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PBI-Mexico accompanies reconnaissance activities in Oaxaca in the continuing search for Edmundo Reyes Amaya and Gabriel Alberto Cruz Sánchez

By
Brent Patterson
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Photo by Noticias Oaxaca NVI.

This media release highlights: “The Committee of Relatives of the Detained and Disappeared Until They Are Found, together with their legal representation and the accompaniment of the Cerezo Mexico Committee and Peace Brigades International, carried out this week reconnaissance activities in different spaces of the city of Oaxaca with the National Search Commission (CNB), as part of the work of the Special Search Commission (CEB), an institution created by judicial order of the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation to find the fate and whereabouts of Gabriel and Edmundo.”

It adds: “From July 16 to 18, reconnaissance activities were carried out at some points that are important to delimit in order to carry out, in future days, search procedures in order to find the fate and whereabouts of Gabriel and Edmundo. …Today there are more and more clues that can lead us not only to their location but also, possibly, to find the whereabouts of other victims who are in this same circumstance.”

Among the demands made: “We believe it is of the utmost importance to call on other relatives of victims of forced disappearance in the state of Oaxaca who have not given their testimonies or who want to provide new information to do so within the framework of the work of the Special Search Commission.”

The full media release can be read on the Cerezo Committee website at Boletín de prensa: Informe sobre Comisión Especial de Búsqueda caso desaparición forzada de Gabriel Alberto Cruz Sánchez y Edmundo Reyes Amaya.

The 18-minute video of the press conference can be seen here.

A Noticias Oaxaca NVI news article on this can be read here.

Background

Edmundo and Gabriel, members of the Popular Democratic Revolutionary Party (PDPR) – Popular Revolutionary Army (EPR), were forcibly disappeared by the Mexican police and military on May 25, 2007, in Oaxaca.

The EPR made its first public appearance on June 28, 1996, at a memorial service in the state of Guerrero commemorating the massacre of 17 campesinos by state police the year before. About 70 armed men reportedly fired 17 shots into the air, one for each campesino killed. The armed leftist guerilla movement has also conducted operations in Chiapas, Guanajuato, Tlaxcala and Veracruz. In September 2007, it claimed responsibility for bomb attacks on six pipelines demanding the return of their comrades Edmundo and Gabriel.

Nadín Reyes Maldonado (daughter of Edmundo) and Margarita Cruz Sánchez (sister of Gabriel) have continued the search for their family members.

Commenting on the case of Edmundo and Gabriel in July 2019, Amnesty International stated: “Enforced disappearances involving State agents and disappearances perpetrated by non-State agents remain commonplace in Mexico.”

Timeline of PBI accompaniment

Proceso has reported: “On May 6, 2019, the Fourth District Court of Amparo in Criminal Matters in Mexico City issued a sentence that recognized ‘the serious violation of human rights’ against Popular Revolutionary Army members ‘by agents of the Mexican State’.” That decision was appealed by the Attorney General’s Office (FGR) and the Secretariat of National Defence (Sedena). The Committee of Relatives of the Detained and Disappeared notes: “On August 10, 2022, the First Chamber of the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation issued the ruling in favor of the victims, Gabriel Alberto Cruz Sánchez and Edmundo Reyes Amaya.”

Photo: PBI-Mexico at the August 10, 2022, ruling.

Photo: PBI-Mexico accompanies the Cerezo Committee who will be part of the Special Search Commission, October 26, 2022.

A Special Search Commission was then established on November 3, 2022. A first objective was to develop a comprehensive search plan.

Photo: PBI-Mexico at the formation of the International Solidarity Committee with the families and accompanying organizations, December 8, 2022.

In September 2023, La Jornada reported that the relatives went to the Attorney General’s Office (FGR) and demanded that the Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office (FGJ) comply with the decision of the Supreme Court (SCJN) and draw up a comprehensive plan that includes the review of all military installations where Edmundo and Gabriel are presumed to have been illegally detained and then deprived of their lives.

Photo: PBI-Mexico at the 10th session of the Special Search Commission (CEB), April 4, 2024.

