Year-end donations are a crucial for us to sustain our work in the coming year. We will be sharing more about what we did in 2024 and our plans for 2025, but for now we wanted to highlight the following ways to support us:

Donations by Interac e-Transfer: Email your donation to direction@pbicanada.org. In the “Message” field, please note if you would like a charitable tax receipt and include your mailing address.

Donations via CanadaHelps.org: https://www.canadahelps.org/en/charities/peace-brigades-international-canada/. CanadaHelps.org automatically generates a charitable tax receipt that is sent to you by email.

Donations via Stripe on our website: https://pbicanada.org/donations/donate-to-pbi-canada/. This has a “Leave a comment” box, if you would like a charitable tax receipt for your donation please include your mailing address in this field.

Donations by mail: We do accept donations by cheque sent to our postal box at: PBI-Canada, 211 Bronson Avenue, #220, Ottawa, Ontario, K1R 6H5. If you choose this method, the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) considers the date of the donation to be the date of the postmark on the envelope. If the postal strike is not over until the new year and the postmark reads 2025, the CRA says the official donation receipt must be noted as a donation made in 2025.

Donations via Car Heaven: We would also like to let you know that Car Heaven enables people to get rid of their older or scrap vehicle and donate the proceeds to PBI-Canada. There are no fees to you and your vehicle is towed away for free. More at https://carheaven.ca/registration/.

For assistance with any of these forms of making a donation, email brent@pbicanada.org or call us at 613-237-6968.

Thank you for your support.

Brent Patterson, Coordinator, PBI-Canada

First posted on November 1, 2024.

Photo: PBI-Honduras and PBI-Canada stand beside the Guapinol River threatened by the Los Pinares megaproject, October 30.

SUNDAY OCTOBER 27

PBI-Canada coordinator Brent Patterson arrives at Palmerola International Airport in Comayagua, a city located approximately 86 kilometres from Tegucigalpa.

Photo: Palmerola airport.

Contra Corriente has reported: “This concession was awarded in December 2015 to the company Inversiones EMCO S.A. de C.V., that constituted the Special Purpose Mercantile Company called Palmerola International Airport for the execution of the concession contract. Both companies are related to Lenir Pérez, a Honduran businessman and son-in-law of the late Miguel Facussé, a very influential businessman in Honduras.”

The airport was built at the facilities of the Soto Cano Air Base, the largest military base in Central America. The airbase was built by the United States between 1984 and 1985 and permanently houses some 1,800 US military personnel.

MONDAY OCTOBER 28

Honduran Centre for the Promotion of Community Development (CEHPRODEC)

The Tegucigalpa-based CEHPRODEC says its mission is: “To direct all resources to carry out actions that promote the respect for human rights, guaranteeing the food sovereignty of the populations, within the framework of the defense of common goods and territory through democratic processes.”

Among its partners is the Montreal, Quebec-based Development and Peace – Caritas Canada, an organization that says: “We believe those who have been impoverished by unjust systems are powerful actors for social change.”

We met with Donald Hernández.

Photo: PBI meets with Hernández.

The Dublin-based Front Line Defenders has previously noted: “Donald Hernández Palma is a Honduran lawyer and human rights defender. He specialises in criminal and environmental law, with a particular focus on mining in Latin America. He is a member of the Latin American Lawyers’ Network, a network that works against the negative impacts of transnational extractive companies in Latin America.”

Hernández is also the facilitator of the National Coalition of Environmental Organizations and Networks (CONROA), an organization that represents more than 40 environmental organizations in Honduras.

Key points

Among the issues that Hernández shared with us during our meeting:

-The impact of the military coup of June 28, 2009, that ousted President Manuel Zelaya and sent him to exile in Costa Rica. By November 2009, a controversial election brought Porfirio Pepe Lobo, a wealthy conservative landowner, to power.

-The Mining Law that came after the coup. MiningWatch Canada has commented: “This law was developed and passed with strong diplomatic support from the Canadian embassy, and with contributions from the Department of Foreign Affairs and the former Canadian International Development Agency.”

-The concern that “state actors” have developed a narrative that CEHPRODEC are “enemies of development”. Verifico recently highlighted in Colombia that: “Unanimously, environmental defenders respond that the main reason why they are stigmatized is because they are supposed opponents of development.”

PBI-Honduras has been accompanying CEHPRODEC since May 2014.

Contra Corriente

That afternoon, we met with Fernando Silva, an investigative journalist whose work includes “covering issues of corruption, power structures, extractivism, forced displacement and migration.” Notably, Silva is also a graduate of the Investigative Journalism Course at Columbia Journalism School in New York City.

The Contra Corriente website says: “We are a digital media outlet of in-depth journalism that tells the reality of Honduras and the region. It is committed to transmedia communication to come up with new content that helps us change reality by telling it, analyzing it and making those in power uncomfortable.”

Photo: Fernando Silva.

We talked about the recent investigative report by Contra Corriente headlined: The commercial connection between the transnational Nucor and the Los Pinares mine in Honduras was maintained at least until 2023 (by Fernando Silva and Danielle Mackey, with reporting by Jennifer Ávila; Contra Corriente and Drilled, October 8, 2024).

We have previously noted that the US-based Nucor has offices in Canada, that its investors have included the Caisse de depot et placement du Quebec (an institutional investor that manages the Québec Pension Plan), the Royal Bank of Canada, the Bank of Montreal, and the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, and that the Vanguard Group, the largest shareholder in Nucor, has an office in Toronto.

We also talked with Silva about the risks faced by journalists in Honduras for reporting on stories like this one. The Committee to Protect Journalists has noted: “Since 1992, at least eight journalists in Honduras have been murdered in connection with their work.” This includes journalists Francisco Ramírez (December 21, 2023) and Luis Alonso Teruel (January 28, 2024). Many more have been threatened.

