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PBI-Colombia welcomes new brigade members, PBI-Honduras seeks new applicants with November 9 deadline

By
Brent Patterson
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Photo: (from left to right) Ita from Mexico, Mar, Michael and Celia from the Spanish State, Valeria from Mexico.

Yesterday, PBI-Colombia welcomed five new volunteers. The project noted: “From PBI-Colombia we receive with great enthusiasm the new brigade members, who from the Urabá-Bogotá and Barrancabermeja teams will accompany Colombian human rights organizations in their work of defense for life and peacebuilding.”

The brigadistas highlight: “Being part of PBI fills us with emotion and reaffirms the personal convictions that brought us so far, to get deeply and closely involved in the defense of human rights. …We continue to walk energetically and actively in the construction of a more just, dignified and safe world for all.”

PBI-Honduras, November 9

At the same time, PBI-Honduras is seeking new field volunteers.

They have posted: “To start the training and selection process you have to meet the requirements detailed below, complete the personal application and ask for two references from the associative, militant, solidarity, work, NGO or academic field. These people will have to complete the referral form and send this documentation to formacion@pbi-honduras.org until November 9, 2024, inclusive.”

Those who are selected out of that process will then take part in a training week: “The training will be carried out in person in May 2025 in Europe (Basque Country or Italy) or in Latin America (Honduras or Colombia), during 8 days of intensive training.”

And then those selected from the training week who choose to move forward with this will be incorporated into teams, but PBI-Honduras notes: “ incorporation into the team is not immediate, sometimes it takes several months.”

For more about the application process, click here.

For now, we welcome the new PBI-Colombia volunteers and look forward to meeting the new PBI-Honduras volunteers next year!

“As a collective, we want to turn our pain into rights” – Yanette Bautista of the “Nydia Erika Bautista” Foundation

By
Brent Patterson
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Today, October 23, the National Day of Recognition of Women Searchers of Victims of Forced Disappearance is commemorated in Colombia.

On this day, Amnesty International has amplified the voice of Yanette Bautista, whose sister Nydia was forcibly disappeared in 1987.

A key excerpt from Yanette’s testimony in Rolling Stone magazine notes:

“When I finally returned to Colombia [from exile] in 2007, I started my own organization. …I wanted to empower families to search for their loved ones, so we started the Foundation in my living room, with a small group of families.

Our collective, Fundación Nydia Erika Bautista, is designed for women to help each other. There are no hierarchies. It is an exchange of knowledge. We provide legal support, document stories, and do advocacy. We have a leadership school to empower women seekers in different parts of the country. We work in eight regions of Colombia, and we support 519 cases.

Our collective is mainly made up of women; Our research has revealed that 95% of those searching for loved ones are women, mothers, sisters, and wives.

As a collective, we want to turn our pain into rights. That is why we drafted a bill, to empower women who are searching for victims of enforced disappearance and to promote the rights of those women. The law came into force in 2024. However, our next task is to ensure that it is implemented and realized.”

The full article can be read at “Me quité los tacones, y me puse los zapatos para empezar a buscar” (Rolling Stone en Español, October 23, 2024).

The Peace Brigades International-Colombia Project has been accompanying the “Nydia Erika Bautista” Foundation (FNEB) occasionally from 2007 and in full since 2016.

Photo: October 19, 2022, the day the Bill was filed.

Photo: April 4, 2024, the day the Comprehensive Law for the Protection of the Rights of Women Searchers was approved.

Amnistía Internacional Américas tweet: “#23OCT is the national day of #MujeresBuscadoras [Women Searchers] in #Colombia , an achievement of #SociedadCivil [Civil Society] led by @nydia_erika and searchers from all over the country, for the rights of those who decided to dedicate their lives to searching for their loved ones who are victims of #DesapariciónForzada [Enforced Disappearance].”

PBI-Canada calls on Minister Ng to support environmental defenders criminalized for protesting Canadian mining company

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

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

Photo: Mary Ng.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

PBI-Guatemala accompanies the Peaceful Resistance of the Poqomán People in Chinautla in struggle against sand mines

By
Brent Patterson
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PBI-Guatemala has posted:

“On Tuesday [October 15], #PBIacompanies the women at the #Chinautla Poqomam Village Peaceful Resistance.

