March 8, 2018
PBI celebrates the incredible and vital work done by Women Human Rights Defenders (WHRDs) in Honduras, Mexico and Kenya, despite their continuing struggle against oppression and human rights abuses.
Rosalinda Dionicio is a leader of the United Peoples’ Network of the Ocotlán Valley in Defense of Territory. Since 2009, the organization has been demanding the closure of the San José mine, owned by a subsidiary of the Canadian company Fortuna Silver Mines, which they say has caused environmental destruction and water shortages in their communities. Rosalinda is a survivor of a 2012 attack by gunmen in which her colleague Bernardo Vásquez Sánchez was assassinated--one of many serious human rights violations suffered by the organization.
January 25, 2018
An indigenous community from the region of La Montaña (state of Guerrero) have been waging a legal battle since 2011 to prevent their lands from being conceded to mining companies. The indigenous Me’phaa community lives in San Miguel del Progreso, or Júba Wajiín in their indigenous language. In the last seven years, they have obtained two legal protection mechanisms that have rendered a mining project practically null and void.
January 12, 2018
On January 7, 2018, in the village of La Concepción in Guerrero in southern Mexico, extrajudicial executions, acts of torture, and arbitrary detentions were carried out against members of a community group (CECOP, Communities Opposing the Dam La Parota) and against community police (Regional Coordination of Community Authorities – Community Police, or CRAC-PC, a community self-defense initiative). The community groups are targeted for their opposition to a dam on the Papagayo River.
December 18, 2017
Washington, DC / New York / Stuttgart / Geneva
It is an understatement to say that 2016 has been challenging for human rights defenders. And it would be naive not to anticipate an even more challenging 2017 ahead. Peace Brigades International chapters and projects worldwide are always working to prepare for the unknown, but now it is more important than ever that we do so.