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UN Special Rapporteur Mary Lawlor calls for a strengthening of the CORE to provide redress for human rights defenders

By
Brent Patterson
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Photo: PBI-Canada meets with Mary Lawlor and Michael Phoenix, her Head of Research and Campaigns, in Ottawa, June 26, 2024.

On February 5, The Globe and Mail reported: “Starting this year, over a six-month period, the government said it will assess the Canadian Ombudsperson for Responsible Enterprise’s ‘effectiveness and progress to date.’”

Then on May 6 of this year, the CBC reported: “The first ombudsperson, Sheri Meyerhoffer, completed her five-year term on schedule last week. Last Tuesday [April 30], Trade Minister Mary Ng announced that Global Affairs Canada staff lawyer Masud Husain would be Meyerhoffer’s full successor.”

Photo: Interim ombudsperson Masud Husain.

On November 14, Mary Lawlor, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on human rights defenders, posted comments she made earlier in the month “calling for the significant strengthening of the CORE.”

Lawlor highlights: “The establishment of the CORE was a pioneering step to make good on this commitment, and I acknowledge the work done by the first Ombudsperson. Ms. Sheri Meyerhoffer, to build the institution. I have long-standing concerns, however, as to the adequacy of the CORE, in its current form, to provide any adequate form of redress for human rights defenders and the communities they represent when their rights have been violated or been put at risk by Canadian companies operating abroad. This has been reflected in conversations I have had with human rights defenders since taking up my mandate, who, where aware of the CORE, have repeatedly told me they have no confidence in its effectiveness.”

Among her four recommendations, Lawlor calls on the Government of Canada to: “Provide the CORE with legally enforceable powers to compel evidence and testimony from companies, in line with international standards and best practice on ombudspersons’ offices, to enable effective investigations of all cases and overcome the barriers presented when companies refuse to meaningfully engage with the CORE.”

Canadian embassies and Voices at Risk guidelines

In July of this year, Lawlor also told The Globe and Mail: “[Canada] parades itself on the world stage as being the good guys … But when it comes to the conduct of companies in the context of business and human rights, the UN guiding principles and the obligations of Canadian embassies themselves abroad, they’re really found wanting.”

That article further noted: “[Lawlor] also singled out Canadian embassies, saying many have failed to respond adequately to those who raise serious concerns about the impacts of mining and oil activities abroad. Canada introduced ‘Voices at Risk’ guidelines in 2019, aimed at supporting human-rights defenders and giving advice to Canadian diplomats working overseas, but she says it hasn’t been properly implemented.”

PBI-Canada

Peace Brigades International-Canada continues to document violations by Canadian companies notably in the countries where PBI physically accompanies land and environmental defenders, including Colombia, Guatemala, Honduras and Mexico where 119 defenders were killed last year.

Our initial research, utilizing the Business and Human Rights Resource Centre (BHRRC) database, found that 21 Canadian companies have been implicated in 88 attacks against human rights defenders over the past nine years.

We are additionally concerned that Lawlor’s office has registered 15 cases between June 2019 and March 2022 of retaliation against human rights defenders that she alleges can be linked to the activities of Canadian mining companies.

It is not clear when the review of the CORE will be published, and what if any recommendations will be meaningfully implemented, but we will continue to follow this.

Protest draws attention to Canadian company producing vital component for F-35 warplanes implicated in violations of human rights in Gaza

By
Brent Patterson
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On November 16 a protest took place outside the Gastops head office on  Polytek Street in Ottawa. The protest was part of an Arms Embargo Now day of action against F-35s “currently being used by the Israeli Air Force to bomb Gaza and Lebanon.”

Breach Media has previously reported: “Gastops is the only company in the world that produces engine sensors that go into U.S.-made F-35 combat jets—including the ones dropping 2,000 pound bombs in Gaza.”

That article highlights: “Gastops makes unique Oil Debris Monitor (ODM) ‘Metalscan’ sensors that are designed to detect engine wear and tear and ‘keep aircraft in the air,’ resulting in ‘less downtime, more flight time,’ according to the company. Approximately two dozen employees are responsible for making the sensors at the company, which produced at least 3,500 of them over the past decade.”

Dutch court blocks export of F-35 parts

In February of this year, an appeals court in The Hague ordered the government of the Netherlands to block all exports of F-35 fighter jet parts to Israel. The court’s ruling stated: “It is undeniable that there is a clear risk the exported F-35 parts are used in serious violations of international humanitarian law.”

Warnings to officials and company executives of criminal liability

Two months ago, the Palestinian human rights organization Al-Haq along with the UK-based Global Legal Action Network also warned that British government officials and company executives could face criminal liability and be indicted for aiding and abetting war crimes if they continue to export components for the F-35 fighter jets used by Israel to drop bombs on civilian populations in Gaza.

F-35 attack kills 90 Palestinians

The London, UK-based Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT) has further noted: “The use of F-35s by Israel in the attack on Gaza has been confirmed since the beginning of the war, including their use to deliver 2000lb bombs.”

