia EFE article on the march adds Ana Cruz of the Women’s Tribune (la Tribuna de Mujeres), says that there have been 61 violent deaths of women notes that 390 women were killed in 2019. Cruz indicated that women in Honduras, a country marked by machismo, experience a ‘very difficult situation’ due to the ‘lack of response’ by the State to prevent violence that affects them.”

The article notes, “At the end of the march, a performance by young women was staged to demand that a ‘national emergency’ be declared for femicides in the country and that the prosecutor not ‘turn a deaf ear’ to the appeals of women calling for ‘justice’.”

For more on Peace Brigades International activities this past International Women’s Day, please see PBI-Guatemala accompanies International Women’s Day march, PBI-Mexico accompanies International Women’s Day March in Chihuahua, PBI-Kenya celebrates International Women’s Day with #EachforEqual dialogue, honours four women human rights defenders, and PBI-United Kingdom organizes photo exhibit on women human rights defenders for March 8, International Women’s Day.

PBI and the UN Declaration on the Rights of Peasants and other people working in rural areas

The United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Peasants and other people working in rural areas (UNDROP) was adopted by the UN General Assembly in 2018.

At that time, the Peace Brigades International-Guatemala Project posted, “On December 17th, the UN General Assembly adopted in New York the Declaration on the Rights of Peasants and other people working in rural areas with the aim of protecting the rights and dignity of rural workers who face extreme situations like poverty and climate change. They represent the most vulnerable communities around the world.”

In September 2019, the Peace Brigades International-Honduras Project noted UNDROP in its Report for the Universal Periodic Review of Honduras 2020. It highlights that it recognizes key elements such as “the right to land, to natural resources and to food sovereignty, based on the principle of equality between men and women.”

As such, PBI-Honduras recommends that Honduras “implement consultation and complaint mechanisms that are accessible, transparent and effective for groups and communities affected by extractive projects and companies.”

The significance of UNDROP

La Via Campesina further explains, “The UN Declaration aims to better protect the rights of all rural populations including peasants, fisherfolks, nomads, agricultural workers and indigenous peoples and to improve living conditions, as well as to strengthen food sovereignty, the fight against climate change and the conservation of biodiversity.”

“The endorsement of the UN Declaration also constitutes an important contribution to the international community’s effort to promote family farming and peasant agriculture.”

Natalia Gomez Peña, the Advocacy & Engagement Officer at CIVICUS, has commented, “The declaration was a long time coming and many campesino communities – who have fought costly battles corporations to protect their lands and lives from harmful mining and infrastructural projects for years – celebrated the commitment to their struggles.”

Gomez Peña adds, “It recognizes that campesinos have a special relationship with their land, water and nature and that they suffer the disproportional burdens of environmental degradation and climate change.”

She does raise the question though: UN Declaration defends peasant farmers, but will it help stop attacks and human rights abuses?

UNDROP and Canada

The resolution in support of the Declaration was approved by 119 votes in favour, 7 votes against and 49 abstentions.

The National Farmers Union (NFU) has noted, “Canada persisted with its abstention. Canada stated concerns with collective rights, saying priority issues identified in the Declaration are addressed through existing international instruments and the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.”

PBI accompaniment

Peace Brigades International has stated that human rights defenders, notably those who work in rural areas, need protection.

The PBI website also highlights, “Many indigenous and traditional farming (or campesino) communities are struggling to protect the land on which their livelihoods depend. Often living in conditions of extreme poverty, they rely on their land for food, shelter and cultural identity.”

“In some cases, pollution from mining threatens to seep into the land and water. In others, communities have been forced from their land for development projects or monoculture plantations, condemning them to internal displacement and landlessness. Others campaign for sustainable land use, seeking to halt patterns of destruction for the benefit of future generations.”

“Defenders of land rights, culture and natural resources can find themselves facing powerful interests and brutal opposition. Some have approached PBI for protection after they have been attacked or their colleagues assassinated. Many others have been subjected to criminal prosecutions based on spurious charges.”

