The struggle against homophobia, transphobia and biphobia continues in Honduras.

The statistics are grim.

Between 2009 and mid-2018, 296 members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) community in Honduras were murdered.

Honduras also had the highest per capita number of transgender murders in the world between 2008 and 2014, according to a report by Transgender Europe.

And there is a high level of impunity.

Of the 141 violent deaths reported between 2010 and 2014, less than one-quarter (30) of the cases have been prosecuted in the courts.

The Peace Brigades International-Honduras Project accompanies the advocacy group Asociación LGTB Arcoiris de Honduras (LGTB Rainbow Association of Honduras) in the vital — and dangerous — work it does in this context to advance equal rights.

From June 2015 to March 2016, six members of Arcoíris were killed, including Paola Barraza who was shot five times when she opened the front door of her home in January 2016.

Other Arcoíris activists have survived assassination attempts. Jlo Córdoba was shot by a Honduran soldier in 2014, and survived three more assassination attempts in 2016.

Many others have faced intimidation, harassment and physical attacks.

“I’ve been imprisoned on many occasions. I’ve suffered torture and sexual violence because of my activism, and I’ve survived many assassination attempts,” says Arcoíris coordinator Donny Reyes. 

“The biggest problem that we face is the violence of the state security forces towards the LGBT+ community: the armed forces, the police, the criminal investigation police, military police, municipal police,” Reyes adds.

“The research studies that Arcoiris and other organizations have done reflect the same pattern — more than 60 per cent of hate crimes have been committed against us by those forces who should be guaranteeing our safety.”

The journalists who report on this violence in Honduras are also in danger. Dina Meza, an independent investigative reporter who is accompanied by PBI-Honduras, says that reporters who cover violence against the LGBTI+ community have been physically assaulted by security forces, expelled from public events, and have been the subject of smear campaigns.

The violence also drives migration.

In November 2018, Telesur reported that a group of at least 40 Honduran LGBT youth were travelling as part of a migrant caravan to the United States. They were making the arduous and dangerous journey to escape the discrimination, violence and poverty in their home country.

Reyes himself once had to spend 10 months outside of Honduras for his own safety.

Most recently, Arcoíris has launched a significant court challenge.

The Honduran Constitution expressly bans same-sex marriage and refuses to recognize them even if they have been legally sanctioned in other countries, including in Canada where it has been legal since July 2005.

In July 2018, Reyes and Alex Soto of the Centre for LGBTI Development and Cooperation (Somos CDC) filed a constitutional challenge on marriage equality and adoption. That petition is pending before the Supreme Court of Honduras, which is expected to rule on the challenge later this year.

On May 17 of this year, PBI-Honduras Project accompanied LGBT Arcoiris at a march in Tegucigalpa, the capital city of Honduras, on the International Day against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia.

More than 350 people, despite the dangers they face, marched towards the city’s main square to demand an end to the violence, the legal recognition of trans peoples’ gender identity, and an end to the prohibitions on marriage and adoption for same-sex couples.

Reyes says, “We need a Honduras that’s free from violence and homophobia. We believe it’s our responsibility to fight for this so the next generation have a space to live in a better world.”

The PBI-Honduras Project has accompanied LGTB Arcoiris since July 2015.

Brent Patterson is Executive Director of Peace Brigades International-Canada, a political activist, and a writer. Readers can follow PBI-Canada on Twitter for further updates here.

For more than 300 years, Quakers have been working for peace. That work emerges out of the Friends peace testimony that reflects a commitment to social justice, reconciliation, mediation, disarmament, and ending militarism.

These Quaker principles also serve to inform their longstanding support for Peace Brigades International (PBI), a human rights group which now has a presence in 20 countries around the world.

PBI acknowledges the key role of Quakers in its answer to the question, “Where did the idea of a ‘peace brigade’ come from?” The PBI website explains, “The idea of an unarmed, nonviolent peace force comes from two different sources: the Quakers and Gandhi.”

It then notes, “In 17th-century England, Quakers offered their services as mediators before or during conflicts. This practice was rooted in the Quaker belief that there is something of God in everybody, therefore, no-one should be debased, exploited or killed.”

In turn, the Canadian Friends Service Committee has posted, “Founded by Friends, PBI places volunteers in communities where support and protective accompaniment is requested by local human rights defenders.” It also highlights, “PBI volunteers report to the outside world a balanced analysis of the situation witnessed on the ground.”

