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What are your thoughts on Peace Brigades International?

By
Brent Patterson
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Dear donor, supporter, reader,

Thank you for taking the time to open and read this!

I’m interested in hearing your thoughts on the work that we do and how we might do it better to defend and advance human rights.

1- How did you first encounter PBI? When was that? What drew your attention to us?

2- What do you think PBI does well? What do you think we could improve on?

3- What should PBI-Canada prioritize? Speaking tours? Social media? Newsletters? Recruiting volunteers? Advocacy? Fundraising for the field projects? All of the above?

4- What else would you like PBI to be doing?

5- Are you a donor? If yes, why? If not, what would make you consider making a donation?

To reply to the questions in this survey, or to share other comments and feedback you may have, simply write me at brent@pbicanada.org

Best wishes,

Brent Patterson

Executive Director, PBI-Canada

P.S. For an overview of PBI’s work in 2018, please see our annual review.

PBI-Colombia accompanies finalists for the National Human Rights Defence Award

By
Brent Patterson
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Human rights defenders who are accompanied by the Peace Brigades International-Colombia Project are finalists for the National Human Rights Defence Award.

The website for the award notes, “Annually, and since 2012, the National Human Rights Defence Award celebrates the lives of women and men who work in the defence and promotion of human rights in Colombia.”

Those who are nominated “are leaders because they are defenders of life, of women, of children, of water, of territory, of natural resources, of common interest.”

The 2019 finalists include:

Comisión Intereclesial de Justicia y Paz

“Since its formation, in May 1996, the Campesino Association of the Cimitarra River Valley (ACVC) has been working on the promotion and defense of the human rights of the peasant communities of the Cimitarra River Valley. But not only that. It also develops social, community and political work, seeking an alternative model of social development in a region where interests in extractive megaprojects mark the economic agenda.”

Asociación Campesina del Valle del Río Cimitarra (ACVC)

“For more than 30 years the Inter-Church Justice and Peace Commission has promoted and defended the rights of urban and rural communities mired in oblivion and affected by armed confrontation. It was formed in 1988 by 45 Catholic congregations. Currently, it has 55 members from various departments in the country that support processes of truth search, justice and comprehensive reparation of victims; of negotiated political exits to the internal armed conflict; and defense of territories and the environment.”

Claudia Julieta Duque Orrego

“Journalist, defender of human rights and freedom of the press. For her journalistic work of denouncing in favour of the victims of the Colombian conflict, her life and that of her relatives have been in constant danger for more than 17 years. The Press Freedom Coalition places her in the list of the ten most attacked journalists in the world for pursuing the truth. The abuses suffered by this journalist mark a milestone in legal matters in Colombia, among which are to investigate aggravated psychological torture as an autonomous crime and declare it a crime against humanity, as the Prosecutor’s Office did.”

The award ceremony will take place on September 4.

It is presented by Diakonia (an international, faith-based cooperation organization founded by Protestant churches in Sweden that is active in 30 countries around the world) and the Church of Sweden (an Evangelical Lutheran church with 6.1 million members, 3,500 churches and 13 dioceses in Sweden).

Peace Brigades International-Canada congratulates all the nominees of this award.

For more on the meaning of this human rights award, please read PBI-Colombia’s article Recognition and Support for Human Rights Defenders.

PBI-Colombia accompanies Nydia Erika Bautista Foundation at Truth Commission event

By
Brent Patterson
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On August 27, the Peace Brigades International-Colombia Project tweeted, “Today in Pasto we accompanied the ‘Nydia Erika Bautista’ Foundation for Human Rights at an important ‘We Recognize Your Search’ event organized by the Truth Commission and UBPD Search Unit in tribute to women and relatives who look for their loved ones tirelessly.”

PBI-Colombia has previously explained, “The ‘Nydia Erika Bautista’ Foundation for Human Rights (FNEB) is an organization of relatives of the victims of forced disappearance from five regions around the country (Bogota, Valle del Cauca, Meta, Casanare and Putumayo) and an interdisciplinary group of lawyers, social workers and experts in social archives and communication, who accompany people who have suffered the disappearance of one or several loved ones.”

