Special Reports

Assessment of the sixth round of negotiations for the UN Binding Treaty on Transnational Corporations and Human Rights

Roundtable of experts discusses outcomes of the international negotiations, the challenges ahead and the next steps

The Open-Ended Intergovernmental Working Group that is negotiating a Binding Treaty on transnational corporations and human rights at the United Nations Human Rights Council ended its sixth round of negotiations on 30 October in Geneva, Switzerland. According to the social movements and organizations from all continents that are working for  … Read more

Agroecology in dispute: What’s behind the “transition towards sustainable agriculture” narrative?

Organisations analyse strategies, discourses and alliances of agribusiness that continue putting profit before peoples and planet

Friends of the Earth International (FoEI), the Transnational Institute of the Netherlands (TNI) and the Crocevia International Centre launched a publication entitled: “Junk Agroecology: The corporate capture of agroecology for a partial ecological transition without social justice.” The aim of the report is to “influence the just ecological transition debate  … Read more

Covid-19 in the Gaza Strip

How the Israeli military siege and environmental pollution are impacting public health

“The Israeli occupation’s attacks on Palestinians have massively damaged health facilities and targeted health workers.  The ongoing, direct attacks have caused thousands of injuries and hundreds of fatalities, which increases the burden on hospitals,” warned Palestinian researcher in health systems, Aisha Yousif Elbasuoni. Meanwhile, environmental engineer Balqis Khozundar lamented that  … Read more

Colombia: systematic murders of social leaders multiply during the pandemic

International call to stop violence against peoples. Leaders denounce attacks during forced crop eradication.

Since the beginning of 2020, at least 103 social leaders and defenders of territories, and 24 former FARC members undergoing a reinsertion process in line with the Peace Accords, have been murdered in Colombia, according to local NGO Indepaz. The Continental Day for Democracy and against Neoliberalism (La Jornada Continental),  … Read more

The dire consequences of the gas expansion plans in Mozambique

We don't have to create another example in Africa of extractive industries causing conflicts and social instability

Cabo Delgado, the northernmost province of Mozambique, is suffering. The invasion of the transnational gas industry, attacks by extremist groups and military deployment from a government that seems to hate its people, are all creating a frightening breeding ground for murders, forced disappearances, the persecution of journalists and social activists  … Read more

RECORD NUMBER OF LAND CONFLICTS IN BRAZIL IN 2019

There were five conflicts per day, representing a 23% increase from 2018, and 32 defenders murdered during the year.

Throughout 2019, the Pastoral Land Commission (CPT) recorded 1833 conflicts in the countryside (averaging five per day), 23% more than in 2018. This is the highest number on CPT records in the past five years. There was also a 14% increase in the number of murders (from 28 to 32),  … Read more

Remembering Dilma Ferreira on the first anniversary of her murder

Dilma was Coordinator of the Movement of People Affected by Dams (MAB) in Tucuruí, northern Brazil.

On 22 March 2019, Dilma Ferreira was brutally murdered in her home, together with her partner, Claudionor Costa da Silva, and neighbor, Milton Lopes. In celebration and remembrance of her life and struggle, Real World Radio interviewed Soniamara Maranho, Tchenna Maso and Cleidiane Vieria, fellow Coordinators at MAB. We asked  … Read more

Meeting for new UN framework to protect biodiversity to be held in Italy

Organizations warn of low ambition, false solutions and lack of attention on the true culprits of environmental devastation

Environmental federation Friends of the Earth International reaffirms its concern over the lack of ambition in the new framework currently under negotiation at the UN, which will set the basis for the protection of biodiversity globally from 2020 to 2030. A Friends of the Earth International delegation will participate in  … Read more

A rebel, but conscious youth

Visit to El Maizal community in Venezuela: an example of autonomy and food production

Socialist community El Maiza, located between Lara and Portuguesa states, in Venezuela, is a reference for the community movement of the country. Founded 11 years ago, with diverse self-managed companies, El Maizal is proud to show visitors their productive diversity and their political-ideological framework, with self-government as their banner. One  … Read more

“They have turned our community into a cemetery”

Thousands of people remembered the 272 victims of the crime committed by Vale in Brumadinho (Brazil)

At 12:28 on 25 January, 2019, Dam 1 of the Córrego do Feijão mine, containing 12,000,000 cubic meters of toxic mud, collapsed and spilled the mud over 9 kilometers to the city of Brumadinho (Minas Gerais) and then along the path of the Paraopeba River. The Brazilian Movement of People  … Read more