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Tiny House for Gitxsan land defenders opposing the PRGT pipeline to be built in Victoria, May 16 to 30

By
Brent Patterson
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Photo: “Maas Gwitkunuxws Teresa Brown at her camp and dog sanctuary, situated a few dozen metres from the projected right-of-way of the Prince Rupert Gas Transmission (PRGT) pipeline.” Photo by Mike Graeme, November 27, 2024.

Friends of Gitxsan Gitanyow have posted on Instagram: “Want to come help build a tiny house for Gitxsan land defenders?”

They explain: “This tiny house is being constructed for Maas Gwitkunuxws (Teresa Brown), of Wilp Gitludahl, who has been running a dog rescue sanctuary and resistance camp in the supposed path of the PRGT pipeline.”

Friends of Gitxsan Gitanyow have also noted: “The Prince Rupert Gas Transmission Line is back, but the Gitxsan never went anywhere.”

They add: “As they prepare to once again mount blockades in resistance to unwanted colonial megaprojects, people here on Lkwungen and W̱SÁNEĆ territories [where the city of Victoria is located] are organizing the construction of a tiny house on a trailer to provide material support towards the blockades, and also to build community around the values and practices of decolonially-aspiring solidarity.”

Map situating Gitxsan territory.

The build will take place from May 16th to 30th at the Campus Community Garden at the University of Victoria.

Photo: UVic campus community garden.

To donate to the building of the Tiny House, click here. To sign-up to volunteer for the building of the house, click here.

Concerns about RCMP violence against land defenders

Wilps Gwininitxw, a Gitxsan Nation house group, is just upstream from the proposed route of the Prince Rupert Gas Transmission pipeline. Wilps Gwininitxw member Ankhla Jennifer Zyp says: “We’re worried, for sure, that we’re going to be met with the same violence [as seen against the Wet’suwet’en], with the same push from the government.”

On a Peace Brigades International-Canada organized webinar, Tara Marsden, Wilp sustainability director for Gitanyow Hereditary Chiefs, commented: “Our learning is that consent only works when we say yes, if we say no, even if we say no with science behind us, and our knowledge and our laws behind us, then we will be met with force from the C-IRG, from militarized invasion and occupation and intimidation and harassment.”

Photo: Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) Community-Industry Response Group (C-IRG) officers (now rebranded as CRU-BC) during the November 2021 raid on Wet’suwet’en territory in which Indigenous land defenders opposed to the Coastal GasLink fracked gas pipeline were arrested and removed from the territory. Photo by Michael Toledano.

The call to abolish the C-IRG/CRU-BC

Peace Brigades International-Canada continues to call for the abolition of the RCMP Community-Industry Response Group (C-IRG) that is currently under “systemic investigation” by the Civilian Review and Complaints Commission for the RCMP (CRCC).

Photo: On March 22, 2023, PBI-Canada hand-delivered to the CRCC office in Ottawa this Abolish C-IRG coalition letter calling for the suspension of the C-IRG during the CRCC systemic investigation (that continues more than two years after it was launched).

Violence against Indigenous land defenders worldwide

Peace Brigades International upholds Indigenous rights and sovereignty and accompanies Indigenous land defenders facing violence and threats.

This week, the Front Line Defenders Global Analysis 2024/25 report documented that of the 324 human rights defenders killed in 32 countries in 2024, 20.4 percent were land rights defenders and 17.9 percent were Indigenous rights defenders.

They further document that at least 15.1 percent of the perpetrators of this violence were “alleged state actors”.

We continue to follow this.

Further reading: PBI-Canada hosts webinar on Gitxsan and Gitanyow resistance to colonial mega-projects (March 7, 2024)

Ottawa mounted police unit completes training in Toronto in advance of CANSEC arms show, May 28-29

By
Brent Patterson
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Photo by Toronto Police posted on X, April 30, 2025.

On April 29, 2025, the Toronto Police Service posted: “Toronto’s Mounted Unit helped get Ottawa’s officers back in the saddle again. On April 11, five Ottawa Police Service officers who graduated from Toronto’s 15-week Basic Equitation Course will be among the first officers in their new Mounted Patrol Unit this year.”

Their article adds: “The new unit will have similar responsibilities to Toronto, including specialized operations, crowd control and community engagement.”