Among the campesino/peasant groups that PBI accompanies: The Peasant Farmer Association of the Cimitarra River Valley (ACVC – Colombia), The Verapaz Union of Campesino Organisations (UVOC – Guatemala) and the National Union of Rural Workers (CNTC – Honduras).

The full text of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Peasants and other people working in rural areas can be read here.

Peace Brigades International and psycho-social support for human rights defenders

What does Peace Brigades International mean when we talk about psycho-social support, self-care, and mutual care for human rights defenders and communities impacted by violence? How can self-care be understood as a political project?

Tanja Vultier of Peace Brigades International has written, “The individual effects of constant threats and attacks can include anxiety, nightmares, paranoia, feelings of guilt, physical problems, or even depression, to name but a few. This can lead to aggression, burnout, isolation, or general mistrust among those affected.”

“This significantly undermines participation in social and political life – and therefore the work of human rights activists.”

Vultier adds, “The psychosocial support offered by Peace Brigades International has a twin objective: firstly to help human rights activists cope better with the heavy emotional impact of the security risk they have faced for years, and secondly to boost their capacity to defend human rights as a result.”

Furthermore, the Peace Brigades International-Colombia Project has noted, “PBI’s work in support of the reconstruction of the social fabric is oriented to address fear and ruptures in organizational initiatives affected by sociopolitical violence.”

PBI-Colombia cautions, “The effects of sociopolitical violence can paralyze a human rights defenders’ work and weaken the social movements capacity to resist and organize to seek political, social, and economic alternatives.”

Human rights defenders on self-care

Indira Ghale of Change Action in Nepal has noted, “Sometimes we don’t think about the psychology, our feelings, and we always keep some kind of theory of ‘oh, you have to be strong, you have to be very brave’.”

Stephen Mwangi of the Mathare Social Justice Centre in Kenya has commented, “Learning how to take care of yourself as a human rights defender, to recognize the kinds of pains you go through in your work, they could be mental, physical or even very deep spiritually. So that was quite important to me and it’s something I’m hoping to take forward, to take back home with me to share with the other human rights defenders.”

Recommendations for political actors

PBI has called on the European Union to ensure “rapid response mechanisms in the case of extraordinary risk to human rights defenders; include self-care measures that respond to the psycho-social impact suffered by victims of violations.”

“Likewise, [the EU must] ensure that the issuance of visas does not represent an impediment to apply to these programmes and that the personal and family situation of the human rights defender is included. Guarantee safety funds with a holistic approach (individual and collective physical safety, digital safety, psycho-social safety).”

Activist burnout in Canada

Many will know that in Canada that we lost activists Tooker Gomberg, Dave Vasey and most recently Derek Soberal to suicide.

Years ago, Tooker wrote, “I should have developed a deeper kinship with my family and with people. Don’t get me wrong – I had lots of friends and acquaintances in the activist world. But they were not deep friends of the heart.”

“I neglected my heart, and how I was feeling about things, about people, about situations. Now that I’m in crisis, I don’t really have the language to connect with people.”

Tooker concluded, “The world needs all the concerned people it can get. If you can stay in the struggle for the long haul you can make a real positive contribution and live to witness the next victory!”

Addressing this issue, Syrus Marcus Ware has written, “I have been on the front lines of activist movements like Black Lives Matter and fighting for prisoner and disability justice and transgender rights for over 20 years. I know first-hand what activists have experienced in terms of violence, harassment and trauma.”

“That is why my artistic practice involves writing love letters to activists and drawing huge portraits of them. I want to celebrate and nourish them so they have the strength, support and will to keep going. For society to push forward in the face of issues like the climate crisis, police brutality, inaccessibility and crushing anti-Blackness, we need to care for activists before the toll on them becomes too great.”

To read her article, please click on How to fight activist burnout: If we’re going to tackle huge issues like the climate crisis, artistic practice and activism can’t be separated anymore. To read Tooker’s letter, please see Letter to an Activist, Earth Day, 2002.