Photo: On July 3, 2024 PBI-Mexico accompanied relatives of Edmundo Reyes and Gabriel Cruz demand progress at 12th meeting of search commission in Mexico City.

We continue to follow this.

Rita, a film based on the Hogar Seguro fire, to premiere at Montreal film festival, July 25

By
Brent Patterson
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The film “Rita” will be shown at the Fantasia International Film Festival in Montreal on July 25 starting at 6:50 pm (18:50).

The screening will be hosted by Jayro Bustamante, a Guatemalan film director and screenwriter.

On the film festival website, Kat Ellinger writes: “[The] story [is] based on a harrowing real-life event, where 41 young women horrifically burned to death inside a Guatemalan orphanage in 2017, in the midst of a protest about inhumane conditions.”

The Guardian reports: “[Cynthia Phaola Morales]  was one of only 15 survivors of the blaze at the Virgen de la Asunción (HSVA), in San José Pinula, just outside Guatemala City, which broke out on the morning of 8 March 2017. She and 55 other girls had been locked in a tiny room with no food or access to a toilet, as punishment for an attempted escape from the shelter. The fire started when one of the girls set a mattress alight in protest at their treatment. Despite the girls’ pleas for help the doors of the room remained locked for nine minutes.”

PBI-Guatemala accompanied lawyer Edgar Pérez

The Guardian article about this new film also highlights: “In January, the trial of eight government officials and police officers charged in connection with the fire finally got under way. They are charged with the abuse of minors, breach of duty and manslaughter. Edgar Pérez, a lawyer at Bufete Jurídico de Derechos Humanos en Guatemala (the Guatemalan Human Rights Law Firm), which represents 14 of the girls’ families, says the charges do not correspond to the severity of what happened in 2017.”

It further notes: “The trial is expected to last for months, as only one hearing is held each week. Pérez says that from the testimonies given at the trial so far, ‘if the staff at the home had acted more promptly, many lives would have been saved’. ‘In fact, [the fire] could have been avoided altogether if there had been trained personnel, people with conscience [working there] and real policies for the care of children and adolescents in the country.’”

The Peace Brigades International-Guatemala Project accompanies Edgar Pérez and the Human Rights Law Firm (BDH).

PBI-Canada met with Pérez at his office in Guatemala City in May 2023.

Photo: PBI-Guatemala accompanies BDH at hearing related to the Hogar Seguro fire.

PBI-Guatemala accompanies lawyer Edgar Pérez at trial of state officials and police in the deaths of young women at shelter fire (January 9, 2023)

Peace Brigades International shares Annual Review 2023

By
Brent Patterson
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Photo: Our just-released Annual Review opens with a quote from Indigenous Maya Poqomchi’ rights defender Sandra Calel (on the left) of the PBI-Guatemala accompanied Verapaz Union of Campesina Organizations (UVOC).

Peace Brigades International has released its Annual Review 2023.

It notes: “Peace Brigades International (PBI) protects and empowers human rights and environmental defenders so that they can make changes in their communities and for our planet. We contribute to a robust civil society by building and sharing the tools, tactics, and networks necessary to prevent threats, reduce risk, and influence decision-makers.”

PBI is present in Colombia, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Kenya, Indonesia, Nepal and Nicaragua (Costa Rica), as well as Canada, Spain and Catalunya, Germany, the United Kingdom, the United States, Italy, the Netherlands, Belgium, France, Ireland, Norway and Switzerland.

Our staff and volunteers come from many more countries.

Among those PBI supports are land, environmental, and Indigenous rights defenders. The Annual Review highlights: “Land, environmental, and Indigenous defenders fight to defend their territories from activities such as mining, deforestation, industrial agriculture, and other forms of exploitation that threaten their livelihoods, cultures, and environments.”

One of the key forms of our work is physical accompaniment. The Annual Review explains: “A strategy pioneered by PBI. Our front-line teams embody the international human rights cause. They are physically present, accompany defenders in high[1]risk situations and deter potential perpetrators of violence.”

PBI also helped to raise awareness.