Honduran Alternative for Community and Environmental Vindication (ARCAH)

The PBI-Honduras website notes: “ARCAH is a space for community articulation and an anti-capitalist, anti-racist, anti-patriarchal, anti-colonialist and anti-classist social movement that seeks to defend territories and common goods from any project that threatens the peace and cosmovision of communities.”

Photo: Christopher Castillo of ARCAH.

This description adds: “Since its founding in 2017, members of ARCAH have fought against the Jiniguare dam [being built by the transnational Hidalgo & Hidalgo], the El Cortijo poultry company, the Zones for Employment and Economic Development (ZEDEs) and other projects in Francisco Morazán, Comayagua, Cortés and Olancho, always through resistance and permanent communication with planet earth.”

We met with Christopher Castillo, the General Coordinator of ARCAH.

Front Line Defenders has previously noted: “Since January 2020, Christopher Castillo has been a beneficiary of Security Measures from the Protection Mechanism for Human Rights Defenders in Honduras, due to previous attempts on his life and repeated death threats he has received.” Despite this, his security situation remains serious.

Key points

Among the concerns Castillo shared with us:

-The pollution of the air and the Choluteca River from the El Cortijo chicken plant. Criterio.hn has previously reported: “[ARCAH says] this disrespect for nature has caused destruction, death of animals, producing foul odors from the discharges of toxic waste. [The company] continues to destroy the Choluteca River under the cloak of impunity, because so far no one has taken action to stop this damage to the environment and its living beings.”

-81 municipalities in Honduras have had their water privatized, the national water company SANAA has lost 60 per cent of their coverage, and water prices have risen 600 per cent. This is a process supported by the World Bank. The privatization of water services also benefits the Atala family, who as the Latin America Bureau has reported, are: “well known as one of the country’s wealthiest conglomerates. It is a shareholder of financial institutions, football teams, real estate, and other companies.”

PBI-Honduras has been accompanying ARCAH since September 2022.

TUESDAY OCTOBER 29

On this day we drove almost 350 kilometres north-east to the city of Tocoa, which is situated about 9 kilometres from the community of Guapinol.

This visit came in the context of the death of Guapinol River defender Juan López, who was shot to death as he left church on the evening of September 14.

Photo: A poster of Juan López in Tocoa.

Contra Corriente has reported: “Juan Lopez was a community leader, a religious leader of the Catholic Church, and an environmental advocate. [Just prior to his assassination] López requested the resignation of Mayor Adán Fúnez, whom he had been denouncing for his alleged links to organized crime in the area.”

The Cambridge, Massachusetts-based Unitarian Universalist Service Committee (UUSC) has stated: “As a leader with UUSC partner Fundación San Alonso Rodriguez (FSAR), [Juan López] campaigned against corrupt officials and mining interests destroying the resources of his community.”

The San Alonso Rodríguez Foundation (FSAR)

The San Alonso Rodriguez Foundation website notes: “FSAR is a non-profit non-governmental organization, which was born in 1999, our main actions were post-Mitch reconstruction. …We also accompany the communities in defense of natural resources related to territories, water, forest, coastal areas of communities threatened by extractive industry, agribusiness, monocultures and tourism projects.”

Photo: Limbor Velásquez.

We met with Limbor Velásquez, a forestry engineer and member of the San Alonso Rodríguez Foundation.

Key points

Velásquez shared with us a presentation of technical maps and an explanation of the environmental impacts of the Los Pinares megaproject, including the destruction of terrain by the mining road, deforestation, a large rock pile from the initial exaction of the ASP mining concession, and the pollution of the surrounding rivers, including the San Pedro and Guapinol rivers. He also highlighted that beyond the arrests so far of the alleged material perpetrators of the killing of Juan Lopez, it is vital to arrest the intellectual authors.

The Los Pinares megaproject has seven components including: the ASP and ASP2 concessions to dig for iron oxide, a thermoelectric plant that would burn petroleum coke (pet coke) to power the operations, an iron oxide pelletizing plant that could produce 800,000 tons of iron oxide pellets in its first year of operation, generating US$190 million in foreign exchange, and the Guapinol River and Ceibita stream concessions that would extract one hundred gallons of water per minute for the pelletizing plant.

WEDNESDAY OCTOBER 30

Agrarian Platform

Avispa Midia has explained: “The Agrarian Platform of Aguán is made up of 25 cooperatives seeking to recuperate their lands in the valley. In addition, there are associate campesino companies, which total 43 organizations, that seek through different forms of struggle to recuperate the lands that were taken from them.”

We met with several representatives of the Agrarian Platform including Yoni Rivas, Raul Ramirez and Wendy Castro.

Photo: Meeting with Rivas (left) and Ramirez (right) of the Agrarian Platform in front of a poster of Carlos Escaleras Mejía, an environmental defender who was killed on October 18, 1997.

Key points

The Agrarian Platform shared with us the context of the campesino struggle for land, the impact of the massive palm oil plantations in the area, the impacts of the Los Pinares megaproject on water (both in terms of pollution and water takings), and numerous serious security incidents. Significantly, the Honduras National Protection Mechanism has assessed their risk level as high (84 per cent).

Dialogue Earth has explained: “The Honduran government started promoting oil palm cultivation during the 1960s [but] it was really in the late 1990s that production skyrocketed [and by July 2023, when the article was published] the country has roughly 200,000 hectares of oil palm yielding close to 600,000 metric tonnes of oil a year.”

That article adds: “Of the total national production, 61% comes from just three companies – Corporación Dinant, Grupo Jaremar and Aceydesa – and their plantations are located where the highest levels of violence have been recorded.”

The Guardian further notes: “In Honduras, [palm oil exports are] mostly going to the Netherlands, the US, Italy and Switzerland, with a value of $334m in 2021. Six large companies control the production, and two claim more than half of all exports.”

That afternoon, we spent visiting the Guapinol River, seeing the pelletizing plant associated with the Los Pinares megaproject, walking in the community, and meeting with community members to hear about the current situation.