It has also noted, “They search for people who were forcibly disappeared, promote truth, justice and dignity for victims and their families, and advocate for changes to public policy in defence of their human rights.”

In terms of context for the tweet, the International Center for Transitional Justice (ICTJ) has explained that the “Truth Commission” refers to the Commission for the Clarification of Truth, Coexistence, and Non-Repetition.

The ICTJ notes that the commission began taking testimony in November 2018 with the “task of constructing a historical truth from the stories of millions of victims”.

As for the UBPD Search Unit, Colombia Reports noted in March of this year, “The Unit for the Search of Disappeared Persons (UBPD) will be sending out its first search units to find the remains of some 126,000 people who were forcibly disappeared during the conflict or never returned after being kidnapped.”

That article adds, “Starting in May, the UBPD will begin to look for and possibly exhume mass graves in Barranquilla, Cucuta, Barrancabermeja, Villavicencio, San Jose del Guaviare, Puerto Asis, Cali, Rionegro, Apartado, and Sincelejo. Next year, the prosecutors will be looking into the possible locations of the remains of missing persons in the municipalities of Florencia, Yopal, Monteria, Arauca, Quibdo, Ibague and Bogota.”

The United Victims Registry (RUV), the government body in charge of registering war victims, has registered 150,000 forced disappearances between 1986 and 2017.

PBI-Colombia has accompanied the Nydia Erika Bautista Foundation occasionally from 2007 and signed a full accompaniment agreement in 2016.

#ReconocemosSuBúsqueda #WeRecognizeYourSearch

#AquiFaltaAlguien #SomeoneIsMissing

PBI-Guatemala accompanies Lorena Cabnal’s resistance to violence against women and territory

By
Brent Patterson
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Land defender Rita Wong was recently sentenced in a Vancouver courtroom to 28 days in a ‘correctional centre for women’ for her peaceful resistance to the Trans Mountain tar sands pipeline that would violate the sovereignty and put at risk Indigenous territories as well as endanger the lives of Indigenous women.

Before she was arrested, Wong stated, “The expansion of this pipeline would pose an increased risk to Indigenous women through displacement and man-camps, as well as everybody on Earth, through further climate destabilization.”

She encouraged “more people to make the connections between violence against the land and violence against missing and murdered Indigenous women.”

That is a connection that has also been made by Secwepemc land defender Kanahus Manuel, Melina Laboucan-Massimo of the Lubicon Cree First Nation, and Helen Knott, a Dane-Zaa and Nehiyaw woman from the Prophet River First Nations in her resistance to the Site C hydroelectric dam on Treaty 8 territory.

Lorena Cabnal, a Mayan Q’eqchi’-xinka who is with the TZ’KAT Network of Ancestral Healers of Community Feminism from Ixmulew, also sees the connection.

She does so in reference to the resistance to “mining, hydroelectric, oil, extended monocultures, the brutal felling of forests, the impositions of landowners, the violent and forced evictions of women and communities” in Guatemala.

This article notes, “Lorena makes a historical-structural analysis of the violence applied to the bodies, understood as territories that are daily attacked in the capitalist system.”

And this article provides the additional context that, “Guatemalan community feminists have proposed the category body-land territory.”

That category highlights “that the struggle for the defense of the land against extractivism must be simultaneous and inseparable from the struggle for women in such territories to live a life free from violence and the exploitation of their bodies.”

That article adds, “Extractivism is based on and exacerbates the patriarchal culture, which has a particular affect on women’s way of life.”

It further notes, “In the contexts of mining and oil exploitation and hydroelectric installations, for example, a ‘masculinization’ of territories takes place in which community spaces and daily life are restructured around the desires and values of a hegemonic masculinity.”

