Special Reports


PALESTINE: “WE DEMAND AN IMMEDIATE WITHDRAWAL OF ISRAELI OCCUPATION FORCES”

The Israeli blockade in Palestine has severe impacts on the daily lives of people in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip: from blocking their access to water, to limiting their food sovereignty. Missile bombings over decades have damaged crop lands and wells, destroyed crops, killed hundreds of animals and deeply damaged artisanal fisheries. These were some of the impacts…

What is going on with plastic waste in the Asia Pacific region?

“Asia is drowning in plastic,” says a new report from the Centre for Environmental Justice/Friends of the Earth Sri Lanka, launched in the wake of the 15th UN COP to the Basel Convention, which was held online from 26 to 30 July. The report, entitled “Breaking the Plastic Cycle in Asia”, exposes the reality of plastic waste dumping for people…

Historic elections in Chile towards a new plurinational Constitution

Over the weekend, fruit of the popular struggle, the Chilean people elected their Constitutional Convention to draft a new Constitution to put an end to the one that has been in force since the Pinochet dictatorship. The event was divided into two days to comply with health protocols, and the results were historic. Simultaneously, regional governors, mayors and councilors were…

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

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 its adoption, the Binding Treaty should seek to ensure access to justice…

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

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 in a way that ensures that we don´t end up…

Covid-19 in the Gaza Strip

“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 Gaza is experiencing an “environmental catastrophe.” Lack of access to…

Colombia: systematic murders of social leaders multiply during the pandemic

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), which represents different social movements and organisations, denounced the government…

The dire consequences of the gas expansion plans in Mozambique

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 and the displacement of peoples. In a context of extreme…

RECORD NUMBER OF LAND CONFLICTS IN BRAZIL IN 2019

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), 7% more attempted murders (from 28 to 30), and 22%…

Remembering Dilma Ferreira on the first anniversary of her murder

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 them about what it means to be a defender of…