Quakers in the World adds, “It is not a Quaker organisation, but its work is grounded in Quaker and Gandhian principles, Quakers were instrumental in its establishment, and many Quakers still work with the organisation today.”

That article also notes the Quaker participation in the founding of PBI almost 40 years ago.

It recalls, “In September 1981, a consultative meeting was held on Grindstone Island, site of the Canadian Friends Service Committee’s Peace Education Centre.” Grindstone Island is located about 100 kilometres southwest of Ottawa.

One of the founders of PBI at that meeting was Murray Thomson, a Quaker who passed away on May 2 in Ottawa at 96 years of age.

And the article highlights that six of the eleven founding members of PBI at that meeting on Grindstone Island were Quakers.

It’s also notable, as mentioned in this article, that the first direct request for PBI to intervene in a conflict situation came from Nicaragua where U.S.-funded Contra rebels were at war with the new government that came to power in a popular uprising.

That first group of PBI volunteers in 1983 was led by Jack Schultz, a Quaker.

George Lakey, a well-known American Quaker activist, was also an early volunteer with Peace Brigades International.

Lakey has written, “In 1989 I joined the first Peace Brigades International, or PBI, team in Sri Lanka. Our job was to act as unarmed bodyguards for lawyers who were threatened with assassination because they were standing up for activists’ human rights.”

He adds, “In one case I was told to live with the lawyer’s family and answer the doorbell at night after curfew, on the chance it was the hit squad there to kill the lawyer. ‘By tonight’, [the lawyer] said, ‘the [hit squad] controller will know all about PBI and possible repercussions if he kills me.'”

Lakey concludes, “For decades now PBI and other unarmed civilian peacekeepers have been operating in violent situations, keeping people alive.”

Just some of the other Quakers from Toronto who have been involved with PBI over the years include: JoLeigh Commandant who became the first staff person for PBI’s Central American program; Alaine Hawkins who was the coordinator of the PBI Central America Project from 1986 to 1991; and Lyn Adamson who was involved in PBI’s work in both Canada and Indonesia.

Additionally, Karen Ridd, a member of the Quaker community in Winnipeg, was a PBI volunteer in Guatemala in 1988 and in El Salvador in 1989. Maclean’s reported that when she was abducted by the National Guard in El Salvador, “Ridd showed remarkable courage throughout the ordeal: at one point, she even refused to leave jail unless a female colleague from Colombia was also freed.”

It should also be mentioned that the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC), as a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, can nominate individuals and groups to receive the prize.

In 2001, the AFSC nominated Peace Brigades International.

Their statement highlighted, “PBI has a sustained, deep commitment to non-violence in working for peace and human rights and provides a successful model for how ordinary people with extraordinary courage can support local workers for peace in some of the most dangerous of the world’s conflicts.”

Peace Brigades International-Canada is now working to find some “ordinary people with extraordinary courage” to volunteer with its field project in Guatemala. Applications are due by July 22.

That work involves providing protective accompaniment and support to human rights defenders in a country where 26 human rights defenders were killed in 2018.

The PBI webpage on volunteering with PBI notes that if you are a Quaker or attend Friends Meetings, “The Friends Peace Teams Project can provide you with support (logistical, training, and financial) for your service with Peace Brigades International.”

To learn more about the work of Peace Brigades International-Canada, please visit our website, friend us on Facebook, and follow us on Twitter.

To support our work, a donation can be made here.

A massive march of more than 100,000 people took place in the city of Bucaramanga, Colombia on Friday May 10. All of the media coverage of that protest is in Spanish. What happened that day and why?

A mobilization to protect drinking water

El Espectador reports that the protest march was in opposition to “extractive projects in the ecosystem that supplies water to more than two million people in eastern Colombia.”

The name of that ecosystem is the Páramo de Santurbán.

Mayerly López, a member of the Committee for the Defense of Water and the Páramo de Santurbán, is quoted in that news article, explaining that “the water we consume daily is supplied from Santurbán and that is why we invite massively to reject extractive projects in the ecosystem.”

The newspaper Vanguardia also notes, “The Páramo de Santurbán ecosystem has an aquifer richness, so complex, that it has a total of 26 lagoons; In addition to the large amount of liquid that reaches streams and rivers.”

