Latest Updates

The world is on the move, and so is HREV

The world is on the move, crises are stirring things up, we human beings are moving our planet and we are forced to keep moving by the authorities so as not to abandon our struggles. This is why Human Rights Everywhere (HREV) is also moving a little in order to move forward. Because, as we all know, there is no going back.

HREV denounces threats and judicial harassment in Brazil against a journalist and social activists

Human Rights Everywhere (HREV) would like to express its concern about the arbitrary actions of the Altamira District Judge (Pará, Brazil), Luis Bernardo Wander, who has prohibited journalist Ruy Sposati (one of our partners) and three other activists from the Xingu Alive Forever Movement (Movimiento Xingu Vivo para Sempre – XVPS) from approaching the construction works of the Belo Monte hydroelectric plant, under threat of exorbitant fines.

Support Otramérica, building multiple viewpoints together

We are in full production … but not of things, rather of ideas and knowledge. Support the efforts of Otramérica with small donations to permit the construction of multiple viewpoints on Latin America and the Caribbean. Without your support, independent knowledge has no future.
Collaborate with Otramérica by offering a small financial contribution here.

Human Rights Everywhere denounces human rights violations in Panama and asks for the immediate intervention of the competent judicial authorities

Available reports and material compiled by our volunteers highlight the fact that the Government, via its National Police Force, has violated the right to emergency health care, legal aid for detainees, and the right to due process since detainees were not placed in the hands of the competent legal authorities in the time frame stipulated by law. The Government has also violated basic principles for the protection of minors and has limited the freedom of the press, as denounced by local organizations in Panama. It is clear from witness statements gathered in the field and from information from the national media, that the National Police Force have used excessive force and acted in an arbitrary manner.

Central American Voices for free communication

Central American Voices for Free Communication is an initiative promoted by Human Rights Everywhere, Lac and the Costa Rican organisations Solidarity Confederation (Confederación Solidaridad) and the Pabrú Présberi Centre for Alternative Action (Centro de Acción Alternativa Pabrú Présberi) with the support of the University of Costa Rica through its Programme on freedom of expression, the right to information and public opinion (Proledi).

Completed: First Diploma in social mapping tools

The first Diploma in social mapping tools and land defense has been completed. This training program was carried out during the second half of 2011, mainly via distance learning (on line), using as a platform the virtual campus of FUCLA and Geotalleres as a support site. The Diploma also featured an initial face-to-face session in Cali, and 4 workshops devoted to GPS management (in Quibdó, Cali, Guapi and Tumaco).

Constant and mutating threats to Human Rights

In Latin America and the Caribbean, human rights agreed by states in 1948 have never been fashionable … among governments. During the last few weeks we have witnessed Rafael Correa, president of Ecuador, lashing out against the Inter-American Human Rights System, Brazil has disobeyed the Inter-American Human Rights Commission, and when it comes down to it almost no government likes the reports on Human Rights violations published by independent organisations. There is a constant lack of fulfillment of judgments passed by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, and the evaluation mechanisms of the UN Human Rights Council are so mired in diplomacy that they shy away from ruffling the feathers of strong governments and end up crushing the weakest.

HREV in solidarity with Mundubat

HREV wishes to express its solidarity with the organisation Mundubat

HREV presents documentary on the NASO people

The Naso, one of Panama’s original peoples, have for centuries been fighting for their survival and for decades to safeguard their territorial, cultural and political rights by securing a state-recognised Comarca (indigenous region). Human Rights Everywhere (HREV) presents a new documentary on this people and their struggle.

Come on a journey with Otramérica from 15 August

Otramérica wants to have its feet firmly on the ground and look at the sides of the sides. So, from the periphery of power, we’re embarking on a journey which will be long (14,000 km), pluralistic (8 territories and dozens of peoples), multilingual (around 40 languages) and inspiring. We’re leaving on 15 August. Do you want to join us?

Spain must demand that Panama respects human rights and democracy

Madrid, 11 July 2011 The organisation Human Rights Everywhere (HREV) would like to remind the Spanish government of its obligations under international law and democratic principles. For this reason, the Spanish government must demand that Panama’s president, Ricardo Martinelli, respects the human rights of campesino and indigenous communities, as well as respecting civil society organisations and democratic institutions.