THURSDAY OCTOBER 31

The Black Fraternal Organization of Honduras (OFRANEH)

The OFRANEH website explains: “The Garifuna people arrived in Honduras 218 years ago after being expelled from the island of St. Vincent 220 years ago, after having fought two consecutive battles against the British Empire. To date we convert the culture of our Arawak, Carib and African ancestors.”

It further notes: “OFRANEH emerged in 1978 as the Federation of the Garifuna people of Honduras, immersing itself in the defense of their cultural and territorial rights, with the purpose of achieving survival as a differentiated culture.”

We visited the community of Nueva Armenia.

Photo: Mabel Robledo.

Photo: PBI with Mabel Robledo.

There we might with Garifuna defender Mabel Robledo, the president of the board of trustees of the community of Nueva Armenia and a member of OFRANEH.

Avispa Midia has reported: “At the stroke of midnight on Sunday (October 6), elements of the Honduran National Police (HNP), Intelligence Troop and Special Security Response Groups (Tigres), as well as armed civilians, entered a recovery of Garifuna ancestral territory – carried out on the morning of that same day in the community of Nueva Armenia, Caribbean coast – and shot at those present leaving two recuperators seriously injured.”

That article adds: “OFRANEH – which accompanies the community in the actions that claim the ancestral property of the Garifuna community over these lands, in the municipality of Jutiapa, department of Atlántida – denounces the Palmas de Atlántida company, owned by heirs of the oil palm magnate, Reynaldo Canales, of illegally occupying territories of Nueva Armenia for the planting of this monoculture.”

Photo by Avispa Midia.

Criterio.hn further notes: “Rony Castillo, a member of OFRANEH, denounced that two more people from the community are being persecuted and threatened, including the president of the board of trustees of Nueva Armenia, Mabel Robledo.”

Castillo told Criterio.hn: “There are eight hooded men there in Nueva Armenia, it seems that they are looking for Mabel, [but] we have not had any answer [from Honduran authorities about this]. Rather, the authorities are asking us for a report instead of them giving us the report.”

We continue to follow this situation.

Among the other issues we learned about was the archipelago that is a marine protected area. Robledo says while the Cayos Cochinos Foundation supposedly preserves it, in reality “it exploits and militarizes it”. More can be read about this at Garifuna fishermen denounce threats from Telecinco’s reality show Supervivientes (El Salto, September 1, 2024).

We also take note that César Joani Fernández from the Santa Fe community says land has been recovered from a Canadian company “that has monopolized 90% of the land” of his community.  

El Salto reports: “Near Sante Fe stands a hotel building known as the model city of the Canadians. They explain that it was raised by Randy Jorgensen, who in Canada is called the king of porn. In the Bay of Trujillo, he bought Garifuna communal lands during the narco-dictatorship of former President Juan Orlando Hernández.”

FRIDAY NOVEMBER 1

Arcoíris LGTB Association of Honduras

In the afternoon we met with Arcoíris and the Trans Women’s collective Rainbow Dolls. It was an accompaniment of their 16th anniversary gathering.

Criterio.hn has noted: “The Trans Women’s collective Rainbow Dolls [Mujeres Trans Muñecas de Arcoíris] was founded in 2008, with the aim of claiming and strengthening the human rights of the trans woman population in Honduras.”

Photo: Mujeres Trans Muñecas de Arcoíris.

In January 2020, PBI-Honduras noted that they are “extremely concerned over the high number of attacks against trans women and individuals who defend trans rights, as well as the impunity that has continued in these cases.”

They added: “We are particularly concerned by the security situation of the members of the Muñecas Trans Women’s Collective of Arcoiris LGBT Association, which has experienced an increase in attacks and assaults over the last six months.”

Human Rights Watch has previously documented: “LGBT people in Honduras continue to suffer high levels of violence and discrimination in all areas of life, pushing some to flee the country. In May 2022, President Castro committed to implement a 2021 Inter-American Court of Human Rights ruling finding Honduras responsible for the killing of Vicky Hernández, a transgender woman, during the 2009 military coup. Among other measures, the ruling ordered the creation of a simple and accessible procedure through which trans people can change their name and gender on official documents to reflect their gender identity. As of October 2022, it had not been established.”

Photo: We appreciate the time given to us by Jlo Córdoba and Donny Reyes for a conversation, and the hospitality of the Arcoiris community. Afterwards, it was nice to watch together a couple episodes of The Secret of the River (a TV series now on Netflix).

PBI-Honduras began accompanying Arcoíris in July 2015.

Thank you PBI-Honduras

PBI-Canada thanks PBI-Honduras for welcoming us, arranging meetings with defenders, taking us to communities, and providing crucial context to these accompaniments.

To follow PBI-Honduras on social media, go to Instagram, Facebook, X/Twitter.

Future research interests

Given the visibility of Dole transport trucks during our travels in Atlántida, this is also an emerging area of research interest for us.

Britannica has noted: “Two U.S. corporations—Chiquita (formerly United Fruit Company and United Brands) and Dole (formerly Standard Fruit and Steamship Company and Castle & Cooke)—hold a disproportionate amount of the country’s agricultural land and produce a substantial part of the national income by growing the majority of the country’s banana crop.”

Britannica adds: “Standard Fruit de Honduras, a subsidiary of U.S.-based Dole Food Company, which operates large banana, citrus fruit, and coconut plantations in the hinterland, is centred in the city [of La Ceiba].”

On December 11, 2023, Contra Corriente reported: “Despite promises made by the Castro administration to the campesinos in Bajo Aguán, State security forces continue to violently evict communities and spill blood in order to protect the interests of large agriculture companies, both national and transnational. The most recent developments took place on November 24, when 100 families from EACI were evicted, an action for which a court order was issued. Approximately 900 police officers and members of the Cobra special forces carried out the eviction. Denunciations by campesino organizations of fraud and irregularities in the acquisition of that land by Empresa Agrícola Santa Inés, a subsidiary of Dole Food Company, have not been addressed.”