With respect to numbers: “In 2023 we supported 3,493 human rights defenders, 68 organizations, and 950 communities globally.”

Within that, we accompanied 1,327 land, environmental, and Indigenous defenders.” The Annual Review further highlights that: “Land, Indigenous and environmental defenders play an important role in providing a future where the rights of the earth are protected. Their courageous work has been met with high levels of violence. Approximately 30% of all attacks on defenders are linked to extractive industries.”

Profiling the advocacy tour with Mariana Azucena Villarreal Fría of the Network in Defence of Indigenous Territory in the Sierra Tarahumara (REDETI) organized by PBI-Mexico, PBI-USA and PBI-Canada, the Annual Review notes: “PBI in Canada also accompanied Mariana to meet with the Canadian Ombudsperson for Responsible Enterprise (CORE), the federal government minister of Crown–Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada, and officials from Global Affairs Canada (GAC).”

Manuel Jabonero Prieto (PBI-Mexico) and Mariana (REDETI) also joined PBI-Canada Board members Ed Bianchi and Meera Karunananthan along with coordinator Brent Patterson for dinner when they were in Ottawa.

To read Annual Review 2023, click here.

Read the Peace Brigades International-Colombia Project Annual Report 2023

By
Brent Patterson
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The Peace Brigades International-Colombia Project has just released its Annual Report 2023. You can read that in English here.

Their annual report highlights: “Our mission is to protect action spaces for human rights defenders who are targeted by violent acts because of their work in defending and promoting human rights and social justice.”

It further notes: “Even though violence and human rights violations decreased slightly in 2023, there were still 188 murders of human rights leaders and defenders, 94 massacres with 303 victims and 167,540 victims of forced displacement. …Of particular concern is the situation faced by women defenders. There was a 35.2% increase in the number of murders of women social leaders in 2023 compared to the previous year.”

To help address this situation, PBI-Colombia provided 224 accompaniments in 2023. Notably, 28.6 per cent of those accompaniments were with women defenders, while 44.6 per cent included women and men defenders.

In 2023, PBI-Canada worked with our colleagues at PBI-Colombia by helping to amplify key accompaniments and issues, including:

– PBI-Colombia accompanies Nomadesc, Justice and Peace at meetings in Buenaventura with Canadian Embassy (January 31, 2023)

– PBI-Colombia accompanies CREDHOS and FEDEPESAN on verification visit to the caño San Silvestre (March 10, 2023)

– PBI-Colombia accompanied CSPP and social leaders raise concerns about Frontera Energy with shareholders (July 20, 2023)

– PBI-Colombia accompanies CREDHOS and FEDEPESAN at meetings with Canadian Embassy in Barrancabermeja (August 17, 2023)

– PBI-Colombia accompanied defender Berenice Celeita visits Ottawa (November 28, 2023)

– PBI-Colombia accompanies return of Indigenous Wounaan community to their territory after their displacement by the armed conflict (December 21, 2023)

Already in 2024, along with amplifying many more accompaniments:

– PBI-Canada co-organizes webinar encouraging applications to be a PBI-Colombia field volunteer (February 27, 2024)

And this fall, we will highlight an issue of concern raised by many Canadian unions in relation to the National Strike of April-May 2021 through a virtual screening of a film already seen by PBI-Colombia:

– PBI-Colombia joins MOCAO for a screening of the documentary ‘The Eyes That Are Reborn’ about police violence (June 19, 2024)

We also plan to bring Oscar Ramirez to Canada this November to highlight the impacts of the Canadian oil company Frontera Energy on social leaders in the community of San Luis de Palenque (a tour delayed by the rejection of visas):

– PBI-Canada organizing to bring criminalized Colombian social leaders to Toronto and Ottawa in February 2024 (December 8, 2023)

For more on our collaborations with PBI-Colombia, please also see:

– Photo-journal of 10-day PBI-Canada visit to frontline communities in Colombia (July 8, 2022)

We join with our colleagues at PBI-Colombia in expressing our appreciation to Unifor for their support of this work.