Ottawa Police Service Chief Eric Stubbs has previously confirmed that this new mounted unit would be used at protests.

On September 23, 2024, the Ottawa Citizen quoted Chief Stubbs commenting: “Obviously a mounted unit is very useful when it comes to major events, when it comes to protests. There are a number of police agencies in Canada that have them and they’re very beneficial in managing a lot of protests. They are definitely going to be deployed when needed. Not for every protest, but when needed.”

It has not been made public if this new Ottawa Police Service mounted unit will be deployed against the protests now being planned to shut down the CANSEC arms show at the EY Centre this coming Wednesday May 28.

Stubbs: “We had a significant day at the CANSEC conference”

In a year-end interview with the Ottawa Citizen published on December 31, 2024, Stubbs spoke about “the Middle East crisis and the marches that have occurred.”

In response to a question about “more than a year of pro-Palestinian protests”, Stubbs said: “This has been a 14-month conflict that has affected people overseas greatly, but also in the City of Ottawa. Whenever you have this protracted conflict, and sustained marches and events throughout the 14 months, every week we’ve had events.”

Stubbs then further noted in that Ottawa Citizen interview: “We’ve gone through different stages with all the community members, where people are upset with what’s going on, be it traffic being blocked up because of a protest, or hate crimes, or the approach of bylaw or police with the sound amplification devices. We had a significant day at the CANSEC conference, I think there were eight arrests.”

Stubbs: A “wedge to separate groups”

On November 22, 2024, just days after Ottawa Police Service disrupted a planned Palestinian Youth Movement march on November 18, 2024, to the offices of weapons companies in downtown Ottawa, CTV reported: “Stubbs says there have been recent protests in Ottawa where he thought a Mounted Patrol Unit would help provide a ‘wedge to separate groups’ or assist with the movement of people.”

Instagram post by Ottawa PYM.

Curry: “People could just move out of the way”

At that time, Capital Current also reported: “Stubbs highlighted the benefits of a proposed mounted patrol unit after the force’s planned use of horses to quell unruly protests was slammed by a critic during a city budget meeting.”

Community member Sofia Chaudhry asked the Ottawa Police Service finance and audit committee: “How much more of that physical harm would be caused if that had been a row of mounted police?” Ottawa City Councillor Cathy Curry responded: “I guess I could argue that people could just move out of the way.”

The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) disagrees with Curry. It has stated: “People with limited mobility or slow reaction time, including children, may be particularly vulnerable when horses are used to disperse a crowd.”

Video still from Horizon Ottawa.

UN Special Rapporteur: “Use of force framework” needed

It is not clear if the Ottawa Police Service have a “use of force framework” in place for their new mounted unit or if consideration has been given to “the international human rights standards of proportionality and necessity”.

In his report to the United Nations Human Rights Council last year, Clemet Voule, the UN Special Rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and association, commented: “Law enforcement officials should: (c) Consider that, if mounted or canine units are used, they operate under the use of force framework.”

The Special Rapporteur added: “Although mounted and canine units are often considered to be less-lethal mediums, there is a potential to cause serious bodily injury, harm or even death, if they are not used correctly.”

The Manchester, United Kingdom-based Omega Research Foundation has also commented: “Any decision to deploy mounted police must be in-line with the international human rights standards of proportionality and necessity and it must be remembered that horses can react unpredictably when frightened or over stimulated, which may lead to nearby protesters or bystanders being injured.”

Shut Down CANSEC, May 28

Toronto World Beyond War has posted on Instagram: “Join us in Ottawa to protest CANSEC – Canada’s BIGGEST military and weapons fair! The weapons companies, militaries, and governments that are carrying out a genocide in Palestine and making a fortune from war and bloodshed around the world will be there.”

We continue to follow this.

Further reading: Statements on horse-mounted police units and the human right to freedom of peaceful assembly and association (PBI-Canada, September 23, 2024).

Excerpt: “Inside the Indigenous ‘land back’ movement in Colombia” by Lital Khaikin, Waging Nonviolence

By
Brent Patterson
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Photo: Siona leader Mario Erazo Yaiguaje and Amazon Frontlines lawyer Lina Maria Espinosa during a community assembly. Photo by Amazon Frontlines.

Montreal-based journalist Lital Khaikin writes about the Indigenous ‘land back’ movement in Colombia in Waging Nonviolence.