In 2022, Honduras exported $34.2 million in bananas to Canada, making it the second largest destination for Honduran bananas after the United States. In 2023, Honduras exported $36.9 million in bananas to Canada.

To support our work

The Peace Brigades International-Canada team has one staffperson and eleven volunteer Board members who support the accompaniment of frontline defenders through articles, social media, webinars, advocacy tours, delegations and research. To enable this work to continue, please donate here. You can now also make a donation by Interac e-Transfer by emailing  your donation to direction@pbicanada.org. In the “Message” field, please note if you would like a charitable tax receipt and include your mailing address. 

First posted on October 25, 2024.

On October 24, Peace Brigades International-Canada held a webinar focused on the United Nations COP16 biodiversity conference in Colombia, the upcoming negotiations in Geneva on the UN Binding Treaty on business and human rights, and the crucial protection needs of environmental defenders.

Target 22 of the framework being negotiated at COP16 pledges: “the full protection of environmental human rights defenders.” The draft of the Binding Treaty says: “State Parties shall adopt appropriate legislative, regulatory, and other measures to … protect the safety of human rights defenders, journalists, workers, members of indigenous peoples, among others, as well as those who may be subject to retaliation.”

Can UN processes fulfill these promises? What do the negotiations look like? What are the challenges and obstacles?

Our panel commenting on these questions was Michel Forst, Berenice Celeita, Javier Garate and Yannick Wild. The webinar was moderated by Meera Karunananthan, a member of the PBI-Canada Board of Directors.

Michel Forst

Michel Forst is the UN Special Rapporteur on Environmental Defenders (Aarhus Convention). He joined us from Cali, Colombia.

Forst highlighted that it was important for him to be at COP16 “simply to show solidarity with those who are currently heavily pushing for concrete results.”

He added: “There are people who are willing to push for good results and at the same time we know that we also have people who are not our allies who are pushing also for counter-results and trying to delete paragraphs and good wording that some of us, some of them, would like to introduce.”

Forst also mentioned that he spent time in the Green Zone. This is the area outside the main conference venue for communities and NGOs, distinct from the Blue Zone where member countries and accredited observers hold their official bilateral and multilateral meetings and negotiations.

He commented: “People invited to participate say that they are not in fact feeling they are participating rightly in the discussion, being relegated in the Green Zone. Many shared with me mixed feelings about COP16, they do recognize that Colombia has made concrete efforts to prepare a more inclusive and a more participatory COP process, but at the same time the challenge the way discussions are organized, many of them feel not respected and their voices are not heard when they try to introduce new language in the outcome document, when they are meeting with delegations to try to push for wording, then we have the same usual suspects who block the discussions.”   

Berenice Celeita

Berenice Celeita is the president of the PBI-Colombia accompanied Association for Research and Social Action (Nomadesc) based in Cali.

Celeita noted: “So much has been said by the government in relation to the importance that the agreement of the COP reflects the historic fight to defend life, and understanding that life is not just being alive, for us it is essential that there is respect for culture, and respect for culture is protecting the rivers, biodiversity, the common goods and the natural goods that exist in our large home.”

She added: “For us, the division between the green zone and the blue zone shows what has historically been the massive negative leadership model because they are not thinking about the future of the planet or those people defending the planet.”

Celeita highlighted: “We feel that the 23 goals are just a theory because in practice we’ve seen in the last three decades in our country the murder of at least 30,000 defenders of land, they aren’t always called human rights defenders. This is a first element of debate, who is considered by the decision-makers, who is or is not a defender.”

She then commented: “We are being very sincere when we say that the blue zone is a business negotiation space, they are taking about past business plans and the renewal of agreements, they are still talking about carrying out large-scale mining, hydroelectric dams, and other pilot projects related to fracking which all have negative impacts on nature.”

Celeita also asked: “What is the next step after the COP? What are the true commitments to take care of our Mother Earth and to defend her? To protect and take care of life? And to take care of culture?”

Javier Garate

Javier Garate is the Washington, DC-based US Policy Advisor on Land and Environmental Defenders at Global Witness. He joined us from the Nomadesc office in Cali.

Garate noted: “We are clearly seeing that this COP is important, but that there are multiple COPs and that is something that is very visible here and the other COPs we have participated, this is not the exception. We see that there are thousands of events, but at the same time there is a very select and small group and the majority of them we don’t even really who they are, and we see their areas where the doors are closed and we can’t go in, and those are the spaces where the negotiations are taking place.”

He added: “On one hand there is a beautiful rich conversation with broad participation from civil society organizations and communities who are calling for the inclusion of key points, we ask, how can we address the causes of the environmental crisis, the biodiversity crisis, the human rights crisis, how can we go down to the roots of the cause with the economic and development and the model of democracy and participation that we have, but this is not being addressed in the negotiations.”

Garate also noted: “This is the first space in a COP where there is clear language about defenders and communities. But in this COP what they are really going to talk about is indicators, but there are main and secondary goals, and there are other indicators that include attacks against environmental defenders and this is a secondary indicator, where the countries only have to say yes or no, this is a voluntary report, this means in reality countries don’t have the obligation to report on how defenders are being threatened or attacked in their countries.”

He highlighted: “One of the points that we’ve had during the COP is to ensure that indicators exist on the situation of attacks against defenders, that this becomes a principal indicator, and it becomes an indicator that requires countries to do reporting on the attacks against defenders.”

Garate concluded: “We know that there are some countries in Latin America following the Escazu Agreement who are promoting language that is more favourable for human rights and defenders at this COP, but we know there are other countries that are blocking this language and it’s not included. We also know that oil companies have more access to those closed much more than we do and that they can influence the messaging and language that is used.”

Yannick Wild

Yannick Wild is the Advocacy Coordinator for PBI-Switzerland who regularly intervenes at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva. Wild talked about the Binding Treaty on business and human rights.

He explained: “The idea of the Binding Treaty was launched in 2014 with a Human Rights Council resolution with the idea to establish an Open Ended Intergovernmental Working Group to establish a legally-binding instrument to regulate the activities of transnational corporations.”