Photo: Unifor Social Justice Fund Director Navjeet Sidhu visits PBI-Colombia staff and frontline volunteers in Bogota, May 2023.

PBI-Mexico accompanied Espacio OSC highlights Canada’s recommendation on the protection of journalists and human rights defenders

By
Brent Patterson
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The Civil Society Organization (OSC) Space (Espacio) for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders and Journalists has highlighted Canada’s recommendation to Mexico on the protection of human rights defenders and journalists during the Universal Periodic Review (examen periódico universal) at the United Nations earlier this year.

They have tweeted: “In the recent #UPR2024,#México accepted the recommendation of #Canada regarding the need to strengthen the intersectional and gender perspective in the protection provided by @Mecanismo_MX [Protection Mechanism] to defenders of #humanrights and #journalists in risk.”

The image at the top says: “Recommendations to Mexico regarding human rights defenders and journalists. Strengthen from an intersectional and gender perspective, the federal mechanism for the protection of human rights defenders and journalists, specifically in the areas of prevention, protection, investigation and reparation.”

At the UN UPR session held on January 24 this year, Canada recommended: “29.32 Strengthen, from an intersectional and gender perspective, the federal Protection Mechanism for Human Rights Defenders and Journalists, specifically in the areas of prevention, protection, investigation, and reparation (Canada).”

Prior to this session, Canada had asked Mexico: “How will the new General law to respect, protect, guarantee, and promote the rights of human rights defenders and journalists address key challenges under the current mechanism, including in achieving results, improving federal-state-municipal cooperation, and promoting prevention of violence against human rights defenders and journalists?”

Notably, the response from Mexico included:

  1. As of July 2023, a total of 2,130 persons were benefiting from the services of National Protection Mechanism for Human Rights Defenders and Journalists, 157 and 26 federative entities had at least one law or set of specialized regulations providing for their protection.
  2. In the period 2018-2023, the Mechanism’s budget increased by 138 per cent and, at the end of 2022, its staff had increased by 70 per cent.

The Mechanism

The Peace Brigades International-Mexico Project has noted that a Protection Mechanism was created for journalists in Autumn 2010. Later, the Law for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders and Journalists was signed into law in June 2012.

That law obliges both federal and state authorities to protect the rights of journalists and human rights defenders.

PBI-Mexico has commented that “the Mechanism continues to demonstrate notable deficiencies and concerning failures.”

The situation in Mexico

In March 2024, Amnesty International and the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) produced the report ‘No one guarantees my safety’ and highlighted that “eight journalists have been killed while enrolled in Mexico’s Mechanism for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders and Journalists in the last seven years, a figure that highlights the urgent need to strengthen and reform the institution…”

They further noted: “Since [the year 2000], at least 141 journalists and other media workers have been killed, according to CPJ research; at least 61 of those killings were found to be directly related to their work.”

As to why so many journalists have been killed, they responded: “Most threats and attacks are linked to the country’s ongoing struggle with violent criminal groups, the militarization of the so-called ‘war on drugs’ and the failure of law enforcement agencies to keep journalists and the public safe amid alleged corruption.”

The situation in Canada

A survey of journalists and media workers in Canada conducted by the polling firm Ipsos between September 27 and October 13, 2021, found that “72% experienced some form of harassment in the past year” and “just over one in ten of those who have experienced online harassment have received a death threat in the course of their work; nearly as many received threats against their family, were threatened with blackmail, or were threatened with rape or sexual assault.”

In August 2022, CTV reporter Judy Trinh reported: “[The Canadian Association of Journalists/CAJ] says there was an increase in online abuse and hate directed at reporters during the Freedom Convoy in Ottawa [that took place from January 22 to February 23, 2022]. Now that the protests have fizzled, the CAJ says the attacks have morphed into what appears to be a coordinated online campaign directed at women journalists, especially those who are persons of colour.”

In December 2023, Unifor, a union that represents more than 10,000 media workers in Canada, noted: “Unifor conducted a survey in late 2021 to early 2022 to document experiences of harassment journalists faced. Women, journalists of colour and 2SLGBTQIA+ people were disproportionately targeted for harassment.”

