Stefan Borghardt is a German photojournalist who came to Neuquen to report about fracking in Argentina and particularly to photograph the development of the Vaca Muerta megaproject. On January 7th he was arrested by the police while he was taking photographs of the activities at the oil waste management plant Treater, in Añelo city, and the pollution caused by this…
The murder of Maritza Quiroz, leader of the Santa Marta Victims Roundtable, on January 6th, was the sixth political murder that took place in the first week of 2019. The crimes against Colombian territory defenders continue unabated and are a cause of concern for social organizations throughout the country that defend the Peace Agreements signed in 2016 between the Revolutionary…
With 121 votes in favor, 8 negative and 54 abstentions, the General Assembly of the United Nations approved on Monday, December 17, in a historic event, the Declaration of Rights of Peasants and other people working in rural areas. Now the focus will be on the implementation of this Declaration whose purpose is “to protect, respect and guarantee the rights…
Voices of solidarity with refugees have recently been drowned out by hate speech or even systematically silence. This happened in the Balkans, where hundreds of thousands of people in need have arrived, but also in the rest of Europe. Now is the moment for us to be louder! Marija from Zelena Akcija/Friends of the Earth Croatia gives us some clues…
We have just heard that Mozambican journalist Estacio Valoi and 2 foreign journalists have been detained in Palma, Cabo Delgado province, northern Mozambique. This happened on the morning on 17 December 2018, by the Forças Armadas de Defesa de Moçambique (Defense Forces of Mozambique). The journalists had permission from the local and provincial authorities to do their reporting work, yet they were stopped. Their…
The UN Convention on Biological Diversity urged the governments on November 29th to conduct strict risk assessments and consult indigenous people and other local communities before releasing organisms into the environment with “exterminator technology” such as gene drives. The decision to consult the people about this dangerous genetic modification of organisms was celebrated by Friends of the Earth and the…
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…
In 2004, Uruguay was the first country that enshrined the access to drinking water as a human right and a common good, not a commodity, in its Constitution. The irrigation law passed by the Parliament in 2017 authorizes private companies to bottle and sell water, that is, against what is established in the National Constitution. On October 26, several civil…
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…
Today, September 26th, marks the fourth anniversary of the disappearance of the 43 students of the Raúl Isidro Burgos Rural Teachers School in Iguala, Guerrero, while they were on their way to Mexico City to participate in the mobilization of October 2nd to commemorate the Tlateloco Massacre that took place in 1968. A day before the fourth anniversary of the…