CAAT adds: “[On September 2, the] Danish news outlet Information, together with NGO Danwatch, revealed that, for the first time, it has been possible to definitively confirm the use by Israel of an F-35 stealth fighter to carry out a specific attack in Gaza. The attack took place on 13 July, on an Israeli-designated ‘safe zone’ in Al-Mawasi in southern Gaza, killing 90 people and injuring at least 300.”

Palestinian human rights defenders

Mary Lawlor, the United Special Rapporteur for human rights defenders has written: “There exist no moral arguments that can justify the continued sale of weapons to Israel by states that respect the principle of the universality of human rights.”

Lawlor adds: “Palestinian human rights defenders have emphasized to me the importance of a ban being placed on such sales, given that Israel has demonstrated time and again that it will use such weapons indiscriminately against Palestinians.”

More than 400 days into what the International Court of Justice has ruled a plausible genocide, an estimated 1,380 human rights defenders have been killed in Palestine.

More than 986 medical workers including 165 doctors and 260 nurses, 254 aid workers including 7 from World Central Kitchen, 137 journalists and media workers, 2 lawyers from the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights and 1 International Solidarity Movement (ISM) volunteer are among the 43,700 people killed.

Front Line Defenders says: “Those defending the right to health and the right to life as doctors, nurses, or ambulance workers, those exposing and documenting war crimes as journalists, and those providing humanitarian support as volunteers or employees of aid agencies were all specifically targeted by Israeli bombs or guns.”

Peace Brigades International

Organizations, defenders and communities accompanied by Peace Brigades International – including Credhos, dhColombia and Nomadesc in Colombia, Maya Q’eqchi’ journalist Carlos Ernesto Choc in Guatemala, Copinh in Honduras, and the Cerezo Committee in Mexico have expressed their solidarity with Palestine.

Photo: Nomadesc president Berenice Celeita wears a keffiyeh at a public forum in Ottawa in solidarity with the Palestinian people, October 2023.

Peace Brigades International called for a ceasefire in November 2023 and in March 2024 asked the international community to suspend the supply of arms to Israel.

On September 18, 2024, PBI-Canada and the Canadian Friends Service of Canada (Quakers) held a webinar featuring World Beyond War, Project Ploughshares and the American Friends Service Committee commenting on international obligations, Canadian arms exports to Israel and the call for an arms embargo.

At the conclusion of that webinar, Celeita poignantly stated: “We can’t forget that we are facing a genocide, the people of Palestine, we see you, we have marched and mobilized, we will continue to do this because we see there are huge, powerful entities who are trying to ignore us but the people will continue to come together and fight for the dignity of all people because dignity is the only option that we have.”

As the “usual suspects” dominate COP29, is there hope COP30 can help protect environmental defenders?

By
Brent Patterson
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Photo from Governo do Pará, Brasil.

More than 65,000 people are now attending the United Nations Conference of Parties (COP) 29 Climate conference in Baku, Azerbaijan that began last Monday November 11 and that is scheduled to conclude this coming Friday November 22.

Will COP29 serve to enhance the protection of environmental human rights defenders in the context of climate action?

It doesn’t seem likely.

This past September, Global Witness documented: “Over 1,500 defenders have been murdered since the adoption of the Paris Agreement on climate change on 12 December 2015.” The Paris Agreement was reached at COP21.

After COP28 in 2023, Global Witness commented: “In the run-up to COP, we joined 150 organisations to call on the UNFCCC [the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change] to recognise and protect Defenders. And yet, there is not a single reference to land and environmental defenders in the final text.”

On the first day of COP29 this year, Article 19 pleaded: “States must prioritise the protection of environmental defenders who demand action on pollution, biodiversity loss, and climate change, often at great personal risk.”

“Blatant attempts” to eliminate references to defenders

And yet it appears that the dynamic is not just that defenders are not mentioned, but rather that any references to them are being removed.

A week into COP29, Camilla Pollera of the Center for International Environmental Law commented: “The blatant attempts to eliminate reference to the protection of environmental human rights defenders and human rights is especially alarming.”

And Floridea Di Como of CambiaMO in Spain added: “To take out from the text reference to Land and Environmental Human Rights defenders is to make a deep injustice from the recognition, procedural and distributive points of view.”

The “usual suspects”

This echoes the recent comments made by Michel Forst, the UN Special Rapporteur on Environmental Defenders (Aarhus Convention), on a PBI-Canada organized webinar on the COP16 Biodiversity conference in Colombia.

Forst told those at our webinar: “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 added: “We have the same usual suspects who block the discussions.”

Forst did not name those “usual suspects”, but they are likely to include the United States, Japan, Canada and Australia.

“We can’t legitimize COP meetings”

Beyond this focused concern about COP conferences failing environmental defenders, there is also a broader critique of these annual gatherings.

Ahead of COP29, Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg stated: “We can’t legitimize COP meetings in their current form. The last three years, they’ve taken place in authoritarian regimes, and holding them in such places leads nowhere.”