The situation for environmental journalists in both countries

On May 2, 2024, the day prior to World Press Freedom Day, The Guardian reported: “At least 749 environmental journalists have faced violence and intimidation in the last 15 years, [the United Nations body UNESCO found]. It said that 44 reporters were murdered between 2009 and 2023 but that resulted in just five convictions.”

In Canada, journalist Brandi Morin was grabbed and threatened with arrest by Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) C-IRG officer Jason Charney on August 15, 2023, while Morin was reporting on an Indigenous-led blockade against the logging of old growth forest at Fairy Creek on Pacheedaht territory in British Columbia.

The online news outlet The Narwhal and photojournalist Amber Bracken have also filed a lawsuit against the RCMP for the violation of their Charter rights when Bracken was arrested and detained while covering the enforcement of an injunction on Wet’suwet’en territory in November 2021. That civil lawsuit against the RCMP is expected to start later this year on October 15 in Vancouver.

And in Mexico, this would include Indigenous Náhuatl environmental activist Samir Flores Soberanes, founder of Community Radio Amiltzinko 100.7 FM and a member of the PBI-Mexico accompanied Peoples’ Front in Defence of Land and Water (FPDTA), who was murdered on February 21, 2019, for his opposition to the PIM megaproject.

PBI-Canada will continue to work with PBI-Mexico and Espacio OSC to highlight the need to protect frontline human rights defenders and journalists who face threats, harassment and being killed due to their work.

Further reading: Turning the Tide on Impunity: Protection and Access to Justice for Journalists and Human Rights Defenders in Mexico (March 2019).

PBI-Kenya supports call for police accountability following the deaths of more than 40 people at recent protests

By
Brent Patterson
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Video still: Reuters news report, July 16, 2024.

The BBC reports: “Kenya’s police chief [Inspector General] Japhet Koome has resigned [on Friday July 12], following weeks of violent protests against proposed tax hikes in which more than 40 people died. Human rights groups have accused police of shooting dozens of protestors, some of them fatally, and abducting or arbitrarily arresting hundreds more. …Mr Koome’s resignation has been welcomed by Kenyans, yet police officers who caught on film firing at protesters remain at large.”

Reuters adds: “[Some activists] have also accused police of using excessive force and abducting dozens of people as they tried to stop the protests. …The body of Denzel Omondi, a protester who disappeared during the demonstrations, was discovered last week in a quarry outside the capital Nairobi, Amnesty International said. It called for an independent investigation into his death.”

On July 16, the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights (KNCHR) said that at least 50 people had been killed in the protests over the past four weeks, that 413 people have been injured, 682 have been arbitrarily detained and 59 have been abducted or are missing in connection with the protests.

Now a statement signed by the Civic Freedoms Forum and the Police Reforms Working Group-Kenya (whose members include Amnesty International Kenya, Peace Brigades International Kenya and others) have criticized the 2014 Security Laws Amendment Act that gives the President sole authority to nominate the [Inspector General/police chief] for parliamentary vetting, bypassing the National Police Service Commission.

The groups highlight: “This change continues to undermine police independence, accountability and the spirit of the constitution. It has fueled widespread and systemic police corruption, extortion, criminality, widespread human rights violations and lack of public accountability.”

They call for the competitive recruitment of the next Inspector General.

The statement further notes: “The lack of accountability and the belief that their superiors will protect them emboldens police officers to use unlawful force against protesters and members of the public. To break this cycle, superiors must be held criminally liable in line with the principle of command responsibility… It remains a matter of public concern that no single officer, as yet, has been arrested for the arbitrary arrests, abductions or unlawful killing of Kenyans in recent weeks.”

The full statement can be read at Call For Competitive Recruitment Of The Next Inspector General Of Police (July 17, 2024).

Further reading: PBI-Kenya calls for the release of activists arbitrarily detained before protest against vote on finance bill (June 25, 2024).