Khaikin begins her article by setting this crucial context: “Colombia’s 2016 peace agreement with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, promised to usher in peace and restore lands to the people most affected by conflict, including Indigenous communities repeatedly displaced across their homelands. But in Putumayo, dispersed conflict continues and Indigenous communities have been scattered across 86 reservations as their land claims remain in limbo. Financed by coca farms, the rival Comandos de la Frontera, or Border Commandos, and the Carolina Ramirez Front compete over land and drug trafficking corridors. In the south, where remote villages straddle the border across the Putumayo River, armed groups hold nearly absolute control.”

She highlights: “Putumayo has the most applications for land titles, or rights to land ownership, in Colombia. Ancestral territories make up a quarter of all applications in Putumayo to legally recognize the collective ownership and conservation of land that has been under Indigenous stewardship for generations. Over nearly a decade, there has been little progress.”

Indigenous Guards protecting land defenders

Khaikin also notes: “There are 12 recognized Indigenous groups encompassing around 51,700 people across Putumayo, including the larger groups of Awá, Camëntsä, Inga, Kichwa and Siona. Among these communities, there are an estimated 350 Indigenous guards, each unique in their customs and centering mandates on protecting their communities, cultures and the lands under their stewardship.”

“Members of the guard may accompany community leaders and land defenders in public events or on errands to provide a sense of security amid the persistent threats to their lives. According to internal norms, they may act as an alternative to colonial carceral systems like police or private security to enact justice and reintegrate offenders, including former combatants from Indigenous communities.”

Extractivism threatens Indigenous communities

The article quotes María del Rosario Arango Zambrano, Colombian human rights lawyer working with the Forest Peoples Programme, who explains: “Much of Putumayo has already been licensed for exploration or exploitation.”

It also quotes Javier Garate, a policy adviser with Global Witness (and a member of the Peace Brigades International-Canada Board of Directors), who notes about the resistance to corporations in the Putumayo region: “Anyone who speaks out against their presence receives death threats or are attacked. But those threats don’t come directly from oil companies [instead they come from members of armed groups].”

And the article quotes Andrew Miller of Amazon Watch (and a member of the National Coordinating Committee for PBI-USA) who comments on the importance of Indigenous peoples recovering their ancestral lands: “These processes, as we say in North America, Land Back, are playing out around the Amazon. And certainly in Putumayo, where Indigenous peoples are working to get that recognition, that’s fundamental for their wellbeing and the survival of their people — and it’s also fundamental for the survival of the Amazon.”

To read the full article, go to Inside the Indigenous ‘land back’ movement in Colombia: Despite facing existential threats, unarmed Indigenous guards are at the forefront of the struggle to reclaim their ancestral lands and end oil drilling in the Amazon (Lital Khaikin, Waging Nonviolence, April 30, 2025).

PBI-Honduras accompanies ASODEBICOQ opposed to the construction of the El Tablón dam in Quimistán

By
Brent Patterson
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On May 7, PBI-Honduras posted: “This weekend, we accompanied the Association for the Defence of Common Property in Quimistán (ASODEBICOQ) and observed an open town meeting in which the Quimistán communities present asked that the bidding process for the El Tablón dam be suspended. In addition, the population asked to be included in an intersectoral roundtable to discuss the issue. PBI reiterates that it is important to listen to the voice of the communities affected by large infrastructure projects. We also recall that in the past we accompanied ASODEBICOQ in its opposition to the Santa Lucía hydroelectric project of the Cuyagual company, which led to a process of criminalization against several defenders of the affected communities.”

Town hall of 500 people rejects the dam

On May 4, 2025, Proceso Digital reported: “The municipality of Quimistán held an open lobbying on Sunday where its inhabitants rejected the project to build the El Tablón dam. This was announced by the president of the Committee for the Defense of Human Rights in Honduras (Codeh), Hugo Maldonado, who was present at the open town hall.”

Tiempo adds: “Maldonado stressed that the inhabitants of Quimistan expressed their rejection of the project on two occasions, in previous town halls, and reaffirmed their position by pointing out that, since 2018, the municipality has declared itself against both mining and dams.”

Photo of town hall by Proceso Digital.