Thunberg added: “Every time those in power get a chance to act, they choose not to and instead listen to industries that destroy the planet and violate human rights, rather than doing what’s right. …The only thing that will come out of it is loopholes, more negotiations, and symbolic decisions that look good on paper but are really just greenwashing.”

And last Friday (November 15), The Guardian reported: “Future UN climate summits should be held only in countries that can show clear support for climate action and have stricter rules on fossil fuel lobbying, according to a group of influential climate policy experts. The group includes former UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon, the former president of Ireland Mary Robinson, the former UN climate chief Christiana Figueres and the prominent climate scientist Johan Rockström.”

That article specifies: “At least 1,773 coal, oil and gas lobbyists have been granted access to Cop29, according to data analysed by the Kick Big Polluters Out activist coalition.”

The Guardian has also reported: “At least 480 lobbyists working on carbon capture and storage (CCS) have been granted access to the UN climate summit… Nearly half of the lobbyists were granted access as members of national delegations, affording them greater access to negotiations [in the exclusive blue zone]…”

For example: “Japan brought a representative from coal giant Sumitomo, while Canada brought representatives from [the oil company] Suncor and [the fracked gas company] Tourmaline, and Italy brought employees of energy companies Eni [that is linked to enabling genocide in Palestine by “fueling Israel’s war machine”] and Enel.

The United Kingdom also brought 20 corporate lobbyists to COP29.

And while UN Special Rapporteurs, including Michel Forst and Mary Lawlor, have highlighted the need for environmental defenders to participate in COP forums, as well as the very real risks they face for doing so, token participation and exclusion from national delegations and real access to negotiations will not address their continued situation of criminalization, judicialization, threats and fatalities.

Cautious hope for COP30?

But while Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva seeks to increase his country’s oil production from the current 3.3 million barrels per day to close to 5 million barrels per day by 2030 (a 40 per cent-plus increase), there appears to be some hope for COP30 scheduled to be held in Belem, Brazil in 2025.

Despite the previous government of Jair Bolsonaro, Brazil is not considered to be an authoritarian state the way the last three hosts of COP climate conferences – Azerbaijan, United Arab Emirates, Egypt – are regarded.

Paradoxically some of the hope for COP30 may come from the fact that Brazil is an epicentre for violence against defenders.

According to Justiça Global, on average three defenders have been murdered in Brazil every month over the past four years. In 2023, Brazil experienced the murder of 25 land and environmental defenders.

While the structural flaws of a “green zone” for NGOs and an exclusive “blue zone” for member countries, the dominance of oil and gas lobbyists, and the exclusion of frontline communities from real decision-making should be expected to continue, there remains the cautious glimmer of hope for substantive outcomes perhaps in the same way those expectations were present for COP15 in Copenhagen and COP21 in Paris.

That hope could be easily dashed but Peace Brigades International-Canada will be looking for strategic moments to intervene at COP30 to serve the imperative of greater protections for land and environmental defenders.

The United Nations COP30 Climate conference will take place from November 10 to 21, 2025 in Belém, Pará, Brazil.

As COP29 approaches in Baku, at least 1,500 land and environmental defenders have been killed since COP21

By
Brent Patterson
-

Photo from The Guardian by Sergei Grits/AP.

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.

In October 2019, just prior to the COP25 conference in Madrid, PBI-Canada amplified at an Extinction Rebellion protest in Ottawa that Global Witness had reported that 164 land and environmental defenders killed in 2018.

Despite this and the 439 land and environmental defenders killed in the two years preceding COP26 in Scotland in 2021, the 200 defenders killed in the year prior to COP27 in Egypt, and the 177 defenders killed before COP28 in the United Arab Emirates, there has not been a single reference to land and environmental defenders in the final texts emerging from these COP conferences.

Possible language

In 2019, 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 not made its way into the final text of any of the subsequent COP climate conference final texts.

COP29 in Azerbaijan

Now, COP29 will take place on November 11-22, 2024, in Baku, Azerbaijan, in the context of 196 defenders killed in 2023.

Just a few days into COP29, November 14 will mark the two-month anniversary of the murder of Guapinol River defender Juan Lopez in Honduras. He opposed the Los Pinares mining megaproject that involves the construction of a heavily-polluting petroleum coke-burning thermoelectric plant.

Thunberg will not be at COP29

With COP29 to start about a week from now, Swedish activist Greta Thunberg has stated that she will not attend this conference.

Her assessment: “We can’t legitimize COP meetings in their current form. …The only thing that will come out of it is loopholes, more negotiations, and symbolic decisions that look good on paper but are really just greenwashing.”

Thunberg adds: “Every time those in power get a chance to act, they choose not to and instead listen to industries that destroy the planet and violate human rights, rather than doing what’s right. I want to spread awareness, focus on grassroots activism, and support those who are trying to make a difference.”

