PBI facilitates meeting with Canadian officials and Colombian human rights defenders
Article by PBI-Canada
Land and Environmental Defenders
Many indigenous and traditional farming (or campesino) communities are struggling to protect the land on which their livelihoods depend. Often living in conditions of extreme poverty, they rely on their land for food, shelter, and cultural identity. In some cases, pollution from mining threatens to seep into the land and water. In others, communities have been forced from their land for development projects or monoculture plantations, condemning them to internal displacement and landlessness. Others campaign for sustainable land use, seeking to halt patterns of destruction for the benefit of future generations.
Defenders of land rights, culture, and natural resources can find themselves facing powerful interests and brutal opposition. Some have approached PBI for protection after they have been attacked or their colleagues assassinated. Many others have been subjected to criminal prosecutions based on spurious charges.
Honduran smallholders’ lands and harvests at risk due to COVID-19
Article by PBI-UK
The difficulties faced by rural communities prior to the COVID-19 health crisis were already alarming. However, with the arrival of this global pandemic, smallholder farmers have seen their problems multiply. Under a state of emergency, where basic rights like access to health and food are limited, the helplessness of many families is concerning. This comes in addition to the intensified militarization of the countryside under Decree PCM-052-2019, published in October 2019.
COVID-19: Defending Refugees, Migrants and the Internally Displaced
The world is facing a health crisis on a scale unlike anything seen in our lifetimes, bringing suffering, disruption, and dislocation to people across the globe. From Kenya to Indonesia, many of the countries where PBI work is already facing socio-economic dislocation and political disruption.
Espacio OSC, HRDs and Journalists call to respect the right to defend human rights during the COVID-19 crisis
Article by PBI-Mexico
In the state of the health emergency caused by Covid-19, human rights defenders, journalists and CSOs urge the Mexican Government and its institutions to generate measures in order to guarantee the right to defend human rights, in accordance with national and international recommendations.
PBI-Entrepueblos film ‘La Sangre de la Tierra’ to be screened in Toronto and Quebec City
Article by PBI-Canada
La Sangre de la Tierra (The Blood of the Earth), a documentary film made by Peace Brigades International and Asociación Entrepueblos, is scheduled to be screened at the Planet in Focus film festival (October 15-20) in Toronto and at the International Symposium on Indigenous Languages (February 11, 2021) in Quebec City.
PBI seeks language volunteers to assist human rights defenders in Indonesia
The Peace Brigades International-Indonesia Project is looking for volunteers with English language skills to assist human rights defenders.
Many of the human rights defenders they work with speak little to no English, but it is an important skill for them to have to help them engage and advocate at the international level, including within Asia.
Toward this end, PBI-Indonesia is developing a Basic English Course for human rights defenders.
Defending the Land has a Woman’s Name
PBI Honduras has recently prepared a report ‘Defending the Land has a Woman’s Name’ in advance of Honduras’ Human Rights Council’s third Universal Periodic Review in May 2020.
The report finds that recommendations made as part of Honduras’ Human Rights Council’s second Universal Periodic Review in 2015 are not being implemented with due attention for the situation of Women Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights (ESC) defenders.
What does the PBI tagline “making space for peace” mean?
Article by PBI-Canada