PBI-Guatemala accompanies Jennifer Harbury and FAMDEGUA at hearing in the case of Efrain Everardo Bámaca

By
Brent Patterson
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PBI-Guatemala has posted:

“Today #PBI accompanies Jennifer Harbury and [the Association of Relatives of the Detained and Disappeared of Guatemala – FAMDEGUA] to a deposition hearing in Jennifer’s #BámacaCase. Jennifer initiated a search for the whereabouts of her husband, guerrilla leader Efrain Everardo Bámaca, beginning with his disappearance alive in 1992.

At today’s hearing she was to give her anticipated testimony about her search and the results of her investigations to contribute to the legal process against the military who disappeared, tortured and ultimately murdered her husband.

High Risk Court Judge Claudette Dominguez suspended the hearing due to an injunction notified at the beginning of the hearing by the Public Prosecutor, about which no other party to the proceedings has been previously informed.”

Diario de Centro América reports:

“Claudette Domínguez, judge of Mayor Riego “A” has suspended the evidentiary hearing for the disappearance of guerrilla commander Efraín Bámaca Velásquez.

The American citizen and wife of Bámaca Velásquez, later 32 years old, was to testify today in said court, but an injunction filed by Salvador Eduardo Rubio Parra forced the judge to suspend the hearing.

The injunction states that it annuls the actions of the Human Rights Prosecutor of the Public Prosecutor’s Office (MP) in the Bámaca Velásquez case, and prevents further investigations.

Alejandro Axpuac, plaintiff attorney stated, “the injunction is fraudulent and illegal, it goes against the sentence of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACHR)”.

The judge, without prior knowledge of the amparo, denied Axpuac’s request and granted five days to the Public Prosecutor’s Office for a detailed report on the amparo.”

The Guatemalan newspaper Republica further specifies: “As a result of this amparo, the Public Ministry (MP) has a period of 5 days from July 16 to inform the court of the status of the investigation of the Bámaca case.”

Beyond this, Impunity Watch comments: “It is unacceptable that the State of #Guatemala continues to deny #Justice to Jennifer Harbury for the forced disappearance of her husband Efraín Bámaca in 1992. Today Jennifer’s statement was suspended due to a malicious injunction seeking to obstruct the investigation.”

And the Washington, DC and Guatemala-based non-profit organization Guatemala Human Rights Commission (GHRC-USA) posted:

To watch the hearing, go to the Verdad y Justicia en Guatemala Facebook page here.

For more, please see: PBI-Guatemala accompanies FAMDEGUA and Jennifer Harbury at hearing on death of Efrain Bamaca Velasquez (July 16, 2024).

Famdegua repost.

The photo above was taken not long after the disappearance of Bamaca on March 12, 1992; the photo below from today, July 16, 2024.

PBI-Guatemala accompanies FAMDEGUA and Jennifer Harbury at hearing on death of Efrain Bamaca Velasquez

By
Brent Patterson
-

On July 15, PBI-Guatemala posted: “Tomorrow #PBIaccompanies Jennifer Harbury and [the Association of Relatives of the Detained and Disappeared of Guatemala] FAMDEGUA Guatemala in the #Bámaca case.”

The Bámaca case refers to Efrain Bamaca Velasquez, an Indigenous Maya-Mam man. In 1990, Bámaca had risen to the rank of commander of the “Luis Ixmata” front of the Revolutionary Organization of People in Arms (ORPA).

He was known as Commandante Everardo.

ORPA along with the Guerrilla Army of the Poor (EGP), the Rebel Armed Forces (FAR), and the National Directing Nucleus of PGT (PGT-NDN) formed the Guatemalan National Revolutionary Unity (URNG) during the armed conflict in Guatemala.

Jennifer Harbury refers to the U.S. lawyer who Bamaca met in Guatemala in 1990. They married in September 1991.

On March 12, 1992, Bamaca disappeared after an armed encounter between the ORPA and the Guatemalan military. He was 35-years-old at the time.

Bamaca was tortured for more than a year before he was murdered in September 1993.

Although the U.S. State Department claimed it had no knowledge of Bamaca’s disappearance, documents released in 1995 showed the U.S. government knew he had been taken alive by the Guatemalan army.

