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What PBI-Canada achieved in 2019 and what we hope to do with your support in 2020

By
Brent Patterson
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We have had a busy year in 2019 and are looking forward to accomplishing even more in 2020. We hope that you will consider supporting this work with a donation.

What we achieved in 2019

We organized a cross-country speaking tour with three Colombian human rights defenders who highlighted their concerns about environmental harm, climate change, violence against social leaders, and the need to fully implement the Peace Agreement.

We launched a new website, posted daily updates, produced a weekly e-newsletter (sent to more than 4,500 people each week), increased our social media presence (with 1,325 followers on Twitter, almost 5,000 on Facebook, and are new to Instagram), and are building the contact list for our Emergency Response Network.

We met with representatives from 5 field projects (Colombia, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico and Indonesia) and 11 country groups at a strategy meeting in Belgium, began participating on the International Operations Council (a global PBI governance body), expanded our Board of Directors (by 5 members who will join in the new year), and cut our administrative costs (by reducing our office space).

We also helped to raise almost $30,000 for the PBI field projects so they can continue the work of the physical accompaniment of frontline defenders.

What’s next in 2020?

A key outcome of our speaking tour with Colombian human rights defenders in 2019 was their proposal to send a high-level Canadian delegation in 2020 to visit areas of Canadian corporate extractivist (notably fracking) activity in Colombia.

We are planning two speaking tours. This will include a tour early in the year with a migrant rights group that is accompanied by PBI-Mexico, and later in the year with an at-risk Indigenous land defender who is accompanied by PBI-Guatemala.

We will be participating in the World Beyond War: Divest, Disarm and Demilitarize conference in Ottawa. We are also looking at producing a report and organizing forums following a visit to a PBI field project and accompanied communities.

And we plan to add a petition function on our website, continue to post daily updates and share our weekly e-newsletter, as well as increase our social media presence and build the subscription list for our Emergency Response Network.

Please support this work by making a donation, we can’t do it without you.

When human rights defender Ivan Madero spent Christmas with Peace Brigades International

By
Brent Patterson
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As the Christmas season approaches for many people, the risks faced by human rights defenders unfortunately continue.

This past November, Peace Brigades International organized a cross-country speaking tour in Canada with human rights defender Ivan Madero of the Regional Corporation for the Defence of Human Rights (CREDHOS) based in Barrancabermeja, Colombia.

We were moved to hear him tell the story about how the security situation was once so intense for him that he spent Christmas with Peace Brigades International.

Ivan tells the story in this video that CREDHOS members “sought refuge, each of us with our respective families, in the PBI house and spent Christmas there.”

As noted in the still above, he adds, “It was a very special moment, there was a high risk, but in PBI we found fraternity, affection, a good reception, and this was very important.”

When Ivan was in Vancouver during our speaking tour he was interviewed by The Voice. That article reported, “Madero, speaking through an interpreter, said he recently found out that a paramilitary leader had put a 5 million peso (or $2000 Canadian) bounty on his head and that a grenade had been ordered to be planted in his car.”

The risks remain high for Ivan and other human rights defenders in the countries where PBI provides protective and political accompaniment.

To support our work protecting human rights defenders and to help make space for peace, please consider making a donation by clicking here.

When PBI co-founder Gene Keyes burned his draft card on Christmas Eve 1963

By
Brent Patterson
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Gene Keyes, who helped found Peace Brigades International in September 1981, took a dramatic action against war on December 24, 1963.

He burned his draft card on that day.

That December he wrote two local newspapers in Champaign-Urbana, Illinois, “Christmas Eve reminds us of our duty to work for peace on earth, a world without war. As a prayer for peace on earth, I will be holding a vigil on Christmas Eve in front of the local draft board. At midnight Christmas Eve I will be using my draft card to light a candle.”

He was not arrested because the United States government had not yet made the burning or destruction of a draft card a criminal offence (it would do so by August 1965, making it punishable with up to 5 years in prison).

Then on May 15, 1964, Keyes was drafted.

He wrote President Lyndon Johnson, Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, and the local draft board stating, “There is no moral validity to any part of any law whose purpose is to train people to kill one another. I hereby reject the order to report for induction.”

By July 1964, he was arrested in St. Louis for standing up in court when a friend was convicted for draft resistance. Keyes was sentenced to six months for contempt.