At their meeting, they updated us about their upcoming activities and expressed their concerns regarding the safety situation of the community and defenders. They also shared with us their struggle for the recovery and recognition of communal lands, and the various problems they face.

The resistance continues to be organized against sand mines operating without a license in the territory, as well as underground garbage dumps and river pollution.”

Since 1989, the Peaceful Resistance of the Poqomán People in Chinautla (in Spanish – la Resistencia pacífica del pueblo Poqomam en Chinautla) have been defending their right to be consulted on the activities of various clay extraction companies operating in their territory (Arenera La Primavera, Arenera El Pino, Piedrinera San Luis and San Fernando Arenera). They are also defending their territory against the pollution caused by other businesses operating in the region.

PBI-Canada visited Chinautla in May 2023.

In April 2024, the 16-year-old son of Maya-Poqomam leader opposed to sand extraction in Chinautla, Guatemala killed by gunmen.

PBI-Guatemala received a request for accompaniment from the Peaceful Resistance of the Poqomán People in Chinautla, as they have been subject to attacks and criminalization. PBI-Guatemala began accompanying them in December 2018.

PBI-Colombia accompanies CAHUCOPANA as communities analyze and evaluate their self-protection measures

By
Brent Patterson
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The Humanitarian Action Corporation for Coexistence and Peace in Northeast Antioquia (Cahucopana) has posted:

“Resistance and denunciation, when the bullets sound, our voices more!

On the 15th of October, Cahucopana Nordeste and social organizations Guardias campesinas [Peasant Guard] @Gacena, #AMATNASB, (ancestral and traditional agro-mining association of Northeast Antioquia and South Bolivar) #AMUSUNASB (the Association of Women in Overcoming of Northeastern Antioquia and Southern Bolívar) met in the village of #MinaNueva to analyse and evaluate our community self-protection mechanisms for the defence and permanence of mining, peasant and ethnic communities in the territories.

Thanks to the international cooperation of the Embassy of Canadá in Colombia and with the accompaniment of Peace Brigades International – Colombia Project, [the German organization] Misereor, the United Nations Verification Mission in Colombia, DHColombia [the PBI-Colombia accompanied Associated Network of Human Rights Defenders], and Community Peacemaker Teams – Colombia.”

Cahucopana has been the victim of accusations, threats, harassment and murders since its creation in 2004. PBI-Colombia has accompanied Cahucopana since 2013.

PBI-Kenya expresses concern about the abduction of four Turkish asylum seekers and their forcible return to Turkey

By
Brent Patterson
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Photo from Velev news.

This statement from the Police Reforms Working Group says: “The principle of non-refoulement is a cornerstone of refugee protection. It has been recognised in international humanitarian law for more than seventy years.”

Refoulement refers to the forcible return of refugees or asylum seekers to a country where they are liable to be subjected to persecution.

The Working Group highlights that it is “shocked by the Government of Kenya’s admission that Kenyan law enforcement and foreign affairs agencies played a role in the refoulement and forced return of Mustafa Genç, Öztürk Uzun, Alparslan Taşçı, and Hüseyin Yeşilsu, four Turkish nationals from Kenya to Turkey.”

Image from DiploBrief.

This statement is signed by the Police Reforms Working Group-Kenya, an alliance of national and grassroots organizations, including Peace Brigades International Kenya (PBI Kenya), the Social Justice Centres Working Group, Amnesty International Kenya, the Wangu Kanja Foundation, and others.

Saadet Taşçı, the wife of Alparslan Taşçı, says she and her husband were among the seven people abducted by men in ski masks armed with AK47s who forced them into a large black SUV. Saadet, a British citizen and a minor, were later released.

The BBC reports: “Following the reported abduction, Kenyan law firm Mukele & Kakai said it was acting on behalf of four men who were registered refugees and warned airlines against allowing them to be taken on board. In a letter seen by the BBC, it described them as ‘victims of political victimisation’.”