In December 2000, after Harbury had launched a case with them, the Costa Rica-based Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACtHR) found the Guatemalan military guilty of the disappearance, torture, and execution of Bamaca.

In October 2006, the government of Guatemala apologized for the murder of Bamaca but took no further action.

Harbury has been seeking justice for past 32 years.

On Tuesday July 16 at 8:30 am (Guatemala time) she will testify before a Guatemalan court in what is known now as the Bamaca case.

PBI-Guatemala accompanied FAMDEGUA from 1992 to 1999 and renewed that accompaniment in April 2024.

For more, watch the video Dirty Secrets: Jennifer, Everardo & the CIA in Guatemala. You can also read Bamaca Velásquez v. Guatemala: An Expansion of the Inter-American System’s Jurisprudence on Reparations, History of Guatemala (Impunity Watch) and Everado Bamaca Case (Guatemalan Human Rights Commission).

You may also be interested in this book.

PBI-Honduras accompanies CEHPRODEC on a visit to communities in the municipality of San Esteban in Olancho

By
Brent Patterson
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On July 12, PBI-Honduras posted: “In recent days, we accompanied @Cehprodechn on a visit to communities in the municipality of San Esteban (Olancho). We highlight the tireless work of CEHPRODEC to promote food sovereignty and #agroecology in the communities of the department of #Olancho.”

In October 2019, Defensores en linea reported: “The department of Olancho is formed by 23 municipalities and in most of them concessions for exploration and exploitation have been granted, according to the report ‘The State of Mining in the Department of Olancho’, carried out by the Honduran Center for Development Promotion Community (CEHPRODEC).”

In that article, Carlos Padilla of CEHPRODEC explained: “Mining generates social conflicts, division of the Honduran family and communities, because since they arrive they start talking to them with promises of development and great benefits, but nobody really sees them.”

In September 2022, PBI-Honduras accompanied CEHPRODEC carrying out a census in the municipalities of Gualaco and San Esteban in Olancho. PBI-Honduras commented at that time: “We were able to observe how some communities, their waters, lands and agricultural production are affected by hydroelectric projects.”

In the 9-year period of 2014 to 2022 inclusive, 96 land and environmental defenders were killed in Honduras, according to Global Witness reports.

CEHPRODEC on Canada in Honduras

In September 2022, Donald Hernández, the executive director of CEHPRODEC, participated in a public forum in Kingston, Ontario, Canada co-hosted by Development and Peace animator Kiegan Irish.

Irish writes: “Asked by an audience member what Hondurans thought of Canada, Hernández replied, ‘For those whose lands are stolen and poisoned by mining companies, Canada is synonymous with mining!’”

Between 1998 and 2005, Canada emerged as the leading investor in mining in Honduras. Of the 154 energy and mining concessions granted before a moratorium on new mining concessions in 2006, nearly 100 had been owned by Canadian corporations at one point.

CEHPRODEC mobilized against the General Mining Law that was passed by the Honduran Congress on January 23, 2013.

MiningWatch Canada has explained: “The General Mining Law was developed with technical assistance paid for with Canadian overseas development aid. Its passage in 2013 lifted a seven-year moratorium on any new mining projects.”

It also noted: “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.”

In May 2014, CEHPRODEC contributed to the report titled The Impact of Canadian Mining in Latin America and Canada’s Responsibility that was submitted to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR).

That report noted:

-“The political and economic support Canada gives Canadian companies (through mechanisms such as Export Development Canada (EDC), the Investment Board of the Canadian Pension Plan, and the Canadian International Development Agency) is provided without adequate controls to prevent the violation of human rights in the countries where the companies that receive these benefits operate.”

-“Trade agreements usually contain clauses on human rights and environmental protection. However, they lack the legal bases to force the parties — and, fundamentally, Canada — to comply with the obligation to respect and guarantee the human rights that are violated in the host countries by the actions of Canadian mining companies.”

The Canada-Honduras Free Trade Agreement and parallel agreements on labour and environmental cooperation entered into force on October 1, 2014.