Lorena says, “We need to heal the remote memories [of violence against our ancestors at the time of colonization], and also heal a more recent memory such as counter-insurgent warfare and the effects of criminalization, prosecution, persecution, risks, attacks and threats to defenders of life.”

Because of her activism, Lorena has experienced threats, raids, intimidation and had to temporarily leave her community.

In this interview with PBI-United Kingdom, she says, “We read Peace Brigades International’s monthly bulletin and saw that it was like a report of threats that human rights defenders are suffering, and it’s also a form of public announcement, which is important for a network of support and solidarity with the struggles of women’s organisations, social and indigenous movements in different parts of the country.”

The Peace Brigades International-Guatemala Project has accompanied Lorena since 2006 and TZ’KAT since February 2018. PBI-Ireland recently hosted Lorena’s visit to Dublin. You can read more about that here.

PBI-Ireland hosts visit by Mayan Q’eqchi’-xinka feminist Lorena Cabnal

By
Brent Patterson
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The Summer 2019 Advocacy Group Update from Peace Brigades International-Ireland highlights a visit by Mayan Q’eqchi’-xinka feminist Lorena Cabnal.

Cabnal visited Dublin from May 29-31.

Cabnal is with the TZ’KAT Network of Ancestral Healers of Community Feminism from Ixmulew. The Peace Brigades International-Guatemala Project has accompanied Cabnal since 2006 and TZ’KAT since 2018.

PBI-Ireland notes, “During her visit to Dublin, Lorena spoke at two public meetings – first at the final   session of our peace education course ‘Making Space for Peace: peacebuilding and human rights defenders’ and at a seminar hosted by the School of Religions at Trinity College Dublin entitled ‘Transforming Violence Against Women in Guatemala: community feminism and ancestral healing   practices’.”

“At the latter, she outlined the forms of patriarchy experienced by indigenous women Guatemala from the historical to present day and outlined an approach to feminism that is more consistent with her   worldview and cosmovision – community feminism.”

“This approach sees recovery of the bodily integrity and territory of indigenous women’s bodies as an integral part of the journey towards emancipation. A great deal of violence, structural and otherwise, has been experienced through the bodies of indigenous women but the body itself can be a vehicle through which liberation becomes possible – energetically, cosmically and politically.”

You can read more about Cabnal’s visit to Ireland here.

What’s the latest news on fracking in Colombia?

By
Brent Patterson
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What do the most recent news articles tell us about the likelihood of the controversial technique of hydraulic fracturing (fracking) proceeding in Colombia?

1- Awaiting State Council ruling

On August 13, BNamericas reported, “Last November, the state council – Colombia’s highest administrative tribunal – suspended all administrative acts related to fracking, arguing that the country lacked the necessary regulatory framework. Ecopetrol says it is awaiting a further decision by the state council on whether to lift the ban for pilot projects.” That decision could come within months.

2- Ecopetrol set to invest millions in pilot projects

On March 5, Reuters reported, “Colombia’s state-run oil company Ecopetrol SA is looking to spend $500 million in exploring unconventional deposits over the next three years, its chief executive said on Tuesday, starting with pilot programs in the Magdalena Medio region.” Unconventional deposits refers to oil and gas that would be extracted by fracking.

3- Industry set for fracking to begin

On July 2, a Petroleum Economist headline read: Colombian fracking edges closer to reality. And on August 2, a Canal TRO headline read: “Multinacionales confían en que el fracking se hará en Colombia” (Multinationals trust that fracking will be done in Colombia).

4- Pipeline ready for fracked crude

On August 21, Reuters reported, “Pipeline company Oleoducto de Colombia is ready to move increased crude output from the center of Colombia to the Caribbean if the use of fracking is approved in the Andean country, the company’s chief executive said on Wednesday.”

5- New legislation coming

And on August 7, Reuters reported, “Energy Minister Maria Fernanda Suarez said on Monday the government would introduce a bill this year meant to improve companies’ coordination with local authorities and next year would propose improvements to the consultation process, all in a bid to head off future community objections [to oil and mining projects].”