And it highlights, “It’s not just water! The Páramo de Santurbán is also home and refuge of 293 species of fauna and 457 varieties of plants.”

A transnational mining company seeks to mine in a fragile ecosystem

The most imminent threat to the ecosystem comes from a mining company called Minesa.

Their website states that Minesa, is a “Colombian gold mining company focused on the development of the Soto Norte project which is located in the department of Santander in north-central Colombia.”

It adds, “We are supported by our shareholder, Mubadala Development Company, an investment and development company owned by the government of Abu Dhabi.”

As many readers will know, Abu Dhabi is the capital city of the United Arab Emirates.

The government’s licencing and boundary drawing process

According to Vanguardia, in February “Minesa submitted an environmental licence application to start extracting more than 9 million ounces of gold and other minerals in a sector known as Soto Norte, very close to Santurbán.”

Vanguardia also highlights that the Ministry of Environment is “holding meetings with communities about the new delimitation of the páramo.”

That new boundary of the ecosystem will be announced by the government by July 16.

The concern is that the boundaries of the páramo will be redrawn in a way that allows the mining company to mine within the ecosystem, but on paper still be outside of it.

The concern is also that the mining will be so close to the boundary of the páramo that it will still impact the water within the ecosystem.

Municipal and state opposition to the mining project

The march against mining in or near the Páramo de Santurbán had the support of the municipality and the state.

El Tiempo reports, “The Government of Santander and the Mayor of Bucaramanga decreed a civic afternoon on Friday so that citizens could go out freely to defend the Santurbán páramo.”

Protests in other cities

Protests also took place in Cúcuta and Bogota.

In advance of the march, Blu Radio reported, “In Bogota, in front of the headquarters of the offices of the National Agency of Environmental Licenses, citizens will develop a sit-in so that this entity does not give license for the exploitation of the gold mines located in that area of Santander.”

CCALCP and Peace Brigades International

From the march, the Luis Carlos Perez Lawyers’ Collective (CCALCP) tweeted, “We demand respect for our rights to water; to life in dignified conditions for communities and end consumers; and that environmental authorities take real, effective measures for the protection and conservation of the moors.”

The Peace Brigades International-Colombia Project, which provides protective accompaniment to human rights defenders who are at risk of violence, has stated, “Since 2010, CCALCP has supported causes that defend natural resources, especially water, in Santander department.”

Their post highlights, “The case of Santurban moor is very relevant. The moor is an important natural resource for Colombia and the source of drinking water for many municipalities in the department of Santander and North Santander.”

It also adds, “Nevertheless, as in other cases in Colombia, concessions have been granted to multinational companies for exploiting mineral resources, which are causing serious environmental impacts.”

Peace Brigades International-Canada is organizing a speaking tour with CCALCP and CREDHOS (the Colombia-based group Regional Corporation for the Defence of Human Rights) this coming November that will visit Ottawa, Toronto and Vancouver. More on that soon!

Brent Patterson is Executive Director of Peace Brigades International-Canada, a political activist, and a writer.

To read more about grassroots efforts in Colombia to protect the ecosystem and drinking water, please see the rabble blogs Vancouver mining company Eco Oro sues Colombia over protection of Santurbán wetland and Colombian human-rights group CREDHOS opposes fracking, seeks to protect freshwater. You can also watch the MiningWatch Canada video (starting at the 1 hour 27 minute mark) of a recent Skype presentation by the Comité Santurbán to their annual general meeting.

Image: Comité Santurbán/Twitter

Activists and trade unionists who advocate for workers’ rights are by definition human rights defenders, and in many countries around the world that means they face immense risks.

The United Nations Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Assembly and Association Maina Kiai has defined any person or organization defending labour rights as a human rights defender, as articulated in the UN Declaration on Human Rights Defenders.

That Declaration defines a human rights defender as “individuals, groups and associations contributing to the effective elimination of all violations of human rights and fundamental freedoms of peoples and individuals.”

Peace Brigades International (PBI), a global organization that works to protect human rights defenders at risk of harm and death, recognizes and affirms the critical role played by the labour movement in the advancement of human rights. 

Trade unionists killed and at-risk

PBI mourns the fact that 2,863 trade unionists and union members were killed in numerous countries around the world between 1986 and 2011.

The numbers are particularly grim in the countries where PBI has staff and volunteers accompany human rights defenders who advocate for fundamental rights.

