| | International joint statement
04 March 2016 - Declaration
March 4, 2016 - Planet Earth Berta Cáceres, indigenous leader and spokeperson for more than 20 years of the Civic Council of Popular and Inigenous Organizations of Honduras (Consejo Cívico de Organizaciones Populares e Indígenas de Honduras - Copinh), was murdered on March 3, while she was resting in her home in La Esperanza, Intibucá, about 188 km from Tegucigalpa, by "unknown" gunmen. Berta Cáceres was a firm defender of small farmers and indigenous peoples' rights and an inspiring social activist, both at regional and continental level, in defense of social and environmental justice, particularly against mining megaprojects and hydropower plants. She had warned many times about Free Trade Agreements as part of the machinery of impunity of transnational corporations. Bertha committed her life to health, land, against patriarchism and violence. She opposed the political coup d'etat of June 28, 2009; COPINH denounced the coup as an instrument of violence serving transnational corporations to exploit resources and to repress the dissent of social movements. Berta also opposed US military bases on Lenca territory. In April 2015, Berta Cáceres was awarded with Goldman prize, one of the most prestigious awards for environmental defenders. She was awarded for her hard work in defence of the Lenca territory against the Agua Zarca Hydropower Project of the Chinese transnational SINOHYDRO and national company Desarrollo Energético Sociedad Anónima (DESA). Lenca people had been denouncing for years the violation by corporations, military and governmental actors of the human right to water as source of life and culture. Berta Cáceres had children and was assigned precautionary measures by the Inter-American Commission of Human Rights (IACHR) which were not implemented by the state. Berta has been assassinated by a state which protects the interests of local capital and transnational corporations that have destroyed the territory. Berta's commitment in favour of life, of those most in need, was the reason that several trials, investigations and threats were made against her. The indigenous leader denounced many times death threats against her, and this was happening among a general violent context; 111 environmental activists in Honduras have been killed between 2002 and 2014, according to the 2014 report "¿Cuántos más?" of the ONG Global Witness. This makes Honduras the country with the highest rate of violence among the 17 countries analysed in the report. It also shows the architecture of impunity and violence of the large scale mining, of the hydroelectric business, among other activities in favour of private capital and complicit governments. According to the Honduras-based organization ACI-PARTICIPA (Asociación para la participación ciudadana en Honduras) more than 90% of assassinations and abuses in the country remain unpunished. We firmly demand to the government of Honduras: - To put an end to impunity and hold a thorough investigation into the murder of Berta Cáceres, as well as into all other social and environmental justice activists.
- To ensure the integrity, freedom and respect of the Human Rights of Gustavo Castro de Soto and of Aureliano Molina (arrested at the home of Bertha Caceres)
- To suspend all projects that have been denounced by Human Rights defenders, among which the Hydropower plant Agua Zarca on Rio Blanco and the Blue Energy project on Rio Cangel. - All corporate & IFI financing and investment to be suspended for all Projects that have violated HHRR and where there has been no free prior and informed consent, according to ILO Convention 169.
- To put an end to persecution and criminalization of Human Rights defenders and to implement with all precautionary measures for the integrity and safety of people.
We express our solidarity and extend our condolences to the family and close friends of Berta Cáceres, to the Lenca people, and to the people of Honduras who suffer her irreparable loss. Finally, we call for an international peoples' mobilization and immediate denounce of Berta's assassination to the embassies and consulates of Honduras in our respective countries, to express our repudiation of such crimes and our firm demand of justice. Source TNI... This declaration had been signed by over 200 international organizations and social movements, amongs others by:
Accountability Counsel
ActionAid USA
Alabama Center for Rural Enterprise
Alabama Coalition for Immigrant Justice (ACIJ)
Alianza Americas
Alliance Against Mining - Philippines (Alyansa Tigil Mina)
Alliance for Global Justice (AfGJ)
Alliance for Justice
Amazon Watch
AMERICA PARA TODOS
American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO)
American Friends Service Committee (AFSC)
American Jewish World Service (AJWS)
Amigos de la Tierra España
ART NOT WAR
Azul
Baurkot & Baurkot
Beautiful Trouble
Beautiful Rising
Beyond Extreme Energy
Brooklyn For Peace
Casa de Maryland
Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good
Center for Biological Diversity
Center for Earth Ethics at Union Theological Seminary
Center for Human Rights and Environment
Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL)
Center for Justice and Accountability (CJA)
Center for Justice and International Law (CEJIL)
Center for Women's Global Leadership, Rutgers University
Center of Concern