Otramérica Microdonations Campaign 2011

Throughout its inception, launch (in May 2011) and current operation, Otramérica has been a process made possible thanks to dozens of volunteers donating their time and energy, but funding is also needed. Because of this, we’ve launched a microdonations campaign, asking for your support in order to maintain our high standards and to be able to drive forward media initiatives which will continue to bring plurality and diversity to debates.

Otramérica, an open guide for navigating Latin America’s information jungle

Madrid, 21 June 2011. Otramérica is born – a platform to give a voice to the voiceless, to decolonise ways of thinking and to serve as a navigation aid ‘to the information jungle’ (not always decontaminated) on Latin America and the Caribbean. And it is born in an environment hostile towards independent, critical journalism and freedom of expression.

Colombia and Guatemala: Indigenous Peoples, Mining and Free Trade Agreements

In June 2011 Members of the European Parliament sent a letter to Catherine Ashton, EU High Commissioner for Foreign Affairs and Vice President of the European Commission, expressing concern regarding the serious violation of the right to prior consultation for the indigenous peoples of Guatemala and Colombia and the impacts that this has on their survival and wellbeing.

This event offers the opportunity to listen to testimonies from indigenous representatives from Colombia and Guatemala, on the impacts of mining in their lands without consultation. In the light of the proposed Association Agreements between Central America and the European Union, and the Trade Agreement between Colombia and the European Union, we are asking how the EU is contributing to the protection of the right to prior consultation. Will the FTAs be able to improve the situation of indigenous peoples and will the agreements respect their human and collective rights?

Otramérica is born, a communications medium for reporting on Latin America from its own perspective, and through the prism of human rights

Otramérica is born, a communications medium for reporting on Latin America from its own perspective, and through the prism of human rights

Thursday 16 June 2011 The Jorge Luis Borges Room at the Casa de América will be the venue on 21 June for the press launch of the Otramérica portal, a new, independent communications medium created by the NGO Human Rights Everywhere (HREV) with the aim of producing information and high quality, independent and reliable analysis on the region’s reality and the social conflicts which affect it, as well as the threats to human rights and to communities’ lands.

Open letter to OAS

OPEN LETTER TO HEADS OF STATE AND GOVERNMENT OF THE MEMBER STATES OF THE ORGANISATION OF AMERICAN STATES (OAS) CONCERNING THE FORTHCOMING ELECTION OF NEW MEMBERS OF THE INTERAMERICAN COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS (IACHR)

HREV on the Internet (1)

HREV was born and developed as a network, and although the people forming this network feel very close, geographically we are quite distant from each other.

In this context, the internet has been the ideal medium for us to develop as an affinity group.  We have taken advantage of many of the possibilities offered by this virtual medium and we are exploring new ones to support, strengthen and develop our very real work.

Here is a bit of guidance so that you do not get lost among our various sites:

HREV.org

This is our ‘organisation’ site.  On it you will find who we are and what we do.  It is a kind of  gateway, where you will find links to all our sites and you can read or download the documents we produce.

Although we have been on line since 2004, the current version of our website dates from March 2011 and is available in Spanish and English (the French version is currently being set up).  We would like to take this opportunity to pay a well-deserved tribute to Carlos Le Paliscot and his designs which have accompanied us for the last 7 years:  Thank you for your excellent work and for having helped to create our ‘house brand’.   Here is one of the last screenshots from our old site:

Much of HREV’s activity can be found spread over the rest of our internet sites.  To avoid you having to look at all of them to keep up-to-date with latest developments, we recommend that you visit our Facebook page, which we can treat as our ‘meeting place’.  See you there….

Blogs . Otramérica . Other sites

Otramérica now in its test period

The Human Rights Everywhere LAC team is today celebrating.

After several months’ work, the portal OTRAMÉRICA, FROM THE SOUTH TO THE NORTH, is on line for a test period.  Otramérica is a space for analysis and information on Latin America and the Caribbean from a human rights perspective, and seeks other viewpoints on the reality of the continent.

Otramérica is a portal open to citizens throughout the world wishing to use or contribute material on Latin America and the Caribbean and its mission is to be long-lasting and have an influence on the limited perspective transmitted by the conventional media.

This is a not-for-profit project of HREV made possible by the voluntary and unselfish work of Carlos Reyes LePaliscot and his team of  developers, of Rodrigo Fino and Paula Ripoll (Gracía Media Latinoamérica), and of dozens volunteers and friends from north to south, from east to west…

The portal will be 100% operational in the next few days.