Canadian opposition parties won’t attend

CBC now reports: “Most of the opposition parties on Parliament Hill are ditching the high-profile annual United Nations conference on climate change this year, citing human rights concerns in the host country Azerbaijan little more than a year after the mass exodus of nearly 120,000 ethnic Armenians from their homes in the once-disputed territory of Nagorno-Karabakh.”

“In statements sent to CBC News, the NDP and the Bloc Québécois also said they are not sending any representatives to the conference.”

The article adds: “In a statement issued last week, [Canadian environment minister Steven] Guilbeault’s office told CBC News no decision has been made yet ‘but it is most likely the minister will be able to attend.’”

UN Special Rapporteurs call for inclusion

United Nations Special Rapporteurs including Mary Lawlor and Michel Forst, have also noted: “While COPs should be an exemplary United Nations (UN)-led model for the safe participation of environmental defenders in international forums relating to the environment and climate change, each year environmental defenders face significant challenges for their efforts to have their voices heard in these forums.”

They add: “In demanding government action – and protesting against inaction – to address pollution, biodiversity loss and climate change, or where opposing large scale projects, including those meant to foster the energy transition such as mega dams, photovoltaic panels’ fields, or lithium mines, environmental defenders are exposed to grave risks. While the nature and levels of risks vary between countries and regions, on all continents they are increasing at a fast pace, and come from both State and non-State actors, including private companies. Among environmental defenders, small-scale and subsistence farmers, indigenous communities, women, youth, the elderly and working-class defenders are particularly at risk.”

Their statement concludes: “Environmental defenders must be properly listened to, and their words acted upon. There is no time to lose.”

Looking ahead to COP30 in Brazil

At a PBI-Canada organized webinar in December 2023 on COP28, Global Witness policy advisory Javier Garate commented: “There are big plans for organizing a parallel COP of civil society and I think it is a huge opportunity for all of us to work together towards COP30 in Brazil with all the energy to put the issues of local communities, Indigenous communities, land and environmental defenders that need to be at the centre of this conversation and to demand as we talk about climate solutions and the fight against climate change that the work, the protection, and the struggle of local communities has to be at the center of those conversations.”

Garate added: “We look forward to engaging in that parallel summit in Belém do Pará, Brazil in 2025 and share the concern that it is still two years away and that on average a land and environmental defender is killed every two days.”

While there may be little optimism about the upcoming COP29 conference in Azerbaijan, we will continue to follow it and see if a momentum does develop around COP30 that will take place November 10–21, 2025.

Further reading: Did the COP16 Biodiversity conference in Colombia make progress on the protection of environmental defenders? (PBI-Canada, November 2, 2024).

PBI-Mexico accompanies Indigenous water defender Alejandro Torres Chocolatl during Embassy of Finland visit to Puebla

By
Brent Patterson
-

PBI-Mexico has posted:

“This week we accompanied Alejandro Torres from the Peoples’ Front in Defence of Land and Water-Morelos, Puebla, Tlaxcala with the Embassy of Finland in Mexico in the State of Puebla as part of the accompaniment provided by the #Protect Their Voices Initiative. We thank and acknowledge the Embassy of Finland for this important support.”

They then noted:

“During the visit, Alejandro was able to share his experiences in defending the land, territory, water and rights of indigenous communities in Puebla. Recognition of the work of #HumanRights defenders is essential for their protection.”

Front Line Defenders has explained:

“Alejandro Torres Chocolatl is a human rights defender who is a community broadcaster of Radio Zacatepec and member of the National Indigenous Congress (CNI) as well as of the Frente Pueblos Unidos de la Región Cholulteca and of the People’s Front in Defence of Land and Water of Puebla, Morelos and Tlaxcala (FPDTA-PMT). FPDTA-PMT works together with Nahua communities in the states of Morelos, Puebla and Tlaxcala to protect the rights of the 22 communities affected by several mega-development projects in the area. He has worked to protect the Metlapanapa River which is at risk of being contaminated by discharge of wastewater from the Huejotzingo Textile City industrial park. He also advocates for the right of indigenous communities to self-determination.”

They have also noted: “On 2 June 2023, alleged members of the Ministerial Police of the State of Puebla went to the town of Santa María Zacatepec, dressed in civilian clothing and in unmarked cars, asking for the location and address of the human rights defender Alejandro Torres Chocolatl. They also went looking for him at his place of work, the Radio Comunitaria Zacatepec.”

On June 30, 2023, Animal Politico reported: “After being arrested by alleged ministerial police, defender and communicator Alejandro Torres Chocolatl was released in the municipality of Juan C. Bonilla, in Puebla, who accused him of being a victim of persecution.”

PBI-Mexico has accompanied the Peoples’ Front in Defence of Land and Water in Puebla since early 2020. In August 2022, PBI-Mexico extended its accompaniment for another three years.

Further reading: PBI-Mexico accompanied Indigenous Nahua water protector Alejandro Torres Chocolatl arbitrarily detained by state agents (July 1, 2023)

Video by Embassy of Finland.

