Today, 20th September 2019, the environment takes centre stage as people across the world join in a Global Climate Strike, urging governments and the private sector to take concrete action in order to avoid further deterioration of our climate and the manifold human rights impacts that this would imply.
38 years ago, on September 4, 1981, the international human rights organization Peace Brigades International was founded.
Kevin Ramírez’s community is located between the clear waters of rock pools where families bathe and the jungle-covered mountains that mark the border between Honduras and Guatemala.
“We feel safer since we started being accompanied by PBI”. “Whenever I travel to certain places in the country I always ask for PBI accompaniment”. “The presence of PBI during hearings helps a lot. Our people feel supported and can identify as human rights defenders”.
“They want to take the forest away from us, and they want to ask us the best way to do it.
Honduras is full of natural riches: coral reefs, mountains covered in trees, clear rivers and abundant flora and fauna. However, defending these natural resources can be a high-risk activitie. According to an investigation by Global Witness, since 2010 more than 120 environmental defenders have been killed in Honduras.
Concessions
Many people know that according to Global Witness,1 Honduras is the most dangerous place in the world for environmental rights defenders, a fact that was reiterated by Michel Forst, Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders, in his recent visit to the country,2 however, the situation is even more serious if the defender is a woman.