Chamber of Commerce supports the dam

Another article in Proceso Digital notes: “The president of the Chamber of Commerce and Industries of Cortés (CCIC), Karin Qubain, expressed her concern on Monday about the opposition that arose in a recent town hall against the construction of the El Tablón reservoir, a megaproject aimed at mitigating floods in the Sula Valley.”

Lombardi participates in socialization processes

On May 5, 2025, La Tribuna reported: “The Secretary of Energy, Erick Tejada … indicated that the Lombardy company, winner of the tender to update the feasibility studies of the project, has participated in these socialization processes.”

This most likely refers to the Lombardi Group that is headquartered in Bellinzona-Giubiasco, Switzerland.

In July 2024, Tiempo had also reported: “[Tejada] said that the feasibility studies are still being carried out by the prestigious consulting firm Lombardi, winner of the international public tender held.” The article also notes the “supervision of the contract is carried out by the META-ASP consortium.”

The composition of this consortium is not clear, but it is likely that META-ASP refers at least in part to the Honduran company Aguas de San Pedro (ASP).

Contract to be awarded in September, construction in October

On May 6, 2025, Proceso Digital reported: “The head of the National Electric Power Company (ENEE), Erick Tejada, reaffirmed that in October the construction of the El Tablón dam will begin, a project for which there is a budget of 300 million dollars.”

Tejada says: “We have already launched the bidding process.”

The article further explains: “The interim manager of the National Electric Power Company (ENEE), Erick Tejada, reported on March 28 that the bidding process officially began and will culminate on June 26 with the receipt of bids. Subsequently, the technical and economic evaluation of the proposals will be carried out, with a view to awarding and signing the contract in September.”

The construction period is expected to be 3-5 years.

Photo: A drawing of what the dam could look like.

CABEI approves US$300 million for the dam

In November 2024, CABEI noted: “For the development of this initiative, non-reimbursable resources were provided by CABEI’s Climate Change Project Preparation Fund (FCC), with the support of the European Union and Germany (KfW).”

Proceso Digital also notes: “The president of the Chamber of Commerce and Industries of Cortés (CCIC), Karin Qubain … indicated that [beyond the support of CABEI] the European Union has also shown interest in supporting the payment of the social debt with the owners of the land that will be impacted.”

The Central American Bank for Economic Integration (CABEI) has also explained that, as part of its commitment to “the mitigation and adaptation to climate change” and “alignment with the Paris Agreement [concluded at the UN COP21 climate conference in 2015]”, it “created the Climate Change Investment Project Preparation Fund (FCC).”

CABEI further notes: “This innovative fund finances technical assistance for the preparation of projects that improve mitigation and adaptation to climate change and the management of natural disasters in the region and has contributions from various sources, including CABEI’s own resources and international cooperators such as KFW [the Frankfurt-based Credit Institute for Reconstruction], the European Union, and Spanish Cooperation to support initiatives requested by governments, national authorities and private entities that align with the national priorities of each country.”

Original contract with Canadian company

In June 2022, Canal 8 reported: “The construction of the ‘El Tablón’ hydroelectric plant has been a postponed project since 1974… It was not until 2007 [that] a consulting contract was approved and signed with the Executive Commission for the Integral Development of the Sula Valley (CEVS) and the Canadian consulting firm SNC-Lavalin International Inc., to review and update the feasibility study, detailed design of the tender and tender documents for the construction of the dam. Actions that unfortunately, according to the manager of the state-owned electricity company could not be completed as a result of the coup d’etat that occurred in June 2009 despite the payment of one million dollars made at that time by the central government to the Canadian consulting firm.”

Accompaniment

The Association for the Defence of Common Property in Quimistán (ASODEBICOQ) works to defend the rights to land, territory and the environment in the face of extractive projects in the department of Santa Bárbara.

The organization was founded in 2017, after 27 communities in the municipality of Quimistán mobilized in 2013, to begin fighting for their rights in the face of the construction of a hydroelectric dam in the region.

Peace Brigades International has been accompanying ASODEBICOQ since May 2018.

Environmental Investigation Agency reports on illegally cut timber imported to Canada funding paramilitary violence in Colombia

By
Brent Patterson
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Front cover of DECKING THE FOREST: How Colombia’s unlawful timber exports to the U.S. sustain armed groups and illegal logging

The Guardian reports: “While international funding is funnelled into protecting [the forests of Colombia’s Chocó region], timber is still being illegally cut and exported to the US, Canada and Europe, according to a new report by the [London, UK-based] charity Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA).”

