On Thursday, November 29, the Tegucigalpa court announced the verdict over the femicide of Berta Cáceres, who was murdered on March 2nd, 2016 at her home in La Esperanza (Intibucá Department). The men accused were Sergio Rodríguez, Mariano Díaz, Douglas Bustillo, Elvin Heriberto Rápalo, Edilson Duarte, Oscar Haroldo Torres and Emerson Duarte. Duarte was cleared. In addition, Rápalo, Torres, Duarte…
“The fact that Berta Cáceres´ relatives and COPINH don´t have a legal representantive in this first trial is something extremely serious. This has been an arbitrary decision made by the Court, as a response of Cáceres´ family insisting on including the masterminds of the crime in this trial as well”, said Colombian lawyer Reinaldo Villalba, president of the “José Alvear…
On October 19, a Tegucigalpa court held a hearing to begin the trial over the murder of the Lenca people defender, Berta Cáceres, who was murdered on March 2nd, 2016, at her home in La Esperanza (Intibucá). The court announced the beginning of the oral and public trial, despite the lawyers of Berta Cáceres family´s call for the judges to…
The resolutions and conclusions of the Intergovernmental Working Group submitted by Luis Gallegos, permanent representative of Ecuador at the UN and chair of the negotiations, were approved, but the representatives of the European Union were the only ones there who did not agree with the conclusions. Now the chair will present a revised version of the binding instrument before June…
The European Union disengaged with this process despite the pressure of civil society and the constructive engagement of all countries in all other regions of the world, but we know that with or without the EU we are going to have the 5th session,” Lucia Ortiz, Economic Justice Program Coordinator at Friends of the Earth International told Real World Radio on Friday…
“As Friends of the Earth International (FOEI), we are here (at the United Nations headquarters in Geneva) because we are working with communities, and those communities are affected by transnationals corporations, so we need a Binding Treaty to hold accountable those transnationals which violated human rights”, said Kwami Kpondzo, from FOEI, in an interview with Real World Radio. [embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=txedt5BnvZo&feature=youtu.be[/embed] Kwami,…
Mageswari Sangaralingam, member of SAM – Friends of the Earth Malaysia, warned on Friday that in Asia there are communities affected by corporate crimes, and that the victims, especially of transnational corporations, don´t have access to justice. “So where do you go to access justice if there is a problem of environmental issue or human rights violations?”, when the existing…
“We really call upon the European Union to be constructive, to support the conclusions and make sure that next year we are here to take the next step in this important United Nations treaty that will protect human rights,” activist Ike Teuling, from Friends of the Earth Europe, told Real World Radio on Friday. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ZSK3vhfbLk&feature=youtu.be “So the last thing that…
“The purpose of this treaty (on transnational corporations and human rights) is to fill the loophole that we have in international law that transnational corporations, because of their structures and the impunity with which they operate, are not held accountable for the violations they do throughout their supply chain”, said on Thursday environmental activist Erika Mendes, of Justiça Ambiental, Friends…
Activist Alejandra Porras, of COECOCEIBA – Friends of the Earth Costa Rica, said on Thursday in Geneva, at the UN headquarters in that city, that in Latin America there is “a wave of international treaties that confer many benefits to companies, and this gives way to looting, criminalization and prosecution processes” against local communities. There are also “murders in the…
