'Indigenous and human rights organisations have filed a criminal complaint against Ocho Sur, a palm oil producer in Peru’s Ucayali region, for continuing its operations throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, and therefore exposing the local population to infection. This is just one of the many systematic violations committed by the company, while the indigenous community of Santa Clara de...
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Peru: “The presence of GeoPark impacted people’s emotions and our peaceful existence”: oil company withdraws from Wampis and Achuar territories, but vigilance continues
'Oil company GeoPark Peru S.A.C., which operated Lot 64 overlapping the Wampis and Achuar indigenous territories, is leaving. The Indigenous Peoples welcomed this news with enthusiasm after fighting for years to defend their territories and the negative impacts of the company’s presence. They are demanding annulment of the oil lot to avoid further companies appearing, and call for...
Land of Resistants
'Defending the jungles, mountains, forests and rivers of Latin America has never been this dangerous. Six of the ten most hostile countries for leaders and communities defending the environment and their ancestral lands are located in Latin America, according to UN Special Rapporteur Michel Forst’s 2016 report to United Nations. This is why 50 journalists, developers and...
Peru: Amazon in emergency – Urgent support for indigenous peoples
The global emergency caused by the COVID-19 pandemic has had a particularly devastating impact on the Indigenous Peoples of the Peruvian Amazon, who not only lack urgent medical care and food, but now - as the Government of Peru reactivates logging, mining and other economic activities in indigenous areas - also face risk of increased contagion and mounting sickness and death. As...
Open Archive: Advancing human rights through secure mobile media preservation
OpenArchive is a veteran research and development organization dedicated to the ethical collection and long-term preservation of mobile media. OpenArchive conducts research and collaborates with human rights defenders and at-risk communities to create responsive, secure, and ethical archiving technologies for mobile media. Save is a new mobile media app designed by OpenArchive to help...
AIDA > Alert System: COVID-19 in Latin America – The pandemic threatens the environment and human rights in the region
The pandemic threatens the environment and human rights in the region The impacts of the pandemic have extended far beyond health systems. Authorities have changed forms of realizing consultations, relaxed protection and surveillance measures, and neglected the most vulnerable populations, such as indigenous peoples, rural communities and human rights defenders. This—added to the...
‘Sounding the alarm about illegal logging? There’s an app for that’
'Using the customizable app ForestLink, traditional forest guardians (people living within and around the forest) can send near-real-time, geo-tagged alerts about illegal logging and mining activities to authorities and other stakeholders, even from remote areas without mobile connectivity or internet service. The app was developed by the nonprofit Rainforest Foundation UK (RFUK) and...
Kenya: ‘State ordered to pay Sh1.3bn to Owino Uhuru lead poisoning victims’
The metal refinery factory in Changamwe, Mombasa believed to have caused lead poisoning among residents of Owino Uhuru slums. On July 16, 2020, the Environment court ordered the government and two private investors to pay Sh1.3 billion to the residents affected by the poisoning. The residents moved to court in 2016 seeking Sh1.6 billion as compensation for the deaths of their loved...
Convite
'Convite is a series of sound postcards directed to land defenders, environmental defenders, social leaders of indigenous, black and rural communities that seek to, with the use of sound language, contribute information, tools and resources related to digital security and self care in their digital, physical, psychosocial spaces. It’s above all a sum of wills and tools between the...
The Defenders: Portraits of Hope, Resilience, and Solidarity
'The Right to Defend: Portraits of Resilience, Hope and Solidarity is a story-telling project celebrating the work of human rights defenders. This project was born in September 2018 when PBI UK Director Susi Bascon and independent photographer and filmmaker Manu Valcarce travelled to Colombia to meet human rights defenders and record their stories. Inspired by their wisdom, they...