For more on this in the context of PBI’s work, please see the 6-minute PBI documentary, Support of the Reconstruction of the Social Fabric: Self-Care as a Political Project. Psycho-social support is also noted in this 5-minute PBI documentary.

PBI-Colombia and SweFOR at March 6th Day of Dignity for Victims of State Crime march in Bogota

On March 10, SweFOR posted on its Facebook page that it had accompanied MOVICE on March 6 at a Day of Dignity for Victims of State Crime march.

Telesur has previously reported, “Official figures have reported some 9 million victims of the armed conflict in Colombia, with 7 million displaced and 86,000 disappeared.” In 2019, “Over 100 social organizations and human rights groups marched in Colombia to pay homage for social leaders who have been murdered in the country.”

“According to a spokesperson for the National Movement for Victims of State Crime (MOVICE), the event aims to bring awareness to the increase of politically-charged murders, after the signing of the 2016 Peace Accords.”

The Swedish Movement for Reconciliation – SweFOR – is a Swedish ecumenical organization, created in 1919 that seeks to promote a culture of peace and nonviolence.

It has extensive experience in the protection of human rights defenders through the method of international accompaniment in countries such as Guatemala, Mexico and Colombia; as well as work for disarmament and more rigorous control of the arms trade.

SweFOR has sent volunteers to Colombia since 2004 in order to provide accompaniment and protection to ethnic territorial and human rights organizations that carry out activities in different regions of the country.

As noted on SweFOR’s Instagram page, it presented its Martin Luther King Prize this year to Extinction Rebellion Sweden.

SweFOR notes, “The world needs more peaceful movements that give the opportunity to channel engagement over the climate crisis and the world’s injustices. Our prize-winner is a good example of the community’s strength over individualism.”

“Extinction Rebellion Sweden is a network that has only been in existence for one year but has already engaged both young and old to the climate through a variety of non-violent methods. Through creative civil disobedience and well-planned actions, they show that we must stop extinguishing fires and change our climate-dangerous systems instead. Extinction Rebellion is a global climate movement in the spirit of Martin Luther King.”

SweFOR is also on Twitter at @SweFORColombia and @SweFORMexico.

PBI-Honduras accompanies National Union of Rural Workers (CNTC) at meeting with campesino groups

On March 20, the Peace Brigades International-Honduras Projected posted, “On March 4, we accompanied the CTNC (National Union of Rural Workers) to a meeting with some peasant groups from La Paz, among them some members accused of usurpation of land and, for absence in a hearing, also accused of rebellion.”

The United Nations Special Rapporteur on the rights of Indigenous peoples has explained that the charge of aggravated usurpation is commonly brought against Indigenous land defenders criminalized as trespassers on their own lands.

The PBI-Honduras post adds, “The national board called to discuss possible steps to be taken in this case, to avoid the capture of the members of the peasant groups.”

PBI-Honduras has previously explained, “The CNTC, created in 1985, is a small-scale farming and trade union organisation, which fights for the distribution of land.”

“It is affiliated to the Unitary Confederation of Honduran Workers (Confederación Unitaria de Trabajadores de Honduras – CUTH) and is part of the Vía Campesina.”

“Its aim is to support affiliated small-scale farming families so that they have access to land and resources and can carry out productive agricultural, fishing, forestry and agro-industrial activities, contributing to their social and economic development.”

“The CNTC organises actions to demand rights, carries out educational processes and manages resources for the implementation of profitable productive projects with a gender and sustainable agriculture approach.”

“In addition, it also conducts research and monitors legal cases: land surveys, land legalisation procedures, evictions and accompaniment to victims prosecuted during these processes.”

PBI-Honduras has been accompanying CNTC since May 2018.

PBI-Guatemala marks World Water Day and the importance of protecting water for all life

The Peace Brigades International-Guatemala Project has posted, “Today marks World Water Day. Its main goal is to raise awareness in humanity of the importance of caring for so-called liquid gold for the lives of humans and species on Earth.”

