PBI’s Support Provides a Sense of Safety

By Amna Khalafalla, PBI-USA Solidarity Fellow

In countries like Colombia, Peace Brigades International’s protective accompaniment model has worked to provide a sense of safety to human rights defenders whose work has put them at extreme risk and danger. Jani Silva, a Colombian environmental defender, is one of them.

USAID’s Impact on Abortion Access in Kenya

By Joyce Onana Mfege, PBI-USA Solidarity Fellow

Dina Meza: Defending Freedom of Expression in Honduras

By Meredith Moody, PBI-USA Solidarity Fellow

Protecting Water Is Protecting Life: The Peaceful Resistance of La Puya

By Alexis Navarro, PBI-USA Solidarity Fellow

My name is Patrick and I’m a new member of the NCC. I recently returned from three years of working with the PBI Colombia project, accompanying human rights defenders across the country. I met so many passionate volunteers from across the Americas and Europe, who dedicated endless hours to providing protective accompaniment to human rights defenders and communities under threat.

“The Agrarian Platform rejects the characterization of the massacre that took place in the community of Rigores, Finca Paso Aguán, as a conflict between farmers; it reaffirms that the farmers’ struggle is nonviolent and can achieve success through legal channels, unity, and a popular movement, and calls for an independent investigation into the events that occurred.

The Peace Brigades International-Colombia Project has amplified a social media a post from mullu.tv that reports:

“Repression and Persecution

Amid the ongoing protests in Bolivia against the government of Rodrigo Paz, activists Adriana Guzmán and Diana Vargas—members of the Anti-Patriarchal Community Feminism movement and Feministas del Abya Yala—were detained on May 22. Along with them, at least 60 other people were arrested during the protests demanding the president’s resignation.

Women human rights defenders across the world are fighting for positive change in their communities within an increasingly violent global context. They share many challenges experienced by their male counterparts but face additional obstacles because they undermine the status quo twice over: through their work in its own right, and through their implicit challenge to accepted norms about the role of women in society.