Wild also noted: “The idea was really to go beyond the voluntary basis of the Guiding Principles on business and human rights and to create this binding piece of international law because as we know business are guided by profit maximization and it’s asking a lot for them to voluntary do something to reduce those profits and some companies are actively violating human rights so definitely voluntary measures are not enough.”

He commented: “There are actually only two mentions of human rights defenders in the actual draft right now.”

“There is one in the preamble that provides the recognition of human rights defenders in preventing and seeking remedies for human rights violations committed by companies and it also formulates the obligations of states to ensure the safety of human rights defenders. Just a preamble but it establishes already the recognition that States must give to human rights defenders and this obligation to their safety.”

And then the most important article that says: “Measures by States to prevent involvement of business enterprises in human rights abuse shall include legally enforceable requirements for businesses while carrying out human rights due diligence to protect the safety of human rights defenders, journalists, workers, members of Indigenous peoples, among others, as well as those who may be subject to retaliation.”

Wild shared the link to the latest draft here.

Wild added: “There is opposition by some States that are skeptical about the role of human rights defenders. On the other hand, there have been also pushes to include more language about human rights defenders especially by Palestine in the last sessions.”

He further noted: “One of the bigger movements for the Binding Treaty is one that we are also part of as Peace Brigades International. The link to that movement is here. This is a coalition of 250 organizations and social movements that are affected by the activities of transnational corporations, groups that resist land grabs, mining activities, environmental destruction that are caused by transnational corporations globally. They are calling for a stronger Binding Treaty and they have also drafted their own draft treaty, the Peoples’ Treaty, where they are mentioning human rights defenders. One is that human rights lawyers and human rights defenders are allowed to act in litigation processes against transnational corporations. And the second part would be for human rights defenders to be recognized to respond to accusations against them in order to avoid criminalization and persecution.”

Key dates

The COP16 biodiversity conference now underway in Cali concludes on November 1. Shortly afterwards, the COP29 climate conference will take place from November 11 to 22 in Azerbaijan. Following that, the next round of negotiations on the Binding Treaty on business and human rights will take place from December 16 to 20 in Geneva (postponed with little notice, as Wild noted, from October 21 to 25).

Next year, the anticipated COP30 climate conference will take place on November 10 to 21 in Belém, Brazil.

Just prior to COP28, Global Witness highlighted that at least 1,390 land and environmental defenders had been killed since COP21 in December 2015.

The key question remains: What can be done to stop the killings, threats against, and harassment, criminalization and judicialization of environmental defenders and uphold the land, water and territories they protect?

We continue to follow all these processes.

The Peace Brigades International-Canada team has one staffperson and eleven volunteer Board members who support the accompaniment of frontline defenders through articles, social media, webinars, advocacy tours, delegations and research. If you normally mail a year-end donation to support our work, there are ways to continue that support before December 31. You can now make a donation by Interac e-Transfer by emailing  your donation to direction@pbicanada.org. In the “Message” field, please note if you would like a charitable tax receipt and include your mailing address. As before, you can also make a donation via CanadaHelps.org by clicking here, as well as directly on our website by clicking here.

First posted on November 27, 2024.

Photo: Gitanyow Simgiget (Hereditary Chiefs) burn a “benefits agreement” on the PRGT pipeline as they close their territories to all traffic related to the megaproject, August 22, 2024.

The National Observer reports that the fate of the Prince Rupert Gas Transmission (PRGT) pipeline is now in limbo after its decade-old provincial environmental assessment certificate expired on Monday November 25.

Next up, the British Columbia Minister of Environment and Parks Tamara Davidson will either decide to make that certificate permanent and allow the megaproject to proceed, or require a new environmental assessment that would slow down the continuation of the project by two or three years, but not definitively end it.

That decision is expected by March 2025.

Photo: Gitxsan land defenders and supporters disrupt the swearing-in of the new British Columbia provincial government cabinet to say they do not consent to the PRGT pipeline on their lands, November 18, 2024. Photo by Mike Graeme.

Gitanyow and Gitxsan resistance to PRGT

We are following the resistance of Gitanyow land defenders, “Simgiget” (Hereditary Chiefs), and the “Huwilp” (Houses or governing units, the plural of “Wilp”) to defend the Gitanyow “Lax’yip” (territory) from the PRGT megaproject.

A statement from Gitanyow Hereditary Chief Deborah Good/ Simooget Watakhayetswx following the expiry of the certificate says: “We have stood on the territory since August, denying access for PRGT construction vehicles and monitoring to ensure that no construction activity occurs in the Lax’yip. We will continue our on the ground presence with new cabins, a new Indigenous Protected Area, and ongoing monitoring conducted by Wilp members and the Lax’yip Guardians. We thank everyone from around the globe who has offered support in the past 3 months for our effort, it is a true testament to a widespread concern regarding the PRGT and growing opposition to it proceeding.”

Back on August 22, Good said in this video statement: “As of tonight, I am closing the Cranberry Connector from 11 kilometers to 31 kilometres. …I am closing the road and I will keep it closed. There will be no trucks permitted through the territory. No LNG equipment will be permitted through the territory.”

Photo: Gitanyow Hereditary Chiefs: “As we stand our ground and turn back LNG trucks, the love and support you are all showing us at the Genada [Frog Clan] Injunction is overwhelming!” August 30, 2024.

The Gitanyow Hereditary Chiefs have also explained: “The Gitanyow Lax’yip Stewardship Guardians are the ‘eyes and ears’ on the Lax’yip (Territory) and provide a critical role in environmental and cultural monitoring. The Gitanyow Lax’yip Guardians work closely and share an office space with the Gitanyow Fisheries Authority.”

The PRGT pipeline would also impact Gitxsan territory. Mike Graeme has posted (as part of an upcoming IndigiNews article): “Maas Gwitkunuxws Teresa Brown, a Gitxsan woman who’s chosen to make her home for the winter in an uninsulated school bus parked near the pipeline right-of-way, says she will do what it takes to make sure the project is kiboshed.”