Speaking tour

Colombians are concerned about fracking. A poll taken in February found that more than 90% of Colombians are against fracking in Colombia.

This November, representatives from two Colombian human rights groups that are accompanied by the Peace Brigades International-Colombia Project will be speaking in Canada to highlight their concerns about fracking and climate change.

More details on this speaking tour by CCALCP and CREDHOS coming soon!

The UN COP25 climate summit and the need to protect human rights defenders

By
Brent Patterson
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Peace Brigades International accompanies human rights defenders who struggle against some of the biggest accelerants of climate breakdown, including fracking, hydroelectric dams, deforestation, palm oil plantations, and mining.

The preamble of the Paris Agreement, agreed to at the United Nations COP21 climate summit in 2015, states, “Parties should, when taking action to address climate change, respect, promote and consider their respective obligations on human rights.”

In October 2017, Katharina Rall from Human Rights Watch wrote, “The frequent attacks and threats against environmental rights defenders throughout the world are an example of why governments need to include protecting rights in their climate policies.”

She highlights, “Unless governments stop the criminalization of defenders, protect those who defend the environment, and respect due process show a larger commitment to human rights, any efforts to protect the climate will easily be blocked.”

But by the time of the COP24 climate summit in Poland in December 2018, Grist reported, “When the Paris Agreement was signed, parties outlined a vision that recognized nations must respect and protect human rights [but] the latest draft of the Paris Rulebook (which outlines what countries need to do to put the accord into action) omits a human rights reference.”

At that time, Victoria Tauli-Corpuz, the UN Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, lamenting this development stated, “I’ve seen how renewable projects like wind farms and hydropower electric dams have been done without consultation with indigenous peoples. And in the process, indigenous peoples are expelled or worse yet, killed.”

Now the UN COP25 climate summit is scheduled to take place from December 2-13 in Santiago, Chile.

On March 20 of this year, in the lead-up to that summit, the UN Human Rights Council passed this resolution that “stresses that human rights defenders, including environmental human rights defenders, must be ensured a safe and enabling environment to undertake their work free from hindrance and insecurity, in recognition of their important role in supporting States to fulfil their obligations under the Paris Agreement…”

That resolution, “also urges States to develop and appropriately resource protection initiatives for human rights defenders…”

But earlier this month, the Inter Press Service reported that Chile, the host country for the COP25 climate summit, has yet to sign (or ratify) the Regional Agreement on Access to Information, Participation and Justice in Environmental Matters for Latin America and the Caribbean (also known as the Escazú treaty).

That article explains, “Under the agreement, states commit to ensure a safe environment for defenders to act, take appropriate and effective measures to recognize and protect their rights, and take measures to prevent, investigate and prosecute attacks against environmental defenders.”

More potently, Amnesty International has commented that the agreement “imposes specific obligations to protect environmental human rights defenders from threats or attacks; to investigate and punish any aggressions against them; and to guarantee their rights to life and personal integrity, as well as the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly, movement, expression and association.”

Human rights and the Clean Development Mechanism

Furthermore, it has been noted that hydroelectric dam projects have been eligible to receive carbon credits under the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), a mechanism reflected in the Kyoto Protocol climate agreement.

The designation of the Barro Blanco Dam on the Tabasará River in Panama as a CDM had lent the controversial project legitimacy. Meanwhile, the dam was being built on the territory of the Indigenous Ngäbe peoples without their consent.

This Reuters article notes that similar problems with dams have been reported in countries including Honduras and Guatemala.

The Center for International Environmental Law has stated that the Barro Blanco project highlights the need for a human rights-based approach in the “sustainable development initiatives” that could replace the Clean Development Mechanism in 2020.

Human rights and Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs)

The United Nations has explained, “The Paris Agreement requests each country to outline and communicate their post-2020 climate actions, known as their NDCs.”