PBI-Honduras visits Garifuna community of Nueva Armenia following police violence after recovery project

By
Brent Patterson
-

PBI-Honduras has posted:

“Together with Peace Brigades International-Canada we visited the Garifuna community of Nueva Armenia (Atlántida). Members of OFRANEH-Garifuna/Black Fraternal Organization of Honduras shared with us about the overcrowding within the community and the attacks and threats they have received after carrying out a land recovery project on the outskirts of the community, inside an African palm plantation.

PBI is concerned for the physical integrity of the community leaders and reminds them of the importance of full compliance with their protection measures.”

PBI-Canada has also noted:

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.”

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.”

We continue to follow this.

PBI-Guatemala accompanies Human Rights Law Firm at hearing related to the ongoing CREOMPAZ/Military Zone 21 case

By
Brent Patterson
-

PBI-Guatemala has posted:

“On Monday [October 28], #PBI accompanies the Human Rights Law Firm at the Public Hearing requested by the lawyer Moisés Galindo, who defends Officer Carlos Augusto Garavito Morán, accused of crimes of forced disappearance and duties of humanity in the #CREOMPAZ case. It should be noted that the previous week the hearing had to be postponed due to the employment relationship of one of the judges with the defence.

On this occasion, an extraordinary court heard the arguments of the plaintiff, the MP and defence lawyers in relation to an injunction presented by lawyer Galindo, which questioned the competence and jurisdiction of the judge who is currently handling the CREOMPAZ case. This would mean that the process would return to the criminal court in Cobán, Alta Verapaz. The plaintiff pointed out that there was malicious litigation, given that the lawyer had filed legal actions in different courtrooms.

The court is due to notify the parties whether or not it declares the amparo to be admissible in the next few days.”

The International Justice Monitor has previously explained: “Carlos Augusto Garavito Morán, second commander of MZ21 [Military Zone 21] between September 1, 1983 and January 31, 1984 … will be tried for the enforced disappearance of Miguel Tec Pop and Pedro Sub.”

Background

The Indigenous Q’eqchi’ community of Chicoyogüito was violently displaced from their ancestral lands so that an army base – then known as Military Zone 21 – could be established in the department of Alta Verapaz. More than 200 families were displaced from those lands on July 28, 1968, by the military.

After the displacement of the community, the military base became a clandestine centre for illegal detention, torture, extrajudicial executions, enforced disappearance, and rape committed from 1978 to 1990.

At least 565 Indigenous people were disappeared at that base. The bodies identified are of Mayan Achí, Q’eqchi’, Pomochí, Ixil, and Kiché peoples.

The military base is considered the largest clandestine cemetery in Latin America.

The military base that displaced his community was rebranded in 2004 as Creompaz, a training base for UN peacekeepers funded by Canada and other countries.

Dawn Paley has written: “Regardless of the mass graves at the base, military and police training continues there, supported by countries like the US and Canada.” The support from Canada has included a CAD$250,000 grant in 2009 and the purchase of specialized equipment in 2014 for a training program at Creompaz.

Photo: CREOMPAZ, March 20, 2021.

At the bottom of this website (dated 2022), the Peace Operations Training Institute that partners with CREOMPAZ “to provide e-learning on peacekeeping courses” thanks Global Affairs Canada’s Peace and Stabilization Operations Programme for their funding.

PBI-Guatemala has accompanied the Human Rights Law Firm (El Bufete Jurídico de Derechos Humanos/BDH) since 2013. PBI-Guatemala also previously accompanied the Chicoyogüito Neighborhood Association of Alta Verapaz (AVECHAV), the community displaced by this military base.

“This land is ours”

Did the COP16 Biodiversity conference in Colombia make progress on the protection of environmental defenders?

By
Brent Patterson
-

Photo: Lina Robles- Publimetro COP16: “their spirits are still alive”, activists protested the murder of environmental leaders in the Blue Zone.

The United Nations COP16 Biodiversity conference in Cali, Colombia that began on October 21 concluded on the morning of November 2.

The Guardian explains: “A global summit on halting the destruction of nature ended in disarray on Saturday, with some breakthroughs but key issues left unresolved. …Negotiations were due to finish on Friday evening but ended in confusion on Saturday morning after almost 12 hours of talks.”

On November 1, Publimetro reported: “Amid shouts and chants, dozens of environmental activists raised their voices in the Blue Zone [where the official COP16 negotiations take place] to reject the lack of protection faced by environmental leaders.”

That article adds: “In the main square of the event, protesters expressed their discontent with the negotiators, noting that despite the discussions, no concrete agreements have been reached to stop these killings. Many of these leaders in their territories feel threatened and without sufficient protection.”

Devdiscourse also reported: “Negotiations at COP16 included proposals for tracking killings of those safeguarding the environment. …Critics like Natalia Gomez, EarthRights’ climate policy advisor, argue existing measures are inadequate.”