That article highlights: “In the supply chain uncovered by investigators, trees felled in Colombia’s remote jungles end up as garden patios and roofs on homes in North America and Europe, where consumers unknowingly support the decades-long armed conflict, as well as poor working conditions.”

And this news report further explains: “The trade is dominated by armed groups that sprang up in the 1960s to protect landowners from guerrilla insurgencies and are now financed by cocaine trafficking, illegal mining and, as the report details, blood timber. …In undercover interviews with EIA researchers, owners of timber companies confess to regularly paying off groups such as the Urabeños and Águilas Negras, some of Colombia’s most violent paramilitary organisations, for access to the region.

The 42-page report – DECKING THE FOREST: How Colombia’s unlawful timber exports to the U.S. sustain armed groups and illegal logging – makes several references to Canada as well as a Canadian company, including:

-“A new investigation by the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) has uncovered evidence of widespread illegalities in Colombia’s timber sector with links to illegal armed groups (IAGs), affecting the country’s forests and connected to American, European and Canadian wood importers.” (page 3)

-“Around twenty percent of these uncertified decking and flooring exports went to the United States (U.S.) – to 16 American firms – the European Union (EU) and Canada, each with laws obliging importers to ensure the legal origin of their products.” (page 3)

-“Case 1: Los Cedros Hardwood Flooring and its unauthorized and conflict-linked timber exports. EIA investigations and analysis of official information reveals that almost 93% of a prominent family-owned Colombian timber company’s exports to the U.S., Canada and the EU between 2020 and 2023 lacked the required official certificate validating their legal origin in Colombia and thus breached U.S., Canadian and EU laws that prohibit those markets from importing illegal timber.” (page 18)

Image from report (page 22)

-“One timber exporter, Los Cedros Hardwood Flooring, openly admitted to financing armed groups, perpetuating violence and exploitation in the Pacific region, while Maderas Santa Rita and C.I. Casa en Madera have suspected supply chains variously linked to official investigations, deforestation, community conflict and possible timber laundering in Colombia’s Pacific and Amazon forests.” (page 33)

We continue to follow this.

Further reading: Justice for Jani Silva: Colombian campesina activist Jani Silva threatened in Putumayo (by Lital Khaikin, Rabble.ca, February 7, 2025); On sidelines of UN nature summit in Colombia, Canadian mining companies pillage (by Lital Khaikin, The Breach, December 6, 2024) and Toronto gold miners unfazed by paramilitaries’ brutal reign (by Joshua Collins, The Breach, October 6, 2022)

PBI-Honduras accompanies ARCAH in Loarque as struggle against the pollution of the Choluteca River by El Cortijo company continues

By
Brent Patterson
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PBI-Honduras has posted:

“We accompany ARCAH in the presentation of the documentary about the village Loarque, a community that has mentioned that it has been affected by the rubbish of the poultry company El Cortijo.

From PBI we show concern for the recent statement of Christopher Castillo, general coordinator of ARCAH, who has manifested to be criminalized, again, for his work as a human rights defender.”

El Cortijo

In January 2023, PBI-Honduras posted on social media: “Last week we visited again with ARCAH the community of Loarque. The Choluteca River and the people living around it in Tegucigalpa are heavily affected by the pollution, including the children who study in a school located nearby, as well as livestock. Since 2017, the year in which the poultry company ‘El Cortijo’ installed a chicken processor, people residing in the area are struggling to safeguard their health due to toxic waste and bad smells.”

In April 2024, the HCH TV channel reported: “Residents of the Loarque sector came out to defend the Choluteca River because they claim that a company in the sector is destroying it. …The residents denounce that this company is causing them discomfort in their nose and skin as a result of the contamination. They hope that authorities will regulate this company that operates in this sector.”

At that time El Heraldo also noted: “The demonstrators claim that the Choluteca River, which passes through the sector, is being affected by waste, so they demand the intervention of environmental authorities.”

Criminalization

Protect Defenders.eu has posted: “On March 29, 2021, environmental rights defenders and other members of ARCAH held a peaceful demonstration in front of the offices of the poultry company ‘El Cortijo’ to protest the activities of the company that have polluted a local river, when they were violently detained and threatened by some 90 agents of the State security forces, elements of the Honduran National Police, the ‘Tigres’ Command and the Police Investigation Directorate (DPI).”