Human Rights Watch has noted, “Including human rights considerations in reporting guidelines for ‘Nationally Determined Contributions’ (i.e. national climate change action plans) could help ensure that government actions on climate change respect, protect and fulfill human rights.”

The next round of NDCs are to be submitted by 2020.

Conclusion

The upcoming United Nations COP25 climate summit in Santiago, Chile this December provides an opportunity for States to build on the language regarding human rights obligations in the Paris Agreement, include human rights in the Paris Rulebook, reinforce language and practices to protect human rights defenders from threats or attacks, and to ensure that all measures adopted to address climate change are situated within a human rights framework.

Further reading

– Colombian human rights defenders to visit Canada to speak on climate change and fracking (August 8, 2019)

– PBI-Mexico accompanies Indigenous Zapotec group opposed to industrial wind power megaprojects on their territory (July 20, 2019)

– PBI-Honduras visits community where mining and solar power are pending issues (August 16, 2019)

– PBI-Honduras and PBI-Guatemala accompany Indigenous communities opposed to dams (August 16, 2019)

– The Global Climate Strike and Colombian human rights defender Hernán Bedoya (August 15, 2019)

– Thunberg’s visit to Mexico could draw attention to the risks faced by human rights defenders (July 29, 2019)

– Human rights defenders play a crucial role in the struggle for climate justice (July 20, 2019)

Photo by Juan Mayorga/Twitter.

PBI-Colombia present with CAHUCOPANA for opening of House of Memory

By
Brent Patterson
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This recently posted article by two Peace Brigades International-Colombia Project volunteers tells the story of the inauguration of a House of Memory in Lejanías (Antioquia) on August 3 by the group CAHUCOPANA.

CAHUCOPANA refers to the Humanitarian Action Corporation for Coexistence and Peace of the Northeast Antioquia, a group formed by three hundred family farmers in 2004.

The House of Memory commemorates the men, women and children killed in the August 1983 massacre of Altos de Manila y Cañaveral.

CAHUCOPANA has posted, “We remember the 17 victims killed by a group of approximately 30 paramilitaries under Fidel Castaño on August 4 and 12, 1983. We keep the memory alive so that another massacre in Colombia never happens again!”

The photographs in the House of Memory also remind us that the National Army killed 18 peasants in the region between 2004 and 2009.

Along with the House of Memory, there is also a Memory Garden.

Each person who was present at the inauguration of the House of Memory planted a tree in the Memory Garden in commemoration of those killed in the massacre.

To read more, please see MEMORIA Y RESISTENCIA EN EL NORDESTE ANTIOQUEÑO by PBI-Colombia volunteers Diego Lantero (from Spain) and Jessica García (from Argentina).

PBI-Colombia has accompanied CAHUCOPANA since 2013.

Further reading

PBI-Colombia accompanies CAHUCOPANA family farmers in reparations process (August 15, 2019)

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

PBI-Guatemala accompanies Indigenous CCDA Verapaz land defenders at court hearings

By
Brent Patterson
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On August 16, the Peace Brigades International-Guatemala Project posted, “Today we accompanied Marcelino Xol Cucul and Jorge Coc of the CCDA Verapaz in audience [at a court hearing]. We continue to express our concern for the safety of the two partners and their families and the development of due process in this case.”

PBI-Guatemala has explained, “The Campesino Committee of the Highlands (CCDA) is a peasant organization that accompanies and advises communities, mostly indigenous, that fight for access to land and ownership to create dignified living conditions in the face of eviction and dispossession of their lands where these communities have lived for many generations.”

On June 6 of this year, PBI-Guatemala posted, “Indigenous leaders and leaders continue to be criminalized in Alta Verapaz. We reaffirm that defending rights is not a crime. We witnessed the hearings of Marcelino and Jorge.”

Then it posted, “On June 14 we accompanied Marcelino and Jorge in an audience in the court of Cobán. Before starting the hearing, the two were allegedly threatened by members of the Cooperativa Chilté which is located near the community of Choctun Basilá where Marcelino and Jorge are originally from.”