Then in 1965, Keyes was sentenced to three years in prison for failing to report for military service (he served one year of that sentence before being released).

Keyes has noted that he served those sentences at federal prisons in El Reno, Oklahoma, and in Springfield, Missouri.

His activism has also included civil disobedience actions against nuclear-armed Polaris missiles. In August 1961, he swam in the frigid waters of the Thames River near the naval submarine base in New London, Connecticut and tried to board the USS Ethan Allen, the first submarine designed as a ballistic missile launch platform. He served 17 days in jail for his persistent actions that day. 

Keyes has also noted, “In January-February 1964 I joined the second wave of hunger strikers in the Albany City jail, when the Quebec-Washington-Guantanamo Peace Walk was initially barred from going through the middle of town if integrated.”

David Dellinger has provided this context: “The authorities feared that a racially integrated peace march would embolden local activists and create more agitation. They therefore insisted that peace walkers could enter Albany only if they did not distribute leaflets in African American neighborhoods, shopping areas, the downtown, or along any major thoroughfare in the city. The first walkers entered Albany and were immediately arrested after marching straight into a busy shopping area.”

Kirkus adds that as a result of the hunger strike, “The demonstrators won a victory and were freed to march on through the town where they had been arrested.”

Keyes also took part in demonstrations at Woolworth’s in Boston in support of the call for them to desegregate the lunch counters in their stores in the American South.

By 1969, Keyes returned to university. He completed a BA in 1971 and an MA in 1973. That’s when he moved to Canada. In 1978, he completed his PhD in International Relations at York University in Toronto. He was then an Assistant Professor of Political Science at Brandon University in Manitoba in 1979-80.

It was shortly after that, in September 1981, that Keyes joined with Hans Sinn, Murray Thomson and others on Grindstone Island south of Ottawa to form what would become Peace Brigades International. The founding statement highlighted, “We are building on a rich and extensive heritage of nonviolent action, which no longer can be ignored.”

Keyes, now 78 years old, lives in Berwick, Nova Scotia.

Canadian police were prepared shoot Indigenous land defenders opposed to megaproject on their territory

By
Brent Patterson
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In 2018, 164 land defenders were killed while protecting their land and ecosystems from destructive extractivist industries.

Nearly one quarter of those killed were Indigenous.

Many of those killed were in the Latin American countries where Peace Brigades International accompanies human rights defenders. 24 land defenders were killed in Colombia, 16 in Guatemala, 14 in Mexico, and 4 in Honduras.

The Guardian now reports, “Canadian police were prepared to shoot Indigenous land defenders blockading construction of a natural gas pipeline in northern British Columbia… The RCMP commanders also instructed officers to ‘use as much violence toward the gate as you want’… The RCMP were [also] prepared to arrest children and grandparents…”

This despite, the article notes, police intelligence reporting “no single threat indicating that [land defenders] will use firearms.”

That raid on unceded Indigenous territory took place on January 7, 2019.

Ralph Goodale was the federal Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness (which oversees the RCMP) at the time of the raid. The current minister is Bill Blair.

The Coastal GasLink fracked gas pipeline was approved by the B.C. Environmental Assessment Office. It is being built to transport the gas to the LNG Canada marine export terminal in Kitimat, which was approved by the National Energy Board.

The injunction that allowed the raid on the Unist’ot’en and Gitdumt’en checkpoints was approved by British Columbia Supreme Court Justice Marguerite Church.

The United Nations and human rights

The UN Special Rapporteur on the rights of Indigenous peoples Victoria Tauli-Corpuz has stated, “Disregard of indigenous rights of traditional lands ownership breeds tensions, subsequent violence and criminalization, as indigenous peoples become trespassers or illegal occupants of their own lands.”

The UN Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation Léo Heller adds, “Human rights defenders advocating the rights of those affected by mega-projects have faced harassment, physical assault, bodily injuries, and even death.”

And the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders Michel Forst has commented, “[The killing of human rights defenders is] an epidemic which is spreading as business tries to conquer new markets, as natural resources are found in areas that had been until then untouched.”

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 in order to ensure long-term solutions.”

To read the full article in The Guardian by Jaskiran Dhillon and Will Parrish, please go to Exclusive: Canada police prepared to shoot Indigenous activists, documents show.