That article adds: “The agents arrived at the scene in two military tanks and five patrols, and did not present any orders for dispersal or arrest. The agents confiscated and searched the defenders’ mobile phones, before taking them to the Police Directorate of Investigation (DPI) in Kennedy, Tegucigalpa.”

Christopher Castillo

On May 5, Castillo posted on social media:

“I have been summoned to court, under complaint of Mr. Joseph Walter Brenes, owner of the Poultry Company El Cortijo, accusing me of threats, aggressions, defamation and conspiracy against him.

This is how fast the judicial system works when it comes to persecute defenders, on the other hand, we have denounced for more than 5 years against this company for contamination of the Choluteca River, and we have never been given a resolution. This is the third trial against me. How long will this continue to happen in Honduras?

The clear objective is to stop the struggle, it is not with false accusations that they are going to achieve it, I will not be silent, the company is a murderous entity and the State of Honduras and its government endorse it.”

Accompaniment

Peace Brigades International has accompanied Castillo and the  Honduran Alternative for Community and Environmental Vindication (ARCAH) since September 2022.

PBI-Canada coordinator Brent Patterson met with Castillo in October 2024 in Tegucigalpa.

Photo by Reportar Sin Miedo.

We continue to follow this situation.

PBI-Canada mourns the passing of Guatemalan water defender Abelino Salvador Mejía Cancino

By
Brent Patterson
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The Peace Brigades International-Guatemala Project has posted: “From PBI Guatemala we want to send our deepest condolences to the family and friends of Avelino Salvador Mejía Cancinos, tireless Defender of Human Rights, of the Land and Territory, of Water and Mother Nature. His demise is a great loss to all. Rest in peace.”

We join our colleagues at PBI-Guatemala in expressing our sorrow at the loss of Abelino Salvador Mejía Cancinos.

On March 13, 2022, Abelino Salvador Mejía Cancino from the Council of Communities of Retalhuleu (CCR) joined a Peace Brigades International-Canada organized webinar on Defending the right to water from harm by the sugar industry in Guatemala. The webinar was hosted by PBI-Canada Board member Marianna Tzabiras and also featured Kerstin Reemtsma from PBI-Guatemala.

We also met Abelino in person on May 3, 2023,  when a PBI-Canada delegation visited Guatemala. He introduced us to communities experiencing water shortages related to the water-intensive sugar industry and showed us drained and polluted rivers, as well as water being taken from this river.

Photo: With Abelino in Guatemala, May 2023.

PBI-Guatemala has previously explained: “The Retalhuleu Council of Communities (CCR) began to organize in 2015 as a result of adverse effects caused by the expansion of the monoculture of sugar and the use of large-scale agrochemicals and pesticides used by the mills in the region.” This situation caught our attention because Canada is a major importer of sugar grown in Guatemala that is then exported from Puerto Quetzal, 175 kilometres south-east of Retalhuleu.

We were inspired when Abelino stated: “We need people to realize that when they consume sugar, it has an impact on the life of the communities and on the right to water for all. We call for the consumption of what is healthy and good produced by the campesinos and not products made by the big companies.”

Four members of the CCR, including Abelino, had been criminalized since November 2019 due to their advocacy. Peace Brigades International began accompanying the four defenders in April 2020. It was not until May 30, 2023, that they were fully acquitted.

Video still from a short video explaining the struggle.

We extend our condolences to the family, friends and colleagues of Abelino.

PBI-Colombia accompanies ACVC on field trip with University of Antioquia students and professors in Puerto Matilde

By
Brent Patterson
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PBI-Colombia has posted on Instagram:

“We accompanied ACVC-RAN in Puerto Matilde, as part of the field trip carried out by students and professors of the Pedagogy and Peace undergraduate program of the University of Antioquia.

Meetings were held with the community to learn about their history of struggle to remain in the territory and the Bufalera project carried out by the Peasant Association of the Cimitarra River Valley. There was also a tribute to the victims of the conflict, different struggles for the territory were verbalized and several trees were planted as a sign of the right to life.”

Photo: Los búfalos.

The Small-Scale Farmer Association of the Cimitarra River Valley’s (ACVC) is a social organization operating in 120 villages in the Magdalena Medio region.

