“I feel that the Continental School, and maybe other schools that have been carried out across the continent, are going to empower women, especially peasant women, who do a lot.” This was a reflection by Susan Owiti about the initiatives conducted by peasant women who have, in 2024, held for the first time a coordinated series of Continental Schools of…
A judge in Florida, United States, found banana transnational Chiquita Brands International liable for the murder of eight people, committed between 1997 and 2004 by paramilitaries of the right-wing United Self-Defence Forces of Colombia (AUC) in the regions of Urabá Antioquia and Magdalena Medio. The US court, where Chiquita Brands is based, ordered the company to pay 38.3 million dollars…
Three leaders of the Tembé Indigenous People were shot on Monday in the Brazilian town of Tomé-Açu, situated in the state of Pará, 200 kilometres from the state capital Belém do Pará. The incident occurred during preparations for a visit from the National Human Rights Council. According to information from the Brazilian Pastoral Land Commission (CPT), the shots were fired…
June 30th marks the full circle of the first year under Philippine president Ferdinand 'Bongbong' Marcos Jr., son of previously deposed dictator Ferdinand Marcos Sr. The Philippines is both a globally critical hotspot of biodiversity and natural resources, and a historic beacon of democracy and people power in Asia. But the environmental and human rights situation has deteriorated over the…
Eleven years ago, the transnational oil company Chevron, formerly Texaco, received a historic sentence in Ecuador. It was forced by the justice of that country to pay a compensation of 9.5 billion dollars for the damages caused to indigenous communities and settlers in the provinces of Orellana and Sucumbíos in the Amazon region. This lawsuit was filed by the Union of…
A week into 2023, Jairo Bonilla and Alí Domínguez were murdered while working in Concepción, Colón Department, in Honduras, a few kilometres from their community, Guapinol. Both were defenders of the Guapinol and San Pedro rivers, and the Botaderos National Park, also called Carlos Escaleras, the source of 34 bodies of water. 10 days later in the same region, Omar…
A series of highly repressive laws and decrees are threatening human rights and freedoms in the United Kingdom. The main concerns of civil society organisations include restrictions to the right to protest, discrimination and repression of ethnic minorities and the dismantling of the Human Rights Act. Real World Radio interviewed Denis Fernando, Rights and Justice Campaigner at Friends of the…
At the 15th Conference of the Parties (COP) of the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity taking place in Montreal, Friends of the Earth International (FoEI) has denounced the negotiations for the Global Biodiversity Framework, saying they are “captured” by transnational corporations and that the solutions on the table are actually false solutions. During a press conference held on Friday…
In a context where scientists state that the natural world is in a dire situation and that “human actions threaten more species with global extinction now than ever before,” the 15th Conference of the Parties (COP15) to the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) is taking place in Montreal, Canada, from 7-19 December. There, governments will seek to agree…
On the International Day of Struggle Against Monoculture Tree Plantations, activist Sandra Escobar tells us a story of pain and joy, as peoples in Honduras struggle against the expansion of oil palm plantations and build alternatives together. Approximately 198,000 hectares of Honduras are planted with oil palm crops, representing almost 2% of the country’s land. Annually, it produces 2.4 million…