Photo by Michael Toledano.

Canadian executive comments on fracking in Colombia, the building of a new pipeline

By
Brent Patterson
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In an interview published in La Republica on December 19, Charle Gamba, the Chief Executive Officer of Calgary-based Canacol Energy Ltd., comments on fracking in Colombia.

Gamba says, “Colombia is a little behind on the issue of fracking, as there are communication problems between the industry, the Government and the communities.”

He adds, “We must wait for the fracking regulation to come out and after this it will take at least two more years to plan and make the pilots. So if the regulation comes out in 2020, the industry will need two more years to do the design, the import of the equipment and everything to do the pilots, then the first pilot would be in 2022.”

Canacol’s Piranga and Plata fracking projects

In December 2015, Reuters reported, “U.S.-based ConocoPhillips and CNE Oil and Gas, a subsidiary of Canada’s Canacol Energy, have both signed non-traditional exploration agreements with the national hydrocarbons agency [ANH]…”

In March 2019, Reuters noted that Colombian environmental licencing authority ANLA had shelved the proposed fracking projects in northern Cesar province because they failed to meet minimum environmental requirements.

That article explains, “The companies did not meet minimum conditions for the Piranga project, a source from the licensing authority said, while the Plata project raised possible water protection concerns.”

Notably, that article also highlights, “U.S.-based ConocoPhillips and Canada’s Canacol can request to re-open the licensing process for the projects in the future, the source said, adding the decision is not a definitive no.”

A new gas pipeline to Medellin

In La Republica, Gamba says the Canadian company will invest “US $114 million [next year] and three quarters of this money will go to the drilling of exploratory gas wells.”

The company will also spend on “the construction of the gas pipeline that will connect our fields with the interior of Medellín.”

The Canacol website notes that it has convention gas wells (in its Esperanza block) in production in the Lower Magdalena Basin.

Gamba further explains, “This is a three-year project, in which we will invest more than US $400 million from the budget, it will have a 300-kilometer pipeline and we hope that by the end of 2023 we can start transporting 100 million cubic feet of gas.”

Hidroituango

In the La Republica interview, Gamba also comments, “Gas consumption in Colombia rose 5% this year, especially in the generation of electricity, this due to the delay in the start of the Hidroituango operation.”

When completed, the Ituango hydroelectric dam on the Cauca River in northwest Colombia will be 225-metres (738 feet) tall.

Isabel Cristina Zuleta of the Rios Vivos movement in Colombia has stated, “Since its launch in 1997, this megaproject has been imposed by violence and the forced displacement of the population, victims of the armed conflict.”

The Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec [the second largest pension plan in Canada] and Export Development Canada are financing this project.

Megaprojects and human rights

The UN Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation Léo Heller recently released his thematic report The Impact of Mega-Projects on The Human Rights to Water and Sanitation.

That report notes, “Human rights defenders advocating the rights of those affected by mega-projects have faced harassment, physical assault, bodily injuries, and even death.”

And the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders Michel Forst has commented, “[The killing of human rights defenders is] an epidemic which is spreading as business tries to conquer new markets, as natural resources are found in areas that had been until then untouched.”

Forst highlighted, “Many positive measures have been taken [but] this is not enough to turn around the trend. 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 in order to ensure long-term solutions.”

As noted on the Canacol website, the company has “adopted and implemented the Global Compact on Human Rights and Voluntary Principles as outlined by the United Nations.” Groups such as Corporate Accountability International have been critical of the Global Compact, including calling it a “PR scheme”.

This past November, Peace Brigades International organized a tour in Canada with Julia Figueroa and Andrea Nocove from the legal collective CCALCP and Ivan Madero from the human rights group CREDHOS.

Both organizations are opposed to fracking in Colombia given concerns about human rights violations, climate breakdown, the impacts commonly associated with extractivist projects on local communities, and popular opinion rejecting fracking.

Photo from Canacol promotional video.

PBI-Netherlands and the respite offered by the Shelter City Network for human rights defenders

By
Brent Patterson
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The Shelter City Network is a grouping of 11 cities in The Netherlands that recognize the dangers and stress experienced by human rights defenders.

Human rights defenders (HRDs) include those who work to defend land, water, Indigenous, LGBTQI+ and human rights around the world.

