Environmental defenders have been subjected to smear campaign, threats, and police violence.
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IRTF News
RRN Letter
July 22, 2018
There is an alarming rate of assassinations of social leaders in Cauca Department, Colombia. On July 3 the bodies of seven men were found on a road in the municipality of Argelia. They had been shot at point blank range with visible signs of torture and other ill-treatment.
RRN Letter
July 21, 2018
The paramilitary group Águilas Negras (Black Eagles) threatened in recent email and social media communication to kill a number of individuals, organizations and journalists. The message vowed to “exterminate” all human rights defenders and social leaders, calling them “guerrillas in disguise.”
News Article
July 9, 2018
At the beginning of this year, the Inter-American Court on Human Rights ruled in favor of same-sex
marriage. Based on this ruling, Honduran LGBT organizations presented a constitutional challenge against Article 112 of the Honduran Constitution, which prohibits same-sex marriage. To quite some surprise, the challenge was accepted by the court. Now, to see if the state will act on it.
News Article
July 5, 2018
Since the May 17-21 working visit to Nicaragua, the IACHR (Inter-American Commission on Human Rights) has adopted nine resolutions requesting precautionary measures to protect the lives and personal integrity of 64 people on various issues, including their families. Among the beneficiaries are student leaders, human rights defenders, journalists, relatives of victims, survivors of violence, priests, and persons who have provided assistance to injured people.
RRN Letter
June 26, 2018
Human rights defender Bernardo Caal Xol is in prison for being an indigenous Q’eqchi’ leader who has spoken out against the illegal construction of massive hydroelectric dams in indigenous territory, which were built without consulting the indigenous population as required by law and have resulted in the destruction of local ecosystems, clear cutting of old growth forests and decimation of mountain ridges sacred to the Q’eqchi’ people.
RRN Letter
June 25, 2018
More than 200 indigenous Nasa Embera Chamí people from La Delfina reservation in Buenaventura (West), Colombia, have been displaced following an armed attack on a member of their community. The National Indigenous Organization (ONIC) reports that 80 women (5 pregnant), 90 men, and 80 children are are currently confined in a nearby school. They are in need of food, clothing, medicine, basic shelter items (tents, blankets), and access to health services.
RRN Letter
June 14, 2018
On May 17 there was an attack on the binational indigenous Yukpa people living in Cúcuta, Norte de Santander Department. Jesuit Refugee Service has reported that 106 indigenous people, including 56 children, were forced to move in search of refuge and assistance from the local authorities. Some were subsequently displaced to the Venezuelan border.
RRN Letter
June 13, 2018
The indigenous leaders Ramon Choc Sacrab, Florencio Pérez Nájera and Alejandro Hernández García were murdered in Guatemala, which make a total of six human rights leaders who have been killed in less than a month.
RRN Letter
June 12, 2018
Massive arrests of dozens of elected community leaders and human rights defenders in Colombia on April 23: Among them are members of the Black Communities’ Process (PCN), an internationally recognized organization that has worked to dismantle illegal armed groups’ activities in Afro- descendant territories.