That post adds, “There is a struggle of more than 10 years between the two communities. We express our concern for the safety of the two companions and their relatives.”

Prensa Comunitaria has reported that the Chilté Cooperative was “formed by a group of businessmen from the region through paramilitaries.”

In June 2017, the Mesoamerican Women Human Rights Defenders Initiative (IM-Defensoras) noted that members of the Chilté Cooperative had intimidated members of the CCDA over disputed land in the community of Choctún in Nuevo Centro.

Between May 9, 2018 and June 8, 2018, five members of the CCDA and two members of CODECA (the Campesino Development Committee) were killed.

After those deaths, NACLA reported, “CCDA and CODECA, represent the two campesino-Indigenous organizations that have most actively supported community struggles and most consistently challenged successive governments.”

It also noted, “Both groups have worked tirelessly … presenting legal injunctions against extractive projects, organizing regular highway blockades, supporting land occupations, and demanding the resignation of presidents in the wake of corruption scandals…”

PBI-Guatemala began accompanying the CCDA in July 2018.

PBI-Mexico accompanies Comité Cerezo at release of report on human rights violations

By
Brent Patterson
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On August 21, the Peace Brigades International-Mexico Project posted on their Facebook page, “Yesterday we had the honour of accompanying the presentation of the report Defend Human Rights in Mexico: The End of Impunity?”

PBI-Mexico adds, “Each year, the Comité Cerezo together with the Urgent Action for Human Rights Defenders (ACUDDEH) make an annual report on the situation of human rights defenders in Mexico. We applaud this research and analysis.”

PBI-Mexico highlights in their post, “The figures presented remain alarming: from June 2018 to May 2019, the report indicates the record of 38 extrajudicial killings, 348 arbitrary detentions, and 105 human rights violations.”

La Jornada reports, “The report, prepared by the Comité Cerezo, documents the cases of attacks against human rights defenders, civil and social organizations and groups during the last semester of the government of Enrique Peña Nieto and the first of the administration of Andrés Manuel López Obrador.”

That article notes, “Brothers Alejandro and Francisco Cerezo detailed the content of the report: during the last semester of the Peña Nieto government, 64 events were presented that added 822 acts of violation, Veracruz being the entity with the highest number (682), while In the first six months of López Obrador there were 44 acts, with 331 violations, and Guerrero is the state with the most aggressions.”

La Jornada also reported that Jan Jarab, the representative in Mexico of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, participated in the presentation of the report. (You can read more about him in this PBI-Mexico post.)

The article highlighted, “Jarab stressed the need for the government of Andrés Manuel López Obrador to investigate and resolve not only the cases of serious violations of the human rights of the activists, but all the aggressions, however minimal, as increasingly there is an escalation of violence against this sector.”

Proceso adds, “The document, supervised by the Cerezo Committee, highlights that in terms of extrajudicial executions the tendency is practically the same during the last six months of the Peña Nieto government and the first six months of López Obrador, with 20 and 18 cases, respectively.”

That article notes concerns about violations against “labour human rights defenders”. It also notes “the population of indigenous origin and the defenders of the territory being the main victims” of extrajudicial executions.

It also notes that “in the first months of AMLO half of the perpetrators [of extrajudicial executions] could be identified as members of paramilitary groups.”

And this Pie de Página article quotes Alejandro Cerezo who says, “If the defenders and journalists do not organize themselves, they do not jointly demand from the federal government and the legislature concrete measures to create a public policy that benefits both populations, everything we ask will be unreal and the government will not take us into account. And remember that those who enter this work must demand full compliance with international standards in terms of protection.”

The full 137-page report can be read here.

PBI-Mexico has accompanied the Comité Cerezo since 2002.

Further reading: PBI-Canada and PBI-Mexico meet with Comite Cerezo and PBI-Canada’s Paul Bocking reports on his field visit to Mexico.

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