According to a report by Dublin-based Front Line Defenders, 321 defenders in 27 countries were targeted and killed in 2018 because of their activism.

As a result, those who do this work can experience intense psychological pressures.

As noted on the Shelter City Network website, “Shelter Cities offer temporary shelter, training and safety to international human rights defenders such as journalists, community leaders, lawyers, artists and academics who fight against human rights violations in their home countries.”

It adds, “The Shelter City network offers these human rights defenders the opportunity to catch their breath for a short period. As a result, they can temporarily escape a threatening situation and continue their work after a stay with new energy, network and ideas.”

This shelter can also be provided, for example, during an election or lawsuit when the pressure and danger is significantly increased.

The Shelter City Network website further explains, “In every Shelter City the municipality, local organizations (such as a university, NGO or social organization) and Justice and Peace Netherlands [a non-profit organization based in The Hague] provide the housing and the program for the human rights defender.”

When the human rights defender is in a Shelter City, they also work with these allies to organize meetings and workshops.

Peace Brigades International (PBI) Nederland supports the Shelter City in Utrecht, a city with a population of about 345,000 people, and is responsible for the daily operation of the project.

They partner with the City of Utrecht, Utrecht University, and UAF (the Foundation for Refugee Students) in this effort.

Last year, the Amsterdam-based Down to Earth journal reported (in Dutch) that Lottie Marie Cunningham Wren stayed in Utrecht through this program.

Cunningham is committed to Indigenous struggles, land rights and fighting against deforestation in Nicaragua.

That article notes, “In the area where Cunningham worked with the indigenous Miskito communities, more and more newcomers were entering the forest. They were looking for valuable wood, gold and especially new land for cattle breeding.”

Over the past six years, more than 50 human rights defenders have gained a respite through the Shelter City Network.

But the demand for this service is greater than its capacity.

As Down to Earth notes, “The number of applications at Shelter City far exceeds the supply.” Recently, there were 140 applications for just 10 spaces.

For more about the Shelter City Network, please visit them on Facebook here. For more on PBI Nederland, see their Twitter page here.

PBI-Guatemala accompanies Nuevo Dia to meeting on deforestation with state officials

By
Brent Patterson
-

On December 18, the Peace Brigades International-Guatemala Project posted on its Facebook page, “Yesterday we accompanied members of Nuevo Dia to the dialogue table with state institutions, including the Governor of Chiquimula, DIPRONA [the National Civil Police Division of Protection of Nature], INAB [the National Forestry Institute] and PDH [the Office of the Human Rights Prosecutor].”

PBI-Guatemala adds, “At the meeting they discussed the issue of immoderate logging in the municipalities of Jocotán and Camotán and the threats received by the communities that defend the forests.”

On December 3, PBI-Guatemala posted, “Today PBI accompanied Nuevo Día to different state institutions in Chiquimula, San Juan Ermita, Camotán and Jocotán where they requested the absolute closure of projects that have been installed illegally and without the consent of the communities.”

And on December 4, PBI-Guatemala posted, “Yesterday we visited the peaceful assembly called by Nuevo Dia on the Jupilingo Bridge to demand the immediate interruption of the excessive felling of the Lelá Obraje forest and the implementation of megaprojects that threaten Mother Earth and human rights.”

The Guardian has reported, “Forests mitigate climate change, but Guatemala has lost half its woodlands in the past 40 years – and deforestation rates are rising, in turn causing floods, landslides and erosion of farmland.”

The Nuevo Dia website notes, “We combine efforts to defend the territory still occupied by Ch’orti’ families. We are also known for articulating the proposal for the rural economic recovery in the eastern part of Guatemala.”

It adds, “We develop actions that allow the autonomy required for the Good Living of the Ch’orti’ People and their territorial co-inhabitants.”

PBI-Guatemala Project has accompanied Nuevo Dia since 2009.

PBI-Guatemala observes hearing for eight Indigenous people accused of killing three soldiers

By
Brent Patterson
-

On December 17, the Peace Brigades International-Guatemala Project posted, “Today we observed the first declaration hearing in the Semuy 2 case.”

PBI-Guatemala adds, “The judge linked the eight accused persons to trial in the context of the death of three soldiers on September 4 in the community of Izabal. Four of them were favored with house arrest. The Firm for Indigenous Peoples leads the defense in this case.”