And at the beginning of the talks, Michel Forst, the UN Special Rapporteur on environmental defenders, commented: “If despite the efforts made by Colombia, Brazil and other allies of defenders, some States are reluctant and say no, [given decisions are made by consensus] the final document will not contain anything about the rights of environmental defenders, which for me is a failure. But not a failure of Colombia, but of powerful actors who might have the possibility of influencing others to include clear language and wording on human rights in the final documentary.”

Will 30×30 put more land defenders at risk?

The Associated Press further notes: “The COP16 summit hosted in Cali, Colombia, was a follow-up to the historic 2022 accord in Montreal, which includes 23 measures to save Earth’s plant and animal life, including putting 30% of the planet and 30% of degraded ecosystems under protection by 2030.”

In August 2021, 49 organizations expressed concern with this initiative: “While protecting at least 30% of the planet’s land and oceans by 2030 is on its face a worthy goal of responding to biodiversity loss, the Framework’s focus on ‘protected areas’ will likely continue to lead to human rights abuses across the globe.”

One of the signatories, the Swift Foundation, says: “How it’s working right now is a militarized form of conservation. You have guards with guns, people imposing fines, building fences and kicking people out of their traditional lands. And if communities react in defense they are perceived as anti-conservation.”

In November 2022, the Honduran Black Fraternal Organization (OFRANEH) tweeted: “30×30 will be taken to COP15 by conservation multinationals intensifying pressure on the territory of indigenous peoples. Honduras for 30 years has militarized the Cayos Cochinos and the Cuero y Salado Wildlife Refuge, resulting in multiple human rights violations.”

Earlier that year, they also tweeted: “The #30×30 without real recognition of the right to prior, free and informed consultation, supposed conservation becomes dispossession and violations of human rights, as has happened in the case of Cayos Cochinos, where since 1993 the expulsion of Garífunas has been promoted.”

Artificial intelligence, a new weapon against defenders

Along with a lack of progress on protection for environmental defenders, there are new threats on the horizon.

An article in Mongabay notes: “[Forst also] says that there is a growing pattern of attacks against environmental and territorial defenders, ‘using increasingly sophisticated technological means that we were not used to in the past.’ Forst also told Mongabay Latam that not only is justice turning to artificial intelligence, but criminals are using it to fabricate videos, audios and other false information to discredit environmental defenders. ‘It’s an issue that we still don’t know how to deal with effectively.’”

Biodiversity credits

Biodiversity credits are also seen as problematic.

Contra Corriente reports: “[At COP16] the proposal for biodiversity credits as one of the mechanisms to restore ecosystems by 2030 has sparked intense debate. In Honduras, similar initiatives faced complaints of irregularities and rejection by indigenous peoples and environmentalists, who argue that this measure privileges corporations and markets. Indigenous advocates also urge that summit discussions not only focus on protecting nature, but also on guaranteeing the rights of communities.”

Bertha Zúniga of the Civic Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras (COPINH) and Rony Castillo of OFRANEH disagree with biodiversity credits.

Zuniga says: “It is horrible that now the forests of the communities, their biodiversity and their richness, including culture, are being converted into an environmental service available to the market. [COPINH has] always claimed in the communities that they are life and not profit, and that forests, rivers, or biodiversity cannot be merchandise; this continues to be a false environmental solution.”

And Castillo says: “[Biodiversity credits are] one more tool of dispossession.”

A new Indigenous G9

There may be some room for optimism.

The Inter Press Service further reports: “Indigenous leaders from the Amazon formed a new coalition of indigenous peoples [at COP16]. The indigenous members of this new Group of Nine (G9) demand an end to mining and deforestation, obtain direct financing and consolidate the titling of their lands.”

This Group of Nine could help to advance the agenda for the protection of Indigenous land and territorial defenders.

A new permanent body for Indigenous peoples

CGTN also reports COP16 concluded with three major agreements.

They note: “Susana Muhamad, Colombia’s Minister of Environment and Sustainable Development and the chair of this conference, announced that the three agreements are: the creation of a subsidiary body for Indigenous peoples of Africa and local communities; recognition of people of African descent as guardians of biodiversity under the Convention; and the establishment of a work plan for communities through 2030.”

Reuters adds: “Countries at the U.N. COP16 summit on nature on [November 1] approved a measure to create a permanent body for Indigenous peoples to consult on United Nations decisions about nature conservation. The consultative body is considered a breakthrough in recognizing the role that Indigenous peoples play in conserving nature globally, including some of the most biodiverse areas of the planet, according to Indigenous and environmental advocates.”

The next COPs

Now that COP16 biodiversity conference has concluded, next up is the COP29 climate conference that 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.

The Guardian has also noted that given COP16 ending in “disarray” that “countries will need to continue the talks next year at an interim meeting in Bangkok.”

That would presumably be before the COP30 climate conference that 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.

Further reading: PBI-Canada hosts webinar on UN COP and Binding Treaty processes and the protection of environmental defenders (October 25, 2024).

Photo-journal of PBI-Canada visit with PBI-Honduras accompanied organizations, defenders and communities

By
Brent Patterson
-

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.