HREV Videos/Anti-mining Protests in Panama

These are some of the videos we were able to make before we were expelled from Panama.  They formed part of our work documenting the Ngäbe and Buglé peoples’ fight against Panama’s new Mining Code.  These original peoples, joined together in the Coordinating Group for the Defence of Natural Resources and the Rights of the Ngäbe and Buglé Peoples, succeeding in getting the law repealed.

Anti-mining protests on the Pan-American Highway/Panama, February 2011

Anti-mining protests on the Pan-American Highway/Panama, February 2011 (II)

March in support of the anti-mining protests in Panama City, February 2001

United States highlights serious human rights problems in Panama

The US State Department has published its report on the human rights situation around the world in 2010.  The report, according to the Panamanian journalist Betty Brannan, states that, “The human rights ‘problems’ in Panama in 2010 included the use of ‘excessive force’ by the police during protests; corruption both in the legislative and executive branches, as well as in the security forces; continued marginalised participation of indigenous communities in decisions that affect them; corruption, ineffectiveness, and alleged political manipulation of the judicial system.  The report also criticises the conditions in Panamanian prisons; political pressure on the news media and journalists and discrimination against individuals with disabilities”.

The report, as it covers 2010, refers to the first attempt to expel the HREV journalist and activist Paco Gómez Nadal: “In early July authorities detained La Prensa journalist Paco Gomez Nadal, a foreign national with a valid permit to work in the country who was also a human rights activist from the NGO Human Rights Everywhere and an editorial adviser and contributor to foreign publications, as he attempted to board a flight to another country. In the ensuing controversy, the government made several contradictory public claims about its reasons, all involving alleged tax and immigration irregularities; reportedly told him that he could leave if he promised not to return; but released him after several hours. At year’s end he continued to reside in the country and publish his articles critical of the government”.

Click HERE to see the report on Panama

Human Rights Foundation presents legal report on the expulsion of Paco Gómez and Pilar Chato

The Human Rights Foundation, a New York-based organisation with figures such as Václav Havel, Garry Kasparov and Elie Wiesel on its International Council, has today published a legal report on the case of Paco Gómez Nadal and Pilar Chato (HREV activists) concluding that “on 28 February, these Spanish nationals were detained, arrested, and arbitrarily expelled from Panama for engaging in journalism critical of the government and for conducting legitimate activities as human rights defenders”.

“The abuses committed by the Panamanian government against these two foreign journalists and human rights defenders are unacceptable in a democracy,” said Thor Halvorssen, president of HRF. “Paco Gómez Nadal and Pilar Chato were detained and arbitrarily expelled from Panama. Moreover, the Office of the President orchestrated a shameful smear campaign typical of an undemocratic propaganda machine, ” concluded Halvorssen in a press notice issued by HRF.

The human rights organisation has sent a detailed letter to the President of Panama demanding that the Spanish journalists and activists be allowed to return to Panama immediately and warns of the threat currently looming over freedom of expression and the defence of human rights in the Central American country.

To read the report: click here.

To read the letter to President Ricardo Martinelli: click here.

Spanish parliamentary group (IU) seeks answers over expulsion of HREV activists

The IU (Izquierda Unida – United Left), a Spanish parliamentary group, has tabled a question in the Congress of Deputies aimed at the Spanish Government, inquiring about the role it played in the illegal detention and subsequent deportation from Panama of the two journalists and activists from Human Rights Everywhere, Francisco ‘Paco’ Gómez Nadal and Pilar Chato Carral.

In the preamble to its questions, IU explains the seriousness of the incident and how it is part of a systematic campaign by the Panamanian government to persecute journalists, activists, and leaders of civil society in this Central American country.

The IU’s questions seek to establish what the Spanish government has done to protect its citizens and what it is going to do to ensure that they can return to Panama when they want to, as currently they are banned from entering the country for two years, the country where they lived for years and worked as defenders and promoters of human rights, with a special focus on the accompaniment of indigenous and campesino communities  affected by megaprojects.

Click HERE to download the full document submitted by the IU in Spain.

