Monday marks the first anniversary of the massacre of eight indigenous people in Datal Bonglangon village, South Cotabato province, on the southern Philippine island of Mindanao. The inhabitants of the small community paid with their lives the demands for their ancestral lands and the resistance to the coffee and mining industry for export. Their blood taints the company and Rodrigo…
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…
24 hours after the historical decision by the Third Committee (on cultural, social and humanitarian aspects) of the United Nations General Assembly in favor of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Peasants and Other People Working in Rural Areas, the representative of Vía Campesina, Diego Montón, assessed from New York the process and its final outcome. The draft…
“It´s a sham” saying that the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) is solving the serious socioenvironmental effects of this industry, said Nigerian environmental activist Rita Uwaka. “There are more environmental abuses, human rights abuses in countries where most of these RSPO certified companies exist”, she added. The annual conference of the RSPO is taking place from Monday to Thursday…
“The fact that Berta Cáceres´ relatives and COPINH don´t have a legal representantive in this first trial is something extremely serious. This has been an arbitrary decision made by the Court, as a response of Cáceres´ family insisting on including the masterminds of the crime in this trial as well”, said Colombian lawyer Reinaldo Villalba, president of the “José Alvear…
“We are here to talk about Palestine, we are here to talk about BDS and we are here to talk about human rights and I´m very happy to see all of you here tonight”, said Waters at the beginning of the meeting with Uruguayan journalists Alejandra Casablanca and Virginia Martínez and political expert Gabriel Delacoste. The meeting was organized by…
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…
The resolutions and conclusions of the Intergovernmental Working Group submitted by Luis Gallegos, permanent representative of Ecuador at the UN and chair of the negotiations, were approved, but the representatives of the European Union were the only ones there who did not agree with the conclusions. Now the chair will present a revised version of the binding instrument before June…
Mageswari Sangaralingam, member of SAM – Friends of the Earth Malaysia, warned on Friday that in Asia there are communities affected by corporate crimes, and that the victims, especially of transnational corporations, don´t have access to justice. “So where do you go to access justice if there is a problem of environmental issue or human rights violations?”, when the existing…
Activist Alejandra Porras, of COECOCEIBA – Friends of the Earth Costa Rica, said on Thursday in Geneva, at the UN headquarters in that city, that in Latin America there is “a wave of international treaties that confer many benefits to companies, and this gives way to looting, criminalization and prosecution processes” against local communities. There are also “murders in the…