DiploBrief, an international affairs digest, further explains: “Kenya on Monday [October 21] confirmed four Turkish nationals abducted on Friday [October 18] were repatriated to their country, effectively admitting being behind the abductions. Foreign Affairs Principal Secretary confirmed the repatriation was at the request of Turkish authorities, which effectively means the Kenyan government contravened the 1951 Refugee Convention in which it is a party.”

The Stockholm Center for Freedom also notes: “The incident has raised concerns that the kidnappers were operating under the direction of Turkish intelligence agency MİT, which is known to employ extralegal methods, including renditions, to secure the return of Gülen movement supporters abroad. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has been targeting followers of the Gülen movement, inspired by US-based Turkish Muslim cleric Fethullah Gülen, since the corruption investigations of December 17-25, 2013, which implicated then-prime minister Erdoğan, his family and his inner circle.”

The Center further expresses the concern: “According to a 2023 report by Freedom House on transnational repression, Turkey has become the world’s second most prolific perpetrator of transnational repression. A wide range of tactics used by the Turkish government against its critics abroad include illegal renditions.”

We continue to follow this.

Can the UN COP16 conference in Colombia help save the lives of frontline environmental defenders?

By
Brent Patterson
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Webinar speakers: Michel Forst, Yannick Wild, Berenice Celeita, Javier Garate.

In his opening message today to the United Nations COP16 biodiversity conference in Colombia, UN Secretary General António Guterres said: “Our task at this COP is to move from words to deeds.”

Those words, to be further negotiated at COP16, have included the pledge of “the full protection of environmental human rights defenders.”

Can a UN process help save the lives of frontline defenders?

Join us on THURSDAY OCTOBER 24 at 1 pm ET for a one-hour webinar with a UN Special Rapporteur and expert speakers – with simultaneous English-Spanish interpretation – that will examine this fundamental question.

Register now here.

Global Witness has estimated the 196 land and environmental defenders were killed around the world in 2023, a record 79 of them were killed in Colombia, the country hosting the COP16 meeting.

And with a UN report released last week that says 248 Colombian environmental leaders have been murdered since 2016, Juliette De Rivero, the UN’s human rights representative in Colombia, commented that COP16 is “an opportunity to improve the protection of environmental defenders.”

Agnès Callamard, Amnesty International’s London, UK-based Secretary General, has further commented: “Environmental rights defenders and land protectors often risk their lives to protect our planet and its biodiversity. Delegations [to COP16] should keep this harsh reality in mind when they meet in Colombia, which has long been the deadliest country in the world for environmental activists. The monitoring framework should include parameters to capture initiatives and legal protections for land defenders, as well as their impact and consequences, including in terms of impunity.”

Join us on THURSDAY OCTOBER 24 at 1 pm ET to hear:

-introductory comments from Michel Forst, UN Special Rapporteur on Environmental Defenders (Aarhus Convention)

–Berenice Celeita, the Cali, Colombia-based president of the Association for Research and Social Action (Nomadesc)

–Javier Garate, the Washington-based US Policy Advisor on Land and Environmental Defenders at Global Witness who is in Cali for COP16

–Yannick Wild, the Advocacy Coordinator for PBI-Switzerland who regularly intervenes at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva.

The webinar will be moderated by Peace Brigades International-Canada Board member Meera Karunananthan, a professor of Geography and Environmental Studies at Carleton University in Ottawa who also supports frontline water protectors through the Blue Planet Project.

Register now here.

PBI-Mexico condemns the murder of Indigenous Maya Tzotzil Padre Marcelo Pérez Pérez

By
Brent Patterson
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PBI-Mexico has posted:

“We are deeply shocked by the murder of Father Marcelo.

We condemn his murder, call for a thorough investigation into this crime, and recall the Mexican State’s obligation to protect human rights defenders.”

In July 2022, PBI-Mexico joined with other organizations to “urge the federal government to protect and guarantee the personal freedom of Father Marcelo Pérez Pérez” and called “for the recognition of the legitimate work of defense of human rights carried out by Father Marcelo Pérez Pérez and for all pertinent actions to be carried out to guarantee the exercise of his rights, as well as his physical and emotional integrity.”