The quote says: “We are the women who have to see how to get water for the family, to feed and to wash. Women have to go to the river, but there are not many rivers anymore, and those that are are contaminated or no longer have water.”

The statement is by Sandra Calel of the Verapaz Union of Campesino Organisations (UVOC) which has 367 affiliated communities (about 50,000 families); 98 per cent of which are indigenous maya Q’eqchi’, Poqomchi’ and Achi.

PBI-Guatemala has accompanied UVOC since 2005.

The climate crisis and water scarcity

Earlier this year, PBI-Guatemala also hosted a film screening and discussion in Guatemala City on the climate crisis and water shortages.

They presented the documentary ‘La Sangre de la Tierra’ after which they had a discussion on “how the climate crisis is shown in Guatemala, especially through the dramatic shortage of water present in many parts of the country.”

The United Nations World Water Day website further highlights that interrelationship: “Extreme weather events are making water more scarce, more unpredictable, more polluted or all three. Humans need water to survive, as do all the systems we rely on: sanitation, healthcare, education, business and industry.”

The UN has also stated, “Climate delay is almost as dangerous as climate denial. Every country in the world must work more quickly.”

The impact on Guatemala

PBI-Guatemala has noted in its Bulletin No. 42 (in the article Communities raise their voices about the climate crisis), “The climate crisis is one of the greatest challenges that has faced humanity for decades and, having grown in urgency over time, it is now causing much alarm. Despite this urgency, however, so far the necessary measures have not been taken worldwide to stop it and avoid reaching a point of no return.”

That article in Bulletin No. 42 also highlighted, “Guatemala is among the countries most affected by this emergency.”

Supporting that point, Reuters has reported, “Guatemala could see a rise of 3 to 6 degrees Celsius by 2100 and a drop of 10 to 30 percent in rainfall if countries such as China, India and the United States do not cut greenhouse gas emissions, according to the Guatemalan System of Climate Change Sciences (SGCCC).”

And The Guardian has reported, “In 2018, drought-related crop failures directly affected one in 10 Guatemalans, and caused extreme food shortages for almost 840,000 people, according to the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).”

Megaprojects vs the right to water and human rights defenders

The UN Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation Léo Heller has noted the impact of mega-projects on these fundamental rights.

He highlights, “Human rights defenders advocating the rights of those affected by megaprojects have faced harassment, physical assault, bodily injuries and even death.”

PBI-Guatemala accompanies human rights defenders opposed to megaprojects that impact their right to water including:

– the Chinautla Multisector Urban Platform (opposed to garbage pollution and a major sand extraction project),

– CCDA Verapaz (opposed to the construction of the Rocja Pontilá hydroelectric dam),

– Nuevo Dia (opposed to the ‘Cantera Los Manantiales’ mine in Olopa), and

– Samuel Choc Ac (who has stated that palm oil plantation waste is impacting the Chiribiscal, Quimala, San Román and Negro rivers).

The human rights to water and sanitation

On July 28, 2010, the United Nations General Assembly, through Resolution 64/292, recognized the human right to water and sanitation and acknowledged that these rights are essential to the realization of all human rights.

Peace Brigades International is a global human rights organization that accompanies, advocates and communicates to make space for peace and to uphold all human rights, including the human rights to water and sanitation.

Colombians concerned about fracking pilot projects that could involve Canadian companies

On March 21, El Tiempo reported, “While the Government and some experts agree on the need to carry out comprehensive research pilot projects (PPII) to have scientific information on the impact of ‘fracking’ in Colombia, in the Nueva Planta district, El Centro district, in Barrancabermeja, María Jaramillo refuses to let her community be the epicenter of an experiment.”

Jaramillo says, “If they have not given us an answer to what we have suffered with conventional deposits, what are we going to face with unconventional ones? From Bogotá everything looks beautiful but living in contaminated territory is not.”

