“We've been expecting this sentence for almost a year. This opens a very important stage in order to realise this guilty verdict against one of the killers of my mother, our comrade Berta Cáceres,” said Bertha Zúniga, the coordinator of the Civic Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras (COPINH). The leader warned that the judicial decision could still…
The Pastoral Land Commission (CPT) has launched their new annual report, entitled 'Conflicts in the Countryside - Brazil 2021'. Since 1985, the CPT has been recording the violence inflicted on peoples and communities in the Brazilian countryside, by landowners, mining and forestry companies, land speculators and businessmen. It also shows the negligence and complicity of the State. From 1985 to 2020,…
On 4 April 2022, thousands of Indigenous People from various communities across the current Brazilian territory came to the federal capital, Brasilia, to set up the 18th Free Land Camp (Terra Livre) by the Articulation of Indigenous Peoples of Brazil (APIB). This mobilisation is still based on the original struggles as when it started in 2004: the right to land,…
“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…
"We need help around the world," said Patiente Etim from Mbarakum Community in a new Friends of the Earth Africa documentary on the impacts of industrial plantations on women. "The chemicals used by the plantation company affected my son-in-law's eyes. He was a sprayer with GOPDC/SIAT and through the exposure to the work hazard, the chemical affected his eyes. He…
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…
Last year, between December 16 and December 21, various social and peasant organizations denounced the violent evictions that thousands of peasants were suffering in Aguán, Honduras. The situation was repeated a week later against members of the Cooperativa Remolino cooperative, who were evicted by private security guards and the COBRA squad who shot them with firearms, leaving at least 7…
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…