Front Line Defenders has previously noted: “Father Marcelo Pérez Pérez is an indigenous priest and human rights defender based in Simojovel. …Within the movement of Pueblo Creyente por la Defensa de la Madre Tierra (Believing People for the Defense of Mother Earth),  Marcelo Pérez Pérez has led pilgrimages and activities related to issues such as access to healthcare, poverty and violence, targeting the population of the Municipality of Simojovel in Chiapas. Despite the lack of political will and protection, he continues his religious activities in defence of the rights of indigenous peoples.”

The Associated Press reports: “Catholic priest Marcelo Pérez, an activist for Indigenous peoples and farm laborers in southern Mexico, was killed on Sunday [October 20]. The prosecutors’ office in the city of San Cristóbal de las Casas, in the state of Chiapas, said the religious leader was shot dead by two gunmen when he was in his van. Pérez was a member of the Tzotzil Indigenous people and had just finished serving a Mass when he was attacked. He served the community for two decades and was known as a negotiator in conflicts in a mountainous region of Chiapas where crime, violence and land disputes are rife.”

The Jesuits in Mexico have stated: “This region doesn’t just suffer from murders, but also forced recruitment (into criminal groups), kidnappings, threats and ransacking of its natural resources.”

And the United Nations human rights office in Mexico says: “Several national and international organizations had publicly warned about the growing number of threats, attacks and acts of criminalization against (Perez), which have intensified in recent years due to his tireless work in favor of justice and the rights of indigenous peoples.”

The Fray Bartolomé de Las Casas Human Rights Center, a civil organization that works for the defence and promotion of human rights in the State of Chiapas, is calling “on national and international civil society to repudiate this crime by joining our demands” including “that the Mexican State provide truth and justice in the face of this crime through a diligent investigation of the material and intellectual authors, taking into account his work as a human rights defender and peacebuilder.”

This morning, Sonora Visión Noticias tweeted: “The President @Claudiashein regrets the murder of the Tzotzil Father, Marcelo Perez Perez, in San Cristobal de las Casas, Chiapas. She said that an investigation is already underway so that this crime does not go unpunished.”

We continue to follow this.

PBI-Canada remembers Digna Ochoa, the human rights lawyer murdered 23 years ago in Mexico

By
Brent Patterson
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In its 2001 annual review, Peace Brigades International noted: “The situation of human rights defenders [in Mexico] worsened significantly after the 19 October assassination of internationally known human rights defender Digna Ochoa and death threats against other human rights defenders.”

That PBI report further noted: “One of the cases that Digna Ochoa had been working on implicated the army in human rights abuses against environmental activists campaigning against logging in Guerrero.”

Ochoa is also mentioned in the PBI publication Dignas – Voices of Women.

In it, Emiliana Cerezo Contreras says: “In 2001 my brothers were accused of putting bombs in several offices of the National Bank of Mexico, Banamex. Through some friends, my brother Alejandro got in contact with Pilar Noriega and Digna Ochoa, two lawyers who took on their cases. That is how the Cerezo Committee was created.”

Lawyer’s Rights Watch Canada adds: “She represented many cases involving allegations of torture or murder by Mexico’s military and security forces, including the widows of the Aguas Blancas massacre and the campesino ecologists Rodolfo Montiel and Teodoro Cabrera. Montiel and Cabrera, who received the Goldman award for their work in forcing Boise Cascade to stop clear-cutting in the southern state of Guerrero, were sentenced to imprisonment on drug and weapons charges that Ochoa claimed were fabricated. Digna exposed the use of torture by the army to extract confessions from the environmentalists.”

IACHR ruling

In January 2022, La Jornada reported: “The Inter-American Court of Human Rights [IACHR] has found Mexico responsible for serious failures in the investigation into the death of human rights defender Digna Ochoa on 19 October 2001.”

That article adds: “Therefore, it ordered the Mexican state to reopen the investigations of the case in pertinent terms; investigate and eventually prosecute those possibly responsible for her death; carry out a public act of international responsibility and create a recognition in the defense of human rights that will bear the name ‘Digna Ochoa y Plácido’.”