The article continues, “In a tour that EL TIEMPO made through some sidewalks and municipalities of the Middle Magdalena Valley in the departments of Cesar, Antioquia and Santander, many communities that have lived by the promise of oil are opposed to continuing to see their regions as an oil pantry.”

“They are also suspicious of the pilot fracking projects that according to the Ministry of Mines and Energy would be carried out in this region.”

“Those who have been against ‘fracking’ and implementing the pilots, such as the Colombia Free Fracking Alliance, say that it is not necessary to sacrifice territories and communities to know what is already known in other countries.”

“Likewise, the Alliance denounced that the ‘fracking’ pilots do not have the social license that the commission of experts recommended to the Government. ‘The Government intends to impose the pilots above our will by turning a deaf ear to the opposition of the communities that defend the territory’, said Amarilys Llanos, a member of the Alliance.”

That El Tiempo article concludes, “Regaining the trust of communities that have been treated like the stone in the shoe for years will not be easy.”

Canadian companies and fracking

As noted in more detail in this article, concerns have been expressed about the Calgary-based companies Canacol Energy and Parex Resources being involved in these pilot projects. 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.

PBI accompaniment

The Peace Brigades International-Colombia Project accompanies the women’s legal collective CCALCP and the human rights organization CREDHOS.

PBI-Canada helped host a visit by representatives of those organizations in November 2019. Both CCALCP and CREDHOS highlighted their concerns to Members of Parliament and government officials about the impact of fracking on human rights.

El Tiempo photo: “Those who live in the village of El Dique, municipality of Yondó, Antioquia, must buy water to consume; those who do not have the money use the water from this pipe.” Photo by Tatiana Rojas Hernández.

PBI-Guatemala marks the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination

On March 21, the Peace Brigades International-Guatemala Project posted, “Today marks the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. That day, in 1960, police opened fire and killed 69 people at a peaceful demonstration against the apartheid pass law practiced in Sharpeville, South Africa.”

PBI-Guatemala adds, “By proclaiming the Day in 1966, the United Nations General Assembly urged the international community to redouble its efforts to eliminate all forms of racial discrimination.”

By January 1969, the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination entered into force.

Canada is a signatory to this Convention.

The Convention is monitored by the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD).

In this 2-page resolution dated December 2019, the Committee called on Canada to “immediately cease construction” of the Trans Mountain tar sands pipeline, “immediately suspend the construction” of the Site C hydroelectric dam, and “immediately halt the construction and suspend all permits and approvals for the construction” of the Coastal GasLink fracked gas pipeline.

That resolution also urged Canada “to freeze present and future approval of large-scale development projects affecting indigenous peoples that do not enjoy free, prior and informed consent from all indigenous peoples affected.”

Peace Brigades International accompanies at-risk human rights defenders including from Afro-descendant, Indigenous and mestizo communities who have been racialized and experience human rights violations.

Painting by Godfrey Rubens of the Sharpeville massacre.

Wind power projects in Mexico generate violence against human rights defenders

On March 17, Cemda (the Mexican Centre for Environmental Rights) reported, “In the period from January 1, 2012 to December 31, 2018, 460 cases of attacks on environmental defenders were identified. 2015 and 2016 were the years with the highest number of attacks: 107 and 85, respectively. The sector that had the highest number of attacks was the energy sector, with 29% of the total (133 events). Most of the cases were located in the hydroelectric subsector with 66 attacks, while in wind energy there were 53.”

Now, The Guardian highlights, “At least 83 Mexican land and environment defenders were murdered between 2012 and 2019, while hundreds more were threatened, beaten and criminalized, according to a new report [by Cemda/Cemed].”

“In 2019, state officials such as police officers, national guard and local prosecutors, were responsible for 40% of incidents registered by Cemed.”

“The situation for defenders [has been] exacerbated by energy reforms in 2013, since when scores of renewable energy mega-projects have been imposed on rural and indigenous communities without adequate consultation or compensation.”