For more than twenty years the ACVC has been striving for a dignified life for peasant families affected by Colombia’s internal conflict. It promotes the implementation of the Peace Agreement as a strategy to achieve structural changes in the Colombian countryside. One of its prime initiatives is helping small farmers substitute coca leaf plantations with environmentally sustainable agricultural projects.

Since the creation of the ACVC in 1996 its members have been victims of assassinations, threats, arbitrary arrests, displacements, disappearances, torture, burning of houses, and food and sanitary blocks. Despite the signing of the peace agreement between the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) guerrillas and the Colombian government in November 2016, the threats and attacks have not stopped.

Peace Brigades International has accompanied the Peasant Association of the Cimitarra River Valley (ACVC) since 2007.

Peace Brigades International joins in civil society call for Brazil to respect the right to protest at COP30 in November

By
Brent Patterson
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Video still: A protest at COP29 in Baku, Azerbaijan, November 2024.

Folha de São Paulo reports: “A coalition of more than a hundred civil society organizations has prepared a letter with recommendations for Brazil to organize the logistics and structure of COP30, the United Nations climate conference that will be held in Belém in November. One of the main requests is that the summit welcome and respect protests, after years of COPs in authoritarian countries.”

The news report continues: “The letter from the NGOs, published on Wednesday (April 30), is intended to influence the formulation of the so-called Host Country Agreement (HCA), in which the organization of each edition registers guidelines on logistics and structure.”

“According to the letter, the HCA for Belém must contain explicit clauses of freedom of expression and non-retaliation against protesters. Thus, they argue, civil society will feel safe to contribute to discussions, lectures and protests that were limited and even prohibited in the three previous COPs.”

The article also highlights: “The recommendations presented by the coalition are, among other points, the protection of human rights and civil liberties; security, accessibility and participation; and immediate transparency and accountability.”

The organizations that signed this letter include Global Witness, Amnesty International, and Peace Brigades International.

PBI-Canada also supports the call that all State Parties at COP30 should “recognize the link between the climate crisis and growing violence and repression against land and environmental defenders and take meaningful steps to protect defenders and civic space (online and in person) to promote ambition and climate action.”

Climate defenders under attack

An estimated 2,106 land and environmental defenders have been killed around the world between 2012 and 2023. The Front Line Defenders Global Analysis report released today (May 6, 2025) notes that 324 human rights defenders were killed in 2024 and that 20.4 percent of those were land rights defenders and an additional 17.9 percent were Indigenous rights defenders.

Global Witness has documented that 401 land and environmental defenders have been killed in Brazil between 2012 and 2023. Front Line Defenders specifies that 15 human rights defenders were killed in Brazil in 2024.

PBI and COP30

PBI is collaborating with the “Mesoamerican Caravan for Climate and Life” that is scheduled to begin on Sunday October 12.

PBI has also made a submission to UN Special Rapporteur Mary Lawlor who will be presenting a thematic report about human rights defenders working on climate change and a just transition at the 80th session of the UN General Assembly in October.

Then on Tuesday November 18, during COP30, PBI is planning to bring together a United Nations Special Rapporteur and PBI accompanied defenders to talk about the risks and protection needs of those on the frontlines challenging the extractive industries that are accelerating the climate crisis.

You can pre-register for this webinar by clicking here.

COP30 takes place from November 10 to 21 in Brazil.

Additional reading: PBI notes COP30 caravans, assemblies and calls for the protection of environmental defenders (PBI-Canada, March 25, 2025).

PBI-UK and PBI-Canada collaborate on “Volunteering for protection: Indigenous rights and the impacts of megaprojects” webinar, June 10

By
Brent Patterson
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This webinar on June 10 will encourage applications from individuals interested in volunteering on a Peace Brigades International (PBI) protection team and raise awareness about the human rights and environmental violations resulting from megaprojects, particularly their impact on Indigenous communities.

To register, click here.

The speakers will include Indigenous land defenders in Mexico and Honduras who are accompanied by PBI, as well as a PBI field volunteer.

The webinar will be moderated by Rachel Cox, Campaign Leader on the Land and Environmental Defenders at Global Witness. Since July 2023, she has served as a member of the Board of Trustees for PBI-UK.

To register for this webinar, click here.

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