Yesterday, Prensa Libre reported, “Five men and three women, residents of Semuy 2, heard in court how the Public Ministry (MP) told them of the death of three soldiers from a troop that entered their community when they were supposedly searching for an aircraft with drug.”

“On September 3 with the authorization of an oil processing company, to go through private property, the platoon arrived at Semuy 2.”

“At the hearing the Public Ministry told Oliver Coy Choc, having led the attack against the soldiers with other men, for those actions the MP asks to link him to trial for murder, attempted murder and illegal association of armed people.”

That article adds, “The hearing was suspended and will resume Thursday [December 19] when the defense of the eight indicated argues, then the court will decide whether or not to link them to criminal proceedings.”

On November 20, CRN reported that the eight had been arrested the previous week but that “after spending more than 7 days without appearing before a competent judge, they now suffer an illegal detention for which they have filed a personal exhibition action.”

Semuy 2

Prensa Libre has noted, “The community is on the south side of Lake Izabal, amidst African palm plantations and extensive grasslands. Basic services such as piped water and electricity are lacking. To receive medical attention, residents must travel more than 50 kilometers to reach a health center. The abandonment in which the community is located has been exploited by drug trafficking groups.”

Prensa Communitaria has reported, “The Naturaceites palm company, which surrounds the community of Semuy 2, has two runways, the only ones in the sector.”

Professor Carlos Figueroa Ibarra has written, “The official versions are not convincing (a patrol was sent to intercept a drug plane) or they were false (the soldiers were killed by heavy caliber weapons). The version of the inhabitants of the aforementioned village maintains that it was the soldiers who initiated the aggression and then were outnumbered by the villagers some of whom made use of shotguns to attack them.”

And the Guatemalan novelist Miguel Angel Oxlaj Cúmez has commented, “The situation in El Estor, Izabal is delicate. It was not an ambush of narcos against the military nor were they attacked with AK47 weapons. The military arrived at the Chajmayik village (Semuy 2) and after the Q’eqchi ‘settlers – who were beaten by the internal armed conflict – met and asked the reason for their incursion (because they interpreted the military presence as an order of eviction), the officer in charge ordered to open fire on the community, wounding 5 people (2 seriously). Hence the villagers reacted.”

Oxlaj Cúmez adds, “Whatever the mean putrid and narcomilitaries say, the people know that what they are looking for is to militarize El Estor to neutralize the population that defends the lake. What they want is to continue to prey on Lake Izabal with the extractive projects and prey on the jungle with the African palm.”

State of siege

Publinews notes, “In September 2019, the Executive Branch decreed a status of Siege in 22 municipalities of six departments in the northeast of the country. The measure was taken after the  crime against three members of the Army in the village Semuy 2, in El Estor.”

Reuters has reported, “The 30-day state of siege imposes a night-time curfew [and] gives the military new powers to arrest and interrogate suspects and prohibits organized protests in the targeted areas as well as some meetings, although it does not specify the number of people that can legally meet.”

And Aljazeera notes, “The measure sparked widespread condemnation from human rights and social groups. …Much of the affected region in eastern Guatemala is inhabited by indigenous Maya Q’eqchi’ communities fighting for land rights and against nickel mining and oil palm plantations.”

Iduvina Hernandez, director of the Association for the Study and Promotion of Security in Democracy, says, “The magnitude allows them to militarise or remilitarise a region with a high level of conflict, where communities are opposed to extractive industry projects.”

In yesterday’s post, PBI-Guatemala noted that the state of siege was declared for two months in 22 municipalities in the north-east of the country.

PBI-Mexico remembers the femicides of Maricela Escobedo and her daughter Rubi Frayre

By
Brent Patterson
-

On December 17, the Peace Brigades International-Mexico Project posted, “On December 16, the 9th anniversary of the murder of Maricela Escobedo, defender killed in front of the courthouse while fighting to do justice against the femicide of her daughter Rubí, is commemorated. Both unpunished events to this day.”

Rubi was murdered in 2008 when she was 16 years of age.

The Nobel Women’s Initiative has noted, “Rubi disappeared from Ciudad Juarez in August 2008. Her former boyfriend, Sergio Barraza, was considered the main suspect but local authorities were slow to investigate.”

“Marisela launched her own investigation, gathering material evidence. During her search, Sergio finally confessed to his crime, leading Marisela and the authorities to Rubi’s body, where all that remained were charred pieces of bone.”