“Almost one in three attacks since 2012 targeted defenders opposing energy projects, especially wind and hydroelectric power, according to Cemed.”

The article also notes, “The violence has been particularly marked in the biodiverse isthmus of Tehuantepec – a narrow land mass between the Gulf of Mexico and the Pacific Ocean where 28 mega wind farms now generate electricity.”

The Peace Brigades International-Mexico Project briefing paper Wind Farms and Concerns about Human Rights Violations in Oaxaca has highlighted that: “Throughout 2013, PBI observed with concern an increase in the level of violence in the context of wind farms, particularly against [human rights defenders] and community leaders whose work involves the defence of those affected by these developments.”

In September 2019, PBI-Mexico accompanied Codigo DH at a public information session on the SET – IXTEPEC POTENCIA transmission line that would carry power generated by wind turbines on the Isthmus of Tehuantepec.

The following month, PBI-Mexico accompanied a tour of the Isthmus and highlighted that it was “with defenders of the land and territory of Union Hidalgo, who showed us the impacts of wind farms in the municipality.”

This past January, PBI-Mexico also accompanied Codigo DH at a celebration of the anniversary of the cancellation of the Mareña Renovables wind power project in the community of San Dionisio del Mar, Oaxaca, in the Isthmus of Tehuantepec region.

And just last month, PBI-Mexico accompanied ProDESC in Unión Hidalgo, Oaxaca to observe a consultation and media conference about Gunaa Sicarú, a proposed 96 wind turbine mega-project headed by the French transnational EDF.

To read the full article in The Guardian, please click on Mexico’s deadly toll of environment and land defenders catalogued in report. The complete 31-page report by CEMDA titled ‘Report on the situation of environmental human rights defenders’ can be read here.

Social leader Marco Rivadeneira murdered in Putumayo, Colombia

On March 19, the Peace Brigades International-Colombia Project 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 Putumayo and Colombia.”

Marco Rivadeneira was a leader of the Peasant Association of Puerto Asís (Asopuertoasís), the National Agrarian Coordinator (CNA), the Peoples Congress (CDP), and the Colombia-Europe-United States Coordination (Coeuropa), a network of 281 human and human rights organizations.

El Espectador reports, “Rivadeneira, historical social leader of the Putumayo department and spokesperson for the Coordination Colombia, Europe, United States (Coeurupa), was assassinated in the Nueva Granada neighborhood, south of Puerto Asís.”

“Rivadeneira was in a meeting of peasants on the sidewalk when he was taken from the place by three armed men in civilian clothes, according to social leaders in the area. Half an hour later the information came that he had been killed.”

“He was a recognized political and social leader, member of the Peoples Congress and president of the Puerto Asís Peasant Association (Asopuertoasís). In addition, he worked in processes of substitution of coca crops.”

“According to farmers in the area, the body of the leader remains at the scene, because the authorities have not carried out the survey. Some inhabitants of the village are watching over him at the place where he was killed.”

Coeuropa has tweeted, “We repudiate the murder of our colleague MARCO RIVADENEIRA, part of our Nal Operating Committee, delegate of the southwestern peasant node, defender of the rights of its people. A few days ago we alerted about the serious situation in this department but there was no response.”

In their public complaint, the CNA and CDP state, “We demand that the Attorney General’s Office initiate the corresponding investigations to clarify this murder, as well as we call on the national and regional government and institutions to provide real guarantees for life, the defense of their own forms of government in the territories, deepen policies in defense of the countryside and recognize the initiatives that are being built from the regions for a Dignified Life.”

The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner in Colombia has stated, “We are shocked by the murder of the human rights defender and political and social leader Marco Rivadeneira, whom we have known and with whom we have worked closely since 2010.”

Telesur adds, “So far this year in Colombia, persecution and murders have increased, to date more than 100 leaders have died, while human rights entities point out that the Executive does not take correct measures to eradicate violence.”

PBI-Canada joins with PBI-Colombia in mourning the death of Marco Rivadeneira and in expressing our solidarity with his family.