Gitxsan land defender Kolin Sutherland-Wilson has also posted this video: “Land Defence + Dog Sanctuary Update with Maasxw Gutgwinuuxw. Home and Dog Sanctuary located on PRGT Pipeline right-of-way on Gitxsan lax’yip.”

And Wet’suwet’en land defender Sleydo’/ Molly Wickham has also posted on Instagram: “Please share widely and support grassroots Indigenous resistance to the PRGT pipeline. We know what’s coming and they need all the support to get ahead of this!”

Calls for the C-IRG to be disbanded

There are continuing concerns about the role the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) Community-Industry Response Group (C-IRG), now named the Critical Response Unit-British Columbia (CRU-BC), could have in the criminalization and repression of Indigenous on-the-ground resistance to the PRGT megaproject.

Photo: RCMP C-IRG officers during the November 2021 raid on Wet’suwet’en territory. Photo by Michael Toledano.

A year ago, in November 2023, the Gitxsan Huwilp Government stated: “Industry-led injunctions ordered by the BC Supreme Court Chief Justice to allow the looting of indigenous lands must stop. Further, the RCMP volunteering to deploy the [C-IRG] – which is under investigation for corruption – as a military solution to perpetrate industry greed must stop. For the RCMP to extinguish indigenous peoples’ fulsome rights on their lands, threaten our lives, terrorize our women and children, weaponize our land defense is indefensible.”

Gitanyow Hereditary Chief Gamlakyeltxw/ Wil Marsden has also previously commented: “We saw years and years of fighting [on Wet’suwet’en territory], the [RCMP C-IRG] police violence, and even the company [TC Energy/Coastal GasLink] with harassment and surveillance of land defenders. We don’t want none of that to happen here. We have a plan for everything we’re doing and we prefer to reconcile with B.C. and Canada.”

On a PBI-Canada webinar this past March, Tara Marsden, Wilp sustainability director for Gitanyow Hereditary Chiefs, noted: “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.”

We continue to follow this.

First posted on November 25, 2024.

An organizer with the Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM) was arrested in Ottawa on the morning of Sunday November 24.

Instagram video of arrest and reading of charges.

The Ottawa Police Service (OPS) media release states: “She has been charged with public mischief X2, obstruction of police, counsel an uncommitted indictable offence of mischief and unlawful assembly.”

For more, see the Criminal Code of Canada sections on public mischief (140), offences relating to public or peace officer (129), counselling offence that is not committed (464), mischief (430) and unlawful assembly (63).

Additional reading: A fifth person charged following downtown pro-Palestinian protest on Nov. 18 (Ottawa Citizen, November 24, 2024).

CCLA: “Protests are intended to cause disruption”

The Canadian Civil Liberties Association (CCLA) has previously commented: “It’s worth remembering that protests are intended to cause disruption and this is protected activity in a democracy. Strong protections for the right to protest are essential to meaningful and informed political debate and discussion.”

Internationally, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association (Harvard Law School graduate Maina Kiai) has also previously commented: “’The free flow of traffic should not automatically take precedence over freedom of peaceful assembly’. In this regard, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights has indicated that ‘the competent institutions of the State have a duty to design operating plans and procedures that will facilitate the exercise of the right of assembly … [including] rerouting pedestrian and vehicular traffic in a certain area’.”

In this broader respect, the OPS has only stated: “We recognize the concerns raised by members of the community regarding these arrests. The OPS is committed to ensuring community safety and respecting the lawful right to protest. Any charges related to demonstrations are carefully considered with this balance, and we are focused on balancing the need for public safety with fostering trust and understanding.”

What is criminalization?

Lawyers Without Borders Canada has explained: “Simply put, criminalization is the wrongful use of criminal law. Based on the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights’ interpretation, this means the ‘adoption and misapplication of the law to the detriment of HRDs [human rights defenders] in order to obstruct their activities’ (IACHR, Criminalization of the Work of Human Rights Defenders, 2015, para. 11). It manipulates the punitive power of the State and ultimately, this undermines the rule of law and democracy as it wrongfully persecutes dissidents of the State both legally and politically.”

Peace Brigades International-United Kingdom has also noted: “Criminalisation carries an implicit warning to any defender working on politically or economically sensitive issues that they too might be targeted. Others might think twice before speaking out. Vulnerable groups and individuals who depend on HRDs may also be less inclined to stand up for their rights, fearing legal or violent reprisals to their actions.”

International court decisions

On January 26, 2024, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) found that it is “plausible” that Israel has committed acts that violate the Genocide Convention in the context of Israel’s bombardment of the Gaza Strip.

On July 19, 2024, the ICJ also ruled that Israel’s occupation of the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, is unlawful, along with the associated settlement regime, annexation and use of natural resources.

And on November 21, 2024, the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued an arrest warrant for Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, along with Israel’s former defence minister Yoav Gallant, over alleged war crimes in Gaza.

Given international court rulings back the concerns made by the Palestinian Youth Movement at their weekly mobilizations, that these mobilizations have been allowed to be on the streets for more than a year, and the ICC arrest warrants were issued just three days before the OPS arrested the PYM organizer, it is unclear why the OPS has escalated so dramatically and restrictively its policing of PYM mobilizations.

Escalation

The planned march on Monday November 18 to the offices of weapons companies (that arguably are violating the Genocide Convention and Arms Trade Treaty) and the march of Saturday November 23, saw a significant increase in the number of police present, including Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) brought in from out of town.

Questions remain for community members as to why this apparently premeditated and planned escalation has taken place, and whether there are state and corporate actors (with ideological motivations or economic interests) involved in directing this escalation.

There may also be questions about regulations regarding the OPS use of drones, the filming of the protest by OPS officers, and the deployment of an OPP officer who appeared to be armed with an Anti-Riot Weapon Enfield (ARWEN) that is capable of firing tear-gas canisters and large, 37-millimetre plastic bullets.