On December 19, 2010, just days after Marisela was murdered, The Telegraph reported, “Escobedo was protesting against the release from custody of her daughter’s alleged murderer, Sergio Barraza, who was also Rubi’s live-in boyfriend.”

“Prosecutors said Barraza had admitted murdering Rubi and led police to the body. But at trial he denied this and claimed he was tortured into confessing. [Following the murder of Maricela], the three judges who ordered Barraza’s release have been suspended pending an investigation into the handling of the case.”

“Escobedo previously said she had received death threats from Barraza’s family. He is now a suspect in the mother’s killing as well, investigators said.”

PBI-Mexico has previously commented, “It is one of the most emblematic cases of Chihuahua.”

This past June, PBI-Mexico accompanied the media conference convened by three organizations: the Centre for Women’s Human Rights (Centro de Derechos Humanos de las Mujeres), the Center for Justice and International Law (CEJIL) and Mexicans in Exile (Mexicanos en el exilio).

PBI-Mexico has explained, “They presented the petition filed with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) to accept the case of Marisela Escobedo.”

CEJIL notes, “The petition issued to the IACHR will allow the Inter-American Human Rights System to document the violations of human rights of which Rubí, Marisela and 17 members of her family have been victims.”

For example, The Telegraph has reported, “On [Saturday December 13, 2010, just days before Marisela was murdered] a lumber company belonging to Jose Monje Amparon, Escobedo’s partner, was burned down and his brother and another man were kidnapped.”

Today, El Universal reports, “Dozens of members of civil organizations joined a peaceful demonstration in which they remembered Marisela and her fight for justice for the disappearance and murder of her daughter.”

That article in El Universal adds, “Participating organizations indicated that an initial petition was made to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), so that justice is done for Marisela and Rubi through international bodies since both femicides were plagued by failures of the justice bodies.”

Journalist Anabel Hernandez, who had to flee Mexico for her own safety, has written, “From 2015 to June 2019, at least 3,080 women were murdered in Mexico. According to the Mexican government, the victim rate per 100,000 in 2015 was 0.66 percent. By 2019 the rate had risen to 1.19, nearly doubling in just three years.”

COP26 in Glasgow should be a pivotal human rights summit

By
Brent Patterson
-

The United Nations COP25 summit concluded this weekend with little progress.

The Guardian reports, “Global climate talks have ended in Madrid with a partial agreement to ask countries to come up with more ambitious targets to cut greenhouse gas emissions, to fulfil the terms of the 2015 Paris accord.”

That article adds, “Few countries came to this year’s talks with updated plans to reach the Paris goals [but] experts say more ambitious emissions cuts are needed globally if the Paris pledge to hold global heating to no more than 2C – the upper limit of safety – is to be met.”

That article then highlights, “In Glasgow early next November, countries will meet again with the aim of strengthening their commitments on emissions cuts under the Paris accord.”

Reuters further explains, “The [Paris] agreement enters a crucial implementation phase in 2020, when countries are supposed to ratchet up their ambitions ahead of the next major round of talks in Glasgow.”

The Associated Press cautions, “So far, the world is on course for a 3- to 4-degree Celsius rise, with potentially dramatic consequences for many countries.”

The climate crisis is a human rights crisis

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

The UN Special Rapporteur on Extreme Poverty and Human Rights Philip Alston has warned, “Human rights might not survive the coming upheaval.”

The UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) has noted, “Women commonly face higher risks and greater burdens from the impacts of climate change in situations of poverty, and the majority of the world’s poor are women.”

Greenpeace has highlighted, “So many of our human rights, such as right to life, health, food, and an adequate standard of living, are adversely affected by climate change.” The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights also notes that the human right to adequate housing and the human right to water as threatened.

And IPS reports, “Currently, forecasts vary from 25 million to 1 billion environmental migrants by 2050, moving either within their countries or across borders, on a permanent or temporary basis, with 200 million being the most widely cited estimate.”

Without deeper cuts to carbon emission – and stronger protections for the human rights defenders who challenge harmful megaprojects at the local level – climate change will continue to devastate people and the planet, and human rights will continue to be violated.

COP26 will take place from November 9 to 19 in Glasgow, Scotland.

Twitter photo.

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