3 new maps in Geographiando

The Geographies have been expanded and now consists of 66 maps

The latest 3 geo-referenced graphics to be included on our Geographiando site are:

• DL2 Atlas:

02.  Indigenous territories and paramilitary presence.  Municipalities with neo-paramilitary activity 2010. See here.

• Caluroso Caos:

01.   La Vía campesina.  See here.

• The global flow of palm oil:

01.  Oil palm: latitudinal range for its production.  See here.

The maps:

Map 45 of Desecrated Land Atlas 2 is devoted to paramilitarism, an (extremely!) active  agent without which it would be impossible to understand many of the dynamics associated with the megaprojects affecting indigenous territories.  As with the 2009 map, it is based on data provided by INDEPAZ.

The map which launches the series especially devoted to geographies of resistance (Caluroso Caos) (literally ‘hot’ or ‘warm chaos’) aims to serve as a small tribute to one of the world’s largest resistance movements:  La via campesina.  This movement brings together over 200 million campesinos and campesinas (peasant farmers) from 148 organisations in  69 countries.  This global organisation ‘defends sustainable agriculture as a way to  promote social justice and dignity.  It strongly opposes corporate-driven agriculture and transnational companies that are destroying people and nature’ (La Vía Campesina).  How could we not dedicate the first map of our Caluroso Caos to them!

Another map is incorporated into the geography of the global flow of palm oil, that agro-industrial megaproject based on oil palm monocultures and plantations and on trade in the oil extracted from its fruit.  On the map devoted to the latitudinal range for cultivating this palm tree a picture begins to emerge of the megaproject from its origin in the areas of production.

Coming soon:

The Postmetropolis series is being launched with a map dedicated to Medellín; more maps on mining in the DL2 series; and a new map on the flow of palm oil.

You can follow us on Geographiando.

Farewell to Jorge Mata

The photographer Jorge Mata has died, and part of Human Rights Everywhere’s soul goes with him.   His photography had accompanied HREV practically since we started our activities in 2004, illustrating our reports, our conferences and our websites.

His passion, commitment and indisputable talent as a photographer have made his work an account of the resistance, dignity and daily struggle of countless people to have their fundamental rights respected.  And making visible so many ‘invisible people’ and their causes is, dear Jorge, work beyond price.  Through his last project in Colombia, Surimages, he told of another country, of victims and murderers, with truth and dignity.

Thank you and farewell, compañero.

_____

By way of a small tribute we have put some of those photos which have accompanied us over the years in the gallery which dominates our website’s home page.

Excessive use of force and lack of due process take hold in Panama

Panama.  14 March 2011.  Today Human Rights Everywhere (HREV) publishes its report on the Human Rights Violations during the Days of Protest against Mining Reform in Panama (January to March 2011).  The 27-page document gives a detailed account of the events surrounding the protests and some of its main conclusions are that there was excessive use of force on the part of the National Police, the right to due process was violated and there were no judicial guarantees in the case of various detainees, the Government engaged in incitement to violence through a state publicity campaign and that the National Immigration Service (Servicio Nacional de Migración) has been used as ‘an instrument for persecution’.

HREV’s team of volunteers travelled around the conflict zones to gather information which was then analysed by human rights experts.  The report makes a series of recommendations to the Panamanian state focusing on processes for truth, justice and reparation, it demands the immediate return to Panama of the international activists expelled from the country following legal proceedings riddled with irregularities, and calls for the adoption of the measures necessary for guaranteeing the work of human rights defenders in the country.  HREV also recommends that the right to assembly, association and protest is guaranteed and that all forms of harassment of social, trade union, campesino and indigenous leaders throughout the country cease.

HREV would like to remind readers that it had already referred to this pattern of human rights violations in previous reports concerning the events in Changuinola in July 2010 and expresses its deep concern at what now appears to be standard practice on the part of the Government, as well as at the failure to establish official and legal responsibility for what has occurred.

Download report here.

Descargar versión española  aquí.

The Ngäbe and Buglé assert their autonomy

In an act exercising their autonomy, the Ngäbe-Buglé Traditional General Congress elected a new president, Celio Guerra, as a traditional authority.

This Congress, held in Pueblo Nuevo, represented a challenge to the Congress of Delegates organised by the Electoral Tribunal and sponsored by the Panamanian government, during which, in violation of the  Constitution of the Ngäbe-Buglé Comarca as well as the principles of ILO Convention 169 (which Panama has not signed), a president was elected on the basis of delegate elections, which have been condemned by Ngäbe and Buglé leaders as lacking legitimacy.

The Traditional Congress continued the custom of voting in mass assemblies and strengthens the cultural and political identity of these peoples, Panama’s largest indigenous group, who took the leading role in the protests in July 2010 and February this year against state laws which they believe undermine their territorial, political and cultural rights.