In 2020, Michelle Bachelet, then the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, wrote: “To be clear, and as the Human Rights Committee has indicated in its general comment on the right to life, even less-lethal weapons [that would include the ARWEN, a supposedly “less-lethal launcher” developed in the UK)] must be employed only when they are subject to strict requirements of necessity and proportionality, in situations in which other less harmful measures have proven to be or are clearly ineffective to address the threat.”

While the ARWEN was not employed/fired, it was deployed (made visible) in a situation that arguably did not meet “necessity and proportionality”.

Police horses by April

As the Palestinian solidarity mobilizations continue, the imminent use of police horses by the OPS is also a concern.

This week, CTV News reported: “Ottawa’s police chief [Eric Stubbs] says the new Mounted Patrol Unit will be a ‘game changer’ for the service in 2025… The Ottawa Police Service expects the first four horses to arrive in the spring [by April 1], with four more horses joining the unit in late 2025 or early 2026.”

That article also notes: “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.”

The Manchester, UK-based Omega Research Foundation has stated: “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. Certain groups may be particularly vulnerable when horses are used to disperse a crowd, particularly those with limited mobility, slow reaction times, or impaired sight (including persons with disabilities, elderly persons, children, pregnant people, for example).”

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

Video shared by Horizon Ottawa.

This past week, in response to related concerns expressed at the Ottawa Police Service finance and audit committee, Ottawa City Councillor Cathy Curry stated: “I guess I could argue that people could just move out of the way.”

We continue to follow this.

Video and photo: Solidarity rally outside the OPS Elgin station after the arrest of the PYM organizer.

PYM post.

Further reading: Arrest of Palestinian solidarity activists in Ottawa raises concerns about repression of protests against weapons companies (November 21, 2024).

First posted on November 27, 2024.

Video still: A military helicopter takes Ferney Salcedo, Yulivel Leal and four other social leaders from the villages of Venturosa and Platanales following their arrest on November 27, 2018. Video by Prensa Libre Casanare.

Today is the 6^th anniversary of the arrest of eight community members who were protesting the Canadian oil company Frontera Energy Ltd. in Colombia.

El Espectador has reported: “On November 27, 2018, at 2:45 in the morning, an operation of 200 men, between members of the Police and the National Army, who landed in two helicopters, captured them in San Luis de Palenque.”

Significantly, as has been highlighted at the United Nations by Special Rapporteur Michel Forst, just a few days before that operation, on November 16 and November 19, 2018, “Frontera Energy signed two agreements with the Ministry of Defence for a total of US$1,343,106 to secure army protection for its activities.”

Yulivel Leal shared on a webinar organized by PBI-Canada: “On November 27, 2018, I was captured in my home, the judge ordered house arrest. I lived under the control of an electronic device for 22 months.”

Photo: Yulivel Leal under house arrest and wearing an electronic monitoring device on her ankle, October 2019. Photo by Comité de Solidaridad Internacionalista de Zaragoza.

Her husband Ferney Salcedo was held in prison for 500 days without trial (first at a prison in Yopal then in La Picota almost 500 kilometres away after he demanded more dignified conditions for prisoners).

Forst has expressed concern “at the apparent connection between Frontera Energy, the army’s 16th brigade [a unit that protects oil operations] and the Attorney General’s Support Office in this criminalization and the possible impact of the agreement between Ecopetrol S.A. and the Attorney General’s Office on the situation.”

PBI-Canada met in-person with Ferney, Yulivel and other community members on July 1, 2022; organized a webinar with them on October 11, 2022; helped amplify video-messages to the Frontera virtual annual meeting of shareholders on May 18, 2023; organized meetings with Canadian civil society and a Member of Parliament; and have posted numerous articles and updates about their ongoing situation.

We have also been trying for more than a year to get the necessary visas to bring community members and their PBI-Colombia accompanied defenders to Canada to help share the story of their criminalization with Canadians.

As of July 2024, the judicial process against the community members was in the oral trial stage with six witnesses having testified and 40 more still pending. Of the more than 100 proposed pieces of evidence, only four had been incorporated. Six years after the arrests, the judicialization continues with no immediate end in sight.

We remain concerned about the past arbitrary detention of the community members and their prolonged judicialization, call on Canadian companies not to enter into “cooperation agreements” with Colombian security forces, support calls for domestic and international mechanisms that would mean greater accountability for transnational corporations to the communities they impact, and advocate for a credible Canadian Ombudsperson for Responsible Enterprise (CORE) that would have legally enforceable powers to compel evidence and testimony from corporations.

We will continue to follow this.

NOTE: If you normally mail a year-end donation to support our work, there are ways to continue that support before December 31. You can now make a donation by Interac e-Transfer by emailing  your donation to direction@pbicanada.org. In the “Message” field, please note if you would like a charitable tax receipt and include your mailing address. As before, you can also make a donation via CanadaHelps.org by clicking here, as well as directly on our website by clicking here.

First posted on November 22, 2024.

Image: Logo of COP30 in Brazil.

The United Nations Conference of Parties (COP) 29 climate conference is scheduled later today (November 22) in Baku, Azerbaijan.

On September 10, 2024, Global Witness highlighted: “At least 1,500 defenders have been killed since the adoption of the Paris Agreement on 12 December 2015” at the conclusion of the COP21 climate conference.

More than five years ago the United Nations Human Rights Council affirmed: “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.”

And yet this 42-word sentence has still not made its way into the final text of any of the subsequent COP climate conference final texts.

An article by Cape Town, South Africa-based Natural Justice on a COP29 side event held on November 20 titled “Recognizing, Protecting, and Empowering Environmental Defenders” seems to suggest there may have been a moment of progress.

That article notes: “This is the first time in COP history that the COP has included language on defenders, but regrettably the reference in the gender text is bracketed along with other refences to human rights.”

The “draft negotiating texts”, including on “COP agenda item 14 Gender and climate change”, released yesterday (November 21) do not appear to include any reference to environmental defenders.