PBI-Honduras has accompanied the Honduran Center for the Promotion of Community Development (CEHPRODEC) since May 2014.

Further reading: PBI-Honduras accompanies CEHPRODEC in carrying out census in communities impacted by hydroelectric projects (September 6, 2022), PBI-Honduras accompanies CEHPRODEC as it works to defend the Talgua River and the Sierra de Agalta from logging (May 27, 2022), and PBI-Honduras accompanies CEHPRODEC at meeting with Tolupan peoples protecting ancestral lands from mining (July 13, 2021).

RCMP C-IRG violence not reported in Canada’s voluntary national review on the SDGs to the United Nations

By
Brent Patterson
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Dramatic Video Shows Militarized Canadian Police Raid Wet’suwet’en Land Defenders & Journalists (Democracy Now!, November 24, 2021).

United Nations member states, including Canada, adopted the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in 2015 with the target of accomplishing them by 2030.

Sustainable Development Goal 16 promises to “promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels.”

Under SDG 16, the International Land Coalition says: “Countries are expected to report on the number of verified cases of killing, kidnapping, enforced disappearance, arbitrary detention and torture of human rights defenders (HRD).”

However, they highlight as a crucial concern, in the Voluntary National Reviews (VNRs) of 162 countries, only 3 countries reported that at least one HRD had been killed or attacked, 7 countries reported zero cases, and 152 countries did not report at all.

Canada’s VNRs

The Government of Canada has noted: “On July 19, 2023, Canada presented its second Voluntary National Review at the United Nations High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development. The review highlights Canada’s progress, lessons learned and challenges in implementing the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development at home and abroad since Canada’s first Voluntary National Review in 2018.”

Pages 84 to 86 of the second VNR, covering the period of 2018 to 2023, addresses Sustainable Development Goal 16.

It highlights: “A primary focus of Canada’s efforts in achieving SDG 16 is to advance reconciliation with Indigenous Peoples and build a more inclusive society free from racism and discrimination.”

Arbitrary detention of Wet’suwet’en land defenders

While the International Land Coalition says countries are expected to report on the arbitrary detention of human rights defenders, there is no reference in Canada’s voluntary national review to RCMP Community-Industry Response Group (C-IRG) raids and the arbitrary detention of Wet’suwet’en land defenders.

YintahAccess.com has noted: “In three large-scale police actions in January 2019, February 2020, and November 2021, a total of 74 people have been arrested and detained, including legal observers and members of the media.”

The omission is also notable because Canada has received three letters from the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination expressing concern about these RCMP C-IRG raids.

The third letter – dated April 29, 2022 – called on Canada to: “Prevent and duly investigate the allegations of surveillance measures, practices of arbitrary detention, instances of excessive use of force against protesters, in particular those belonging to the Secwepemc and Wet’suwet’en peoples, by the RCMP, CIRG, and private security firms.”

Significantly, a report on the RCMP C-IRG raids released by Amnesty International Canada in December 2023 found that: “Wet’suwet’en land defenders and their supporters were arbitrarily arrested for defending their land and exercising their Indigenous rights and their right to freedom of peaceful assembly.”

Next steps

The report A Crucial Gap 2023 published by the Alliance for Land, Indigenous and Environmental Defenders makes seven recommendations including: “Reporting agencies and bodies must make the work of … land, environmental and indigenous human rights defenders, more visible, highlighting the issues and challenges involved in this work and evaluating how existing supports to these groups can be improved.”

It appears in its most recent Voluntary National Review, the Government of Canada has not yet done this.

The current United Nations High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development will conclude this Wednesday July 17.

The abuse of process hearing on allegations of RCMP C-IRG violence and the arbitrary detention of land defenders at the time of the November 2021 raid on Wet’suwet’en territory is expected to resume on September 3 to 11 in Smithers, British Columbia.

A systemic investigation of the RCMP C-IRG by the Civilian Review and Complaints Commission (CRCC) launched on March 9, 2023 is ongoing with no completion date in sight. The most recent investigation update from the independent federal agency was posted in November 2023, almost eight months ago.

#HLPF2024 #SDG16

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