Further reading: Inter-American Court of Human Rights : Mexico condemned for the murder of Digna OCHOA, lawyer and human rights defender (International Observatory of Lawyers).

Once Noticias then reported: “In compliance with the ruling, on October 19, 2022, an act of Recognition of Responsibility of the Mexican State was held and a public apology was offered to Defender Digna Ochoa y Plácido, as well as to her relatives.”

And in May 2023, MVS Noticias reported: “21 years and 7 months after the murder of activist and human rights defender Digna Ochoa y Placido, the Mexican State inaugurated the street with her name in the country’s capital.”

That article further highlights: “Jesus Ochoa, recalled that more than two decades after the murder of his sister, no people have been arrested and the case remains unpunished, so he trusts that the investigation will be reopened to clarify this case.”

23rd anniversary

Journalist Argenis Esquipulas now writes in Portavoz Chiapas: “23 years after the murder of Digna Ochoa y Plácido, her memory resonates strongly in the struggle for human rights in Mexico. …The life and death of Digna Ochoa y Plácido remain a reminder that the struggle for human rights in Mexico is not only necessary, but often dangerous. Her legacy lives on in every action that is taken in favor of justice, and her voice continues to resonate in the streets where truth and justice are demanded.”

Toronto Star reporter Linda Diebel knew Digna and wrote the book “Betrayed: The Assassination of Digna Ochoa” that was published in 2005.

UN human rights representative Juliette De Rivero says COP16 is “an opportunity to improve the protection of environmental defenders”

By
Brent Patterson
-

Video: Juliette De Rivero presents the main concerns about the situation of environmental defenders in Colombia ahead of COP16.

The Spanish news agency EFE reports: “The COP16 [biodiversity summit] in Colombia [taking place October 21 to November 1] is ‘an opportunity to improve the protection of environmental defenders’, says the representative in the country of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Juliette De Rivero, after a United Nations report revealed that since 2016 248 Colombian environmental leaders have been murdered.”

De Rivero tells EFE: “We are very concerned that 248 environmental defenders have been murdered from 2016 to September of this year… The coordination of the State has to be greatly improved to protect environmental defenders and, in particular, indigenous defenders, Afro and peasant communities” since they represent 89% of the murders.

The situation is worsening. The UN report notes that 14 environmental defenders were killed in 2016, while 44 were killed in 2023.

The EFE article adds: “De Rivero believes that ‘for the first time at this COP we will try to focus the discussion on the protection of human rights and environmentalists’ and stressed that it is the perfect time to ‘begin to make visible these struggles, which need the support of the international community’.”

The UN report on Colombia can be read here.

Further reading: COP16: 248 defensores del medio ambiente han sido asesinados desde 2016 (RCN Radio) and A pocos días de la COP16, Naciones Unidas reveló alarmante cifra de líderes ambientales asesinados en Colombia: el 56% de los casos ocurre en el Pacífico (Infobae).

WEBINAR, October 24

Join us on Thursday October 24 at 12 pm (Colombia) / 1 pm (Ottawa) / 7 pm (Geneva) for a webinar that will link the protection needs of environmental defenders and the upcoming United Nations COP16 Biodiversity, COP29 Climate and Binding Treaty talks.

To register, please click here.

In its assessment of COP28 in December 2023, Global Witness noted: “Since the Paris Agreement was signed in 2015, we documented the killings of at least 1,390 land and environmental defenders. And yet, there is not a single reference to land and environmental defenders in the final text.”

This one-hour webinar with simultaneous translation will feature Cali, Colombia-based Berenice Celeita of the Association for Social Research and Action (Nomadesc), Washington, DC-based Javier Garate of Global Witness, and Geneva-based Yannick Wild of Peace Brigades International-Switzerland.

It now appears possible that Michel Forst, UN Special Rapporteur on Environmental Defenders under the Aarhus Convention, may be able to join this webinar to make introductory comments on the need for protection measures.

Further reading: PBI-Canada to host webinar on COP16, COP29, the Binding Treaty and the language needed to protect environmental defenders.

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