Center for International Environmental Law tweeted on November 21: “The new text of the Gender Work Program at #COP29 is glaringly incomplete without … protection of women environmental human rights defenders. This is unacceptable!”

On November 16, Camilla Pollera of the Center for International Environmental Law had commented: “The blatant attempts to eliminate reference to the protection of environmental human rights defenders and human rights is especially alarming.” Floridea Di Como of CambiaMO also noted that references to land and environmental human rights defenders were being taken out of the text.

At the PBI-Canada-organized webinar on the COP16 biodiversity conference a month ago, UN Special Rapporteur Michel Forst suggested that there are States that block the inclusion of this reference.

Forst stated: “There are people who are willing to push for good results and at the same time we know that we also have people who are not our allies who are pushing also for counter-results and trying to delete paragraphs and good wording that some of us, some of them, would like to introduce.”

He further noted: “[Many participants] feel not respected and their voices are not heard when they try to introduce new language in the outcome document, when they are meeting with delegations to try to push for wording, then we have the same usual suspects who block the discussions.” 

Despite these very real obstacles, Peace Brigades International is committing to intervene in collaboration with the defenders we accompany at the United Nations COP30 climate conference that will take place from November 10 to 21, 2025 in Belém, Pará, Brazil. Stay tuned for updates on this work.

NOTE: If you normally mail a year-end donation to support our work, there are ways to continue that support before December 31. You can now make a donation by Interac e-Transfer by emailing  your donation to direction@pbicanada.org. In the “Message” field, please note if you would like a charitable tax receipt and include your mailing address. As before, you can also make a donation via CanadaHelps.org by clicking here, as well as directly on our website by clicking here.

First posted on October 23, 2024.

Photo from November 2023 by EFE from Observatory of Mining Conflicts in Latin America (OCMAL) website.

Peace Brigades International-Canada is one of 122 organizations to have signed a letter to Mary Ng, the Canadian Minister of International Commerce and Economic Development, to withdraw her support for First Quantum Minerals.

Photo: Mary Ng.

Thirty-nine days of protests began on October 20, 2023, following the passing of a 20-to-40-year mining contract between the government of Panama and Vancouver-based First Quantum Minerals, the operator of Cobre Panamá, the largest open-pit copper mine in Central America, located a short distance from the western coast and within a protected area of the Mesoamerican Biological Corridor.

Photos: The Cobre Panamá mine (top, middle, bottom).

The letter highlights: “ A new report reveals disturbing details about the violence protesters faced during this time: a disproportionate use of force, police brutality, tear gas, killings, and the arbitrary arrest of more than 1500 people – with some 23 continuing to face legal charges as part of an ongoing effort to criminalize social movement leaders as they denounce widespread environmental damage and water contamination from mining operations.”

The letter further notes: “Following the cancellation of First Quantum’s contract, the Canadian government was vocal in its support for the company.”

Instead of continuing this, PBI-Canada and the signatories to the letter are calling on Minister Ng to “implement the guidelines outlined in ‘Voices at Risk’ through the Embassy in Panama, and offer support to environmental defenders criminalized for protesting Canadian company abuses and defending their rights.”

Signatories to the letter include 32 Panamanian groups, as well as MiningWatch Canada, the Mining Injustice Solidarity Network (MISN), the Canadian Network on Corporate Accountability (CNCA), Community Peacemakers Teams, Rights Action, the Business and Human Rights Resource Centre (BHRRC), Salva la Selva- España and the PBI-Colombia accompanied Colectivo de Abogados y Abogadas José Alvear Restrepo (CAJAR).

The letter to Minister Ng can be read here, the full list of signatories is here.

The 47-page report Human Rights Violations, Abuses and Incidents Recorded in the Context of the Protests Against the Mining Contract in Panama can also be read in Spanish here.

Video still (El Pais, October 26, 2023): “A contract law allows the subsidiary of a Canadian mining company to exploit it…”

NOTE: If you normally mail a year-end donation to support our work, there are ways to continue that support before December 31. You can now make a donation by Interac e-Transfer by emailing  your donation to direction@pbicanada.org. In the “Message” field, please note if you would like a charitable tax receipt and include your mailing address. As before, you can also make a donation via CanadaHelps.org by clicking here, as well as directly on our website by clicking here.

First posted on November 19, 2024.

Peace Brigades International-Canada attended the Peace Brigades International General Assembly in Lisbon, Portugal this past November 11-13.

The assembly brought together 35+ people to discuss a Global Strategic Plan that will inform our work through to 2030 and to debate and reach consensus on numerous proposals, including our proposal to explore the formation of a PBI-Turtle Island initiative to accompany Indigenous land defenders.

The meeting brought together representatives of the teams who physically accompany defenders in Colombia, Guatemala, Mexico and Honduras.

There were also representatives of the Kenya, Nepal, Nicaragua and Indonesia teams that support defenders.

Along with PBI-Canada, there were also representatives from the PBI teams in Germany, Spain, Catalonia, Belgium, France, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, the United States, Switzerland, Norway and Italy.

And along with staff from the International Office in Brussels there were key members of the International Council, essentially PBI’s global Board.

While the assembly was a forum to discuss the Global Strategic Plan noted above and organizational and administrative issues, and to connect in-person to further enable the online meeting spaces that occur throughout the year, it all remained very much grounded in our shared purpose of ensuring the protection of human rights defenders who face tremendous risks because of the work they do.

At PBI-Canada our next step now is to write an operational plan for 2025 based on the approved Global Strategic Plan and to further develop the concept of a new Peace Brigades International-Turtle Island initiative.

Stay tuned!

NOTE: If you normally mail a year-end donation to support our work, there are ways to continue that support before December 31. You can now make a donation by Interac e-Transfer by emailing  your donation to direction@pbicanada.org. In the “Message” field, please note if you would like a charitable tax receipt and include your mailing address. As before, you can also make a donation via CanadaHelps.org by clicking here, as well as directly on our website by clicking here.