Center on Conscience & War, Washington DC
Central American Resource Center (CRECEN)
Central American Resource Center (CARECEN), Washington DC, Los Angeles, and San Francisco
Centro de Documentación en Derechos Humanos “Segundo Montes Mozo S.J.” (CSMM)
Centro de Estudios para la Justicia Social TIERRA DIGNA, Colombia
Chicago Religious Leadership Network on Latin America (CRLN)
Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), Refugee and Immigration Ministries
Church World Service
Climate Justice Alliance (CJA)
Climate Parents
Coalition of Black Trade Unionists (CBTU)
CODEPINK
Colombia Support Network
Columban Center for Advocacy and Outreach
Columbia Divest for Climate Justice
Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador (CISPES)
Committee for Human Rights in Latin America (CDHAL), Montreal, Canada
Committee on U.S.-Latin American Relations, Cornell University
Communications Workers of America (CWA)
Community Alliance for Global Justice (CAGJ)
Community Justice Project, Inc. of Miami, FL
Conference of Major Superiors of Men
Corporate Accountability International
The Cross Border Network for Justice & Solidarity, Kansas City, Missouri
Cultural Survival
Denver Justice & Peace Committee
Disciples Justice Action Network
Divest Middlebury
Dominican Friars, Irving, TEXAS
Donella Meadows Institute
Due Process of Law Foundation
EcoEquity
EarthAction International
Earth Day Network
Earthjustice
Environmental Defender Law Center (EDLC)
Environmental Defenders Project, USA
Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA)
Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA)
Faith in Public Life
Family Farm Defenders
Farmworker Association of Florida
The Fellowship of Reconciliation
FERN
Florida Immigrant Coalition
France Amérique Latine/Francia América Latina
Franciscan Action Network
Friends Committee on National Legislation
Friends of the Earth-United States
Friends of Miami-Dade Detainees
Food First
Food Voices
Fund for Democratic Communities, Greensboro, NC
Georgia Detention Watch
Global Alliance for the Rights of Nature
Global Campaign for Peace Education
Global Ministries of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) and United Church of Christ
Global Witness
Goldman Environmental Foundation
Grassroots Global Justice Alliance
Grassroots International
Green America
Green Cross International
GreenLatinos
Greenpeace USA
GreenWood
Grupo Belga 'Solidair met Guatemala'
Guatemala Human Rights Commission (GHRC)
The Guatemalan-Maya Center
Gulf Coast Center for Law & Policy
Honduran Conservation Coalition
Honduras Accompaniment Project
Hondurasdelegation, Germany
Honor the Earth
Hope Community Center
IBIS
Ignatian Solidarity Network
Indigenous Environmental Network
The Ingrid Washinawatok Flying Eagle Woman Fund for Peace, Justice and Sovereignty
Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy
Institute for Justice & Democracy in Haiti
Institute for Policy Studies, Climate Policy Program, Global Economy Project and New Economy Maryland Project
Interamerican Association for Environmental Defense (AIDA)
Interfaith Coalition on Immigration, MN
Interfaith Power & Light
International Federation of Settlements
International Forum on Globalization
International Institute on Peace Education
International Labor Rights Forum (ILRF)
International Platform against Impunity
International Rivers
International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC)
International Union, United Automobile, Aerospace and Agricultural Implement Workers of America (UAW)
JA!FOE Moçambique
JASS (Just Associates)
Jesuit Conference of Canada and the United States
Jesuit Social Research Institute/Loyola University New Orleans
Just Foreign Policy
KyotoUSA
La Asamblea Veracruzana de Iniciativas y Defensa Ambiental (LAVIDA), Mexico
Labor Council for Latin American Advancement, AFL-CIO (LCLAA)
Latin America Solidarity Committee-Milwaukee
Latin America Task Force of Interfaith Council for Peace & Justice - Ann Arbor, Michigan
Latin America Working Group (LAWG)
Leadership Conference of Women Religious
LEPOCO Peace Center, Bethlehem, PA
Liberty Tree Foundation for the Democratic Revolution
Maryknoll Office for Global Concerns
Medical Mission Sisters
Mennonite Central Committee U.S. Washington Office
Mesoamerican Women Human Rights Defenders Initiative
Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate-U.S Province (OMI)
Movement Generation: Justice and Ecology Project
Movimiento Mesoamericano contra el Modelo extractivo Minero -M4
MN350
Mundo Maya Foundation
National Advocacy Center of the Sisters of the Good Shepherd
National Family Farm Coalition
National Immigration Law Center
The National Religious Campaign Against Torture
Nicaragua Network
Nicaragua-US Friendship Office of the Americas
NOAH Friends of the Earth-Denmark
Nonviolence International
Nuclear Information and Resource Service
The Oakland Institute
Oil Change International
Other Worlds
Oxfam America
Pax Christi International
Pax Christi USA
Peace Action
Peace Action Montgomery
Peace Brigades International (PBI)
Peace Development Fund, Amherst, MA and San Francisco, CA
Peace Education Initiative, The University of Toledo
Pesticide Action Network North America
Plataforma Interamericana de Derechos Humanos, Democracia y Desarrollo (PIDHDD Regional)
Presbyterian Church (USA)
Presbyterian Peace Fellowship
Progressive Congress
Project South