Immigration and Human Rights in Panama

The history of the SNM (Servicio Nacional de Migración – National Immigration Service) is riddled with irregularities.  Over the last year, Panama’s Supreme Court has fined María Cristina González, its  director, for violating due process in cases of migrants, while the SNM’s restrictive policy on Nicaraguan citizens has brought both countries to the verge of a serious diplomatic dispute.

In addition, as the Centre of Justice and International Law (CEJIL) notes in its latest press release on the expulsion of two HREV activists, in November 2010 the Panamanian state was found guilty by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights in the case of Vélez Loor, who was deported after almost a year’s detention in Darién province.

Panama deported 746 foreign citizens in 2010 alone.  While they were being held in SNM cells, Paco Gómez Nadal and Pilar Chato, both members of HREV, were able to witness at first hand the vulnerability of various migrants (including Nicaraguans, Chinese, Pakistanis and Dominicans) who had spent months without access to a lawyer.  The situation was particularly serious in the case of a group of Pakistini citizens, as they had been detained for five months in very poor facilities despite having formally requested refugee status.

Reports by the Defensoría del Pueblo (Office of the Human Rights Ombudsman) have branded the SNM as one of the least transparent of Panama’s institutions and where there is the greatest risk of human rights violations.

Historic Naso activist dies

Together with other activists from the Naso original people, Esteban Durán made a stand for almost two years in the so-called ‘Bonyik Trench’, blocking the path of machines from EPM (Medellín Public Companies) which were to be used for the hydroelectric project on the river of the same name.  It was only the Police, state violence and time which finally brought the trench protest to an end.

But not to Esteban Durán’s.  Old Man Durán, as he was affectionately called by his Naso brothers, continued to make a stand on his small plot of land, forcing the company to change the route of the access road to Bonyik hydroelectric plant and, despite the fact that his friends and relatives were ‘bought’ by ‘development’ dollars, Durán held out.

We have now received the news of his death and with him dies an incalculable part of the heritage of this small indigenous group at risk of extinction.

For two and a half years, Human Rights Everywhere has been accompanying the Naso people’s defence of their territory on the Bonyik River, by the sacred river of Gran Abuela (Teribe), and  the San San Druy and San San communities of resistance.

Esteban Durán during a meeting with HREV volunteers.

Devastation on the banks of the River Bonyik

Massive support for HREV activists

News of the illegal expulsion of HREV activists Paco Gómez Nadal and Pilar Chato from Panama has gone round the world.  Panamanian and international organisations have condemned the arrest of the two journalists and human rights activists and have demanded that the Government allow them back in the country.

The Centre for Justice and International Law (CEJIL) considers that the Government’s actions have ‘violated freedom of expression in Panama’, while the Washington-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) warned that the expulsions ‘set an alarming precedent for journalists in Panama’.

Dozens of organisations have commented on the issue, including the Forum de Periodistas de Panamá (Panama Journalists’ Forum), Colegio Nacional de Periodistas (National College of Journalists), Sindicato de Periodistas de Panamá (Panama Union of Journalists), La Asamblea Ciudadana (the Citizens’ Assembly), Colectivo Voces Libres (Free Voices Collective), Círculo de Periodistas de Colón (Colón Journalists’ Circle), Asociación de Educadores Veraguenses (Veragua Teachers’ Association), and El Frente por la Defensa de los Derechos Económicos y Sociales (The Front for the Defence of Economic and Social Rights) in Panama. In the international sphere, as well as those mentioned, Reporters without Borders and its Spanish section have been robust in their condemnation of the Panamanian government’s actions,  as have journalist collectives in Spain.

Many national and international media outlets have featured the story of their deportation.  Among the most notable are Telesur, ABC-España, Latin American Herald Tribune, Radio France Internationale y Radio Netherlands

The Ngäbe-Buglé Peoples secure the repeal of the Panama’s Mining Law

After weeks of struggle, dozens of injured and arrests, and even the deportation of supporters, the Ngäbe-Buglé, Panama’s original people, have secured an undertaking from the President of the Republic, Ricardo Martinelli, to repeal Law 8, the new Mining Code, which the indigenous peoples have succeeded in having annulled in defence of their territories.

The Government had refused to repeal it several times, but in the end back-tracked.  See note (in Spanish).