In Colombia, 19 trade unionists were killed in 2017. In Honduras, 31 trade unionists were killed between 2009 and 2015. In 2016 alone, 20 trade union activists were killed or threatened for working to improve the lives of Honduran workers.

In 2013, the International Trade Union Confederation named Guatemala as the “most dangerous country in the world to be a trade unionist.” Between 2004 and 2017, 87 labour leaders were murdered in that country.

In Mexico, union activists work in a context of where their country is the second most dangerous place in the world to be a human rights defender. Of the 321 human rights defenders killed around the world in 2018, 48 of them lived in Mexico.

Colombia

The Peace Brigades International-Colombia Project accompanies Asociación Nomadesc and its leader Berenice Celeita. She and members of the SintraEmcali union were targeted in 2004 in an assassination plot for their opposition to the privatization of Emcali, a state-owned company providing water, telecommunications, and electricity services in the city of Cali.

In an interview Celeita did with the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) last year, she said, “It’s very important to keep sending labour delegations to Colombia to visit us and see with your own eyes what is happening. I am convinced that I am alive today because of the actions of solidarity.”

PBI-Colombia has also accompanied the Foundation Committee in Solidarity with Political Prisoners (FCSPP) since 1998. The FCSPP was formed by several trade unions, social movement groups, and well-known Colombians in the context of the widespread persecution of political opposition, including union, social movement, and student leaders.

Mexico

The Peace Brigades International-Mexico Project accompanies the Pasta de Conchos Family Organization. That group advocates for improved working conditions for miners and the recovery of the bodies of 63 miners still buried at inside a coal mine years after the preventable disaster that claimed their lives. The Mexican government has now promised to repatriate those bodies, but the timeline for that is unclear.

PBI-Mexico also works closely with the Economic, Social and Cultural Rights Project (ProDESC) and the Business and Human Rights Resource Centre (BHRRC), two groups that are part of the Focal Group on Business and Human Rights.

The Focal Group works to ensure that the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights are respected.

Those Guiding Principles state, “The responsibility of business enterprises to respect human rights refers to internationally recognized human rights [including the] fundamental rights set out in the International Labour Organization’s Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work.”

Guatemala

The Peace Brigades International-Guatemala Project accompanied workers with the SITRALU (the Lunafil Thread Factory Workers Union) in the late 1980s. The workers at that factory located just outside of Guatemala City were told that they would have to work additional twelve-hour weekend shifts without overtime pay. During the strike that ensued, PBI-Guatemala provided protective accompaniment to the workers 24 hours a day from June 1987 until July 1988 when the strike was settled in favour of the union.

PBI-Guatemala has also previously accompanied an agriculture workers union (Movimiento de Trabajadores Campesinos). This past May Day, PBI-Guatemala highlighted a report by Codeca (the Campesino Development Committee) that found that 90 per cent of agricultural workers in Guatemala earn a monthly salary below what the minimum wage should provide.

Indonesia

After the end of the Suharto dictatorship in 1998, a wave of strikes took place in Indonesia, intensifying between 2011 and 2013, that pushed the government to implement a series of increases in the minimum wage as well as to improve health care provisions for workers.

But that success has led to a backlash from the state and capital including a certification scheme that declares certain economic units “national vital objects”, thus prohibiting industrial actions, and new regulations that push back on minimum wage increases.

The Peace Brigades International-Indonesia Project has collaborated with labour in the Jakarta area through a program in which human rights defenders participate in internships with local organizations, including unions.

One intern researched the situation of dock workers in Jayapura, while another did a research project on the right to organize for factory workers in Manokwari.

Peace Brigades International stands with the labour movement in the collective international human rights struggle for decent work, dignity, and respect for all workers.

Brent Patterson is Executive Director of Peace Brigades International-Canada, a political activist, and a writer.

Eighty-four Peace Brigades International volunteers provided protection to human rights defenders in the field in 2018. To read more https://www.peacebrigades.org/en/publications/annual-reviews To donate to PBI-Canada to help us find volunteers for our field projects https://www.canadahelps.org/en/charities/id/45114/

Source: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=878081665874599
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Murray Thomson, who passed away on May 2, co-founded a human rights group that has observed violations of Indigenous rights in Canada and protects human rights defenders around the world. Read more here.