Nepal’s foreign minister visits Canada, international delegation of lawyers call for strengthened transitional justice

By
Brent Patterson
-

Photo: Dr. Arzu Rana Deuba, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Nepal, meets with Melanie Joly, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Canada, in Ottawa in September 2024.

The Kathmandu, Nepal-based Himalayan Times reports: “Minister for Foreign Affairs Dr Arzu Rana Deuba and her Canadian counterpart, Melanie Joly had a bilateral meeting in Ottawa, Canada on Wednesday [September 18].”

That article adds: “Minister Rana urged Canada to establish its embassy in Nepal [it is currently in New Delhi]”, “she urged Canada to invest in Nepal’s water resources sector and take maximum benefit based on its experience and expertise in the water resources sector”, “she also invited the Canadian Foreign Minister to visit Nepal”, and that “bilateral talks will be held in Kathmandu in coming December.”

It also notes: “[Minister Rana informed Minister Joly] that Nepal’s parliament has recently endorsed the laws related to the transitional justice, which will facilitate in concluding the remaining works of the peace process.”

Concerns about transitional justice

Rana Deuba is a member of the Nepali Congress Party.

Deutsche Welle further explains: “In July this year, the three major parties — the Nepali Congress, Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist-Leninist), and Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist Centre) — formed a mechanism to find common ground on the contentious provisions in the [transitional justice] bill. They reached a written agreement on the bill earlier this month, and on August 14, Nepal’s lower house of parliament approved the long-delayed amendments to the transitional justice act.”

But Agence France-Presse reports (via NDTV): “A team of international rights lawyers, in a report released [October 24] and based on a research mission to Nepal, warned the changes could do the opposite and exclude ‘swathes of victims’ from justice. The lawyers added that the new law ‘permits amnesties which would prevent criminal accountability for gross violations of human rights’. The lawyers said that until addressed, the ‘doors to the regular justice system should not be closed’.”

That article adds: “The group [of lawyers] was supported by rights organisation Peace Brigades International (PBI).”

International lawyers’ delegation and report

The Independent Delegation of International Lawyers undertook a fact-finding mission to Nepal that occurred from March 12-18, 2024.

They then produced a report titled: Peace without Justice and Accountability? A caution against impunity in post-conflict Nepal (October 2024).

Setting the context, the report notes:

  1. “Between 1996 and 2006 the then Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist faction) (“CPN-M”) waged a ‘people’s war’ against then-monarchical Nepali government forces. In the decade of fighting, tens of thousands of people suffered serious violations of international human rights and humanitarian law, including unlawful killing, enforced disappearance, torture, rape and other forms of sexual violence, the use of child soldiers, arbitrary arrest and forced displacement. Both government security forces and Maoist guerrillas were responsible for the abuses. Victims included non-combatant civilians, as well as Maoist combatants and members of state forces.”

The United Nations Human Rights Office has suggested that as many as 9,000 serious human rights or international humanitarian law violations may have been committed during the decade-long conflict.

PBI-UK public forum

On October 24, Peace Brigades International-United Kingdom held a public forum in London titled ‘Peace and Accountability in Nepal: A historic opportunity for transitional justice’ to help release this report.

Their featured Nepali speakers were Nadira Sharma and Gita Rasaili.

Gita Rasaili is the Vice-Chairperson for Kathmandu at the Women Conflict Victims National Network (CVWN).

Rasaili has stated: “The Maoist war had started in 1996 when I still a child. One of my elder brothers [joined the Maoists in 2001]. In 2002, we got news that said he was transferred and killed in a combat. That same year, after about six months, another one of my elder brothers joined the Maoists.”

She adds: “Eventually I too joined the Maoists when I was fourteen years old [in part because] I was born in a Dalit family and wanted to end the brutal caste system…”

Rasaili also describes the day the Royal Nepalese Army tortured and killed her sister Reena: “They dragged my sister down outside the house, locked the doors and tortured her. They could hear her crying, pleading, them asking her questions about the Maoists, and her answer to them saying she is studying and teaching and she doesn’t have information about them. …At around five in the morning my family heard gunshots. When they ran outside after the army left, my sister was lying against the tree and was dead. She was naked, her chest had been scratched and the blood was flowing through her vagina. She had been raped and killed brutally. The gun was shot through her back.”

Photo: PBI-UK tweet.

Mandira Sharma is the co-founder of Advocacy Forum Nepal and is a Senior Legal Advisor at the International Commission of Jurists.

Human Rights Watch has noted: “One man’s story in particular moved Sharma to embark on her campaign to transform Nepal into a safe place to raise children, go to work and live in peace. In the 1990s, Sharma, then a young law student, got to know Samal, a law professor who had disappeared for some time.”

Sharma says: “He was a teacher, a pro-democracy person, and thus a target. Samal was arrested by [Royal Nepali] military, put in an ice box, given electric shocks. He was beaten on the soles of his feet, hung upside down. They broke him. This man’s story was the first time I realized how torture breaks the people. That why I do my work.”

