“The participation of young people in COPINH has been strengthened, and new leaderships have been emerging. Every day we want to help the youth, so that they do not replicate the same flaws as so many social organisations”, stated Bertha Zúniga Cáceres, General Coordinator for COPINH, the Civic Council of Popular and Indigenous Organisations of Honduras. This is six years…
Six water defenders are still in jail in Olanchito prison, in the Yoro department of Honduras, despite the recent ratification by the Supreme Court of Justice of an appeal for their release, submitted on 10 February 2022. They have been in pre-trial detention for 30 months, with no legal grounds. On 9 February, the defenders were condemned by the Trujillo…
Resisting mining megaprojects is a task peasant and Indigenous communities carry out every day in Peru and many other territories in Latin America. In January this year, we, as militants of grassroots organizations from Peru, organized a strike to demand the removal of the AntaKori mining project from the Sinchao area, Chugur-Cajamarca district, where the mining company Anta Norte has…
At least 600,000 people in Chile face hunger, according to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization’s latest report on the state of food security and nutrition in the world (2021). This is significant in a population of 19.4 million people, and represents an increase of 57,000 people since 2006. Beyond hunger, between 2018-2020, 3.4 million Chilean people faced difficulties accessing…
Three years ago, on January 25, 2019, at 12:28 noon, the Dam I of the mine Córrego do Feijão, run by the company Vale SA, collapsed. It contained 12 million cubic meters of mud with toxic waste that spilled over #Brumadinho and continued its course through the Paraopeba River and the San Francisco River. This mud spill killed 272 people,…
Lawyer and human rights defender Glenda Ayala Mejía is the commissioner and president of the National Committee for the Prevention of Torture, Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment of Honduras (MNP-CONAPREV). Since the end of 2021, her and her family's physical integrity have been at risk after receiving a series of threats. Although Ayala has been working for the administration of…
The COVAX mechanism to distribute Covid-19 vaccines, mobile apps giving companies access to private data, biotechnology, language capture and alleged rights-based discourses — these are all examples of strategies used by transnational corporations to gain more power over global governance each day. In 2021, social movements defending Food Sovereignty warned about the strong influence exerted by agroindustrial corporations over the…
The African Peoples Tribunal (APT) that took place this year, after its first edition in November 2020, was developed by Friends of the Earth Africa, Milieudefensie (Friends of the Earth Netherlands), Friends of the Earth International, and Rainforest Action Network. This time, the APT took 10 cases, from 10 countries where Friends of the Earth has member groups, grassroots or…
“Today, peasants and farmers are facing extreme threats from the privatisation of seeds by intellectual property laws. In addition, seed marketing laws ban local and indigenous varieties which don’t fit the industrial model, restricting access and circulation. One institution is at the heart of this: the International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants (UPOV).” Hence the call…
Friends of the Earth Europe (FoEE) and Foe Brazil denounce in a report published early this year that the European Union (EU)-Mercosur trade deal will increase environmental disasters, in this case, by increasing the export of meat from Brazil to Europe through supply chains of transnational companies to supply major European retailers. This is happening “while deforestation skyrockets and Brazil…