The Defenders has also noted: “On 3 January 2013, UK authorities arrested Colonel Kumar Lama of the Nepal Army and charged him with two counts of [torturing two alleged Maoist rebels] under Universal Jurisdiction law. Due to their work relating to the case, Mandira and her colleagues were called traitors in the media in Nepal.”

Photo: PBI-UK tweet.

The West in Nepal

Canadian author Yves Engler has written: “During its late 1990s war with anti-monarchist guerrillas, the Royal Nepalese Army (RNA) was trained in counterinsurgency techniques by Canada’s special operations Joint Task Force 2. In Canada’s Secret Commandos, [Ottawa Citizen journalist] David Pugliese writes that, ‘the RNA wanted Canadian military advisers to oversee its counterterrorism plans and suggest how best to fight the Communist guerrillas.’ Eventually, Nepal’s Maoist forces succeeded in disbanding Nepal’s two-hundred-year-old monarchy and won the most seats in the country’s first Constituent Assembly as the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist).”

In August 2014, Agence France-Presse/The Guardian also reported: “British authorities have been accused of funding a four-year intelligence operation in Nepal that led to Maoist rebels being arrested, tortured and killed during the country’s civil war. Thomas Bell, the author of a new book on the conflict, says MI6 funded safe houses and provided training in surveillance and counter-insurgency tactics to Nepal’s army and spy agency, the National Investigation Department (NID) under ‘Operation Mustang’, launched in 2002.”

Peace Brigades International in Nepal

Peace Brigades International (PBI) has had a significant and long presence in Nepal, a country located in South Asia between India and China.

Photo: PBI-Nepal.

The PBI website notes: “In early 2006, the Nepal Project was launched and PBI Nepal had a team of 5 volunteers based in Kathmandu providing protective accompaniment for local human rights organizations.”

That was a turbulent time in the country.

Human Rights Watch has explained: “The country nearly slipped into total chaos when King Gyanendra engineered a 2005 coup against the country’s weak civilian government. Security forces flowed into the cities, arresting opposition leaders and human rights defenders and student activists, sending many into exile.

The decade-long war between the Nepalese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) and The Royal Nepal Army (RNA) formally ended with the signing of the Comprehensive Peace Accord on November 21, 2006.

More than 17,000 people were killed during this civil war.

Photo: PBI-Nepal accompaniment of lawyer from Advocacy Forum, 2011.

Khadga Prasad Sharma Oli is the current Prime Minister of Nepal (since July 15, 2024). He has been the chairman of the Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist–Leninist) since 2014. The previous prime minister, now the Leader of the Opposition, is Pushpa Kamal Dahal of the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist Centre).

Photo: Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau meets Nepali Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli at the United Nations in New York.

The PBI website now notes: “As part of our ongoing commitment to raising awareness about and supporting the work of Nepali human rights defenders we are cooperating with COCAP [the Collective Campaign for Peace, a coalition of 43 non-governmental organizations], which will enable us to work in partnership with them to design an international advocacy strategy to complement the work of human rights defenders on the ground.”

Canada and hydropower in Nepal

Among the issues of interest in Canada-Nepal relations is hydropower.

Global Affairs Canada has noted: “In recent years, Canada has organized visits to Nepal aimed at encouraging Canadian companies to interact with the Nepalese business community to promote Canadian capabilities and cooperate in areas of mutual interest, such as in hydropower, infrastructure, and clean technology.”

Cameron MacKay, the Canadian Ambassador to Nepal, has further highlighted: “In February 2022, Canada and Nepal held a virtual series on dams and hydro industry. The Canadian Embassy led a delegation of 15 Canadian companies and showcased the expertise of Canadian hydro consultants, equipment manufacturers and instrumentation capabilities for Nepal hydro industry. In April 2022, six Canadian companies participated in the Himalayan Hydro Expo in Kathmandu. In March 2021, the Embassy of Canada conducted a virtual Canada-Nepal Dam and Hydro Session that saw the participation of nine Canadian companies. In January 2019, the first Nepal-Canada Sustainable Hydro Workshop was organized in Kathmandu. Several Canadian companies have been active in the Asian Development Bank and hydro projects funded by the World Bank in Nepal. These include Hatch, Stantec, SNC Lavalin and Manitoba Hydro International.”

We continue to follow this.

Photo: PBI volunteers accompany members of the Dalit Feminist Uplift Organisation (DAFUO), Nepal, 2010.

Photo: PBI monitoring a march on International day for the disappeared, Nepal, 2010.

Photo: PBI-Nepal with Devi Sunuwar (2010). In February 2004 her life changed dramatically when her 18 year old niece was shot on suspicion of being a Maoist guerrilla. Devi witnessed this crime, contacted the media and named the officers she believed were responsible. Less than a week later soldiers came to Devi’s house looking for her. In her absence, they arrested her 14 year old daughter, Maina, then tortured her to death.

Photo: PBI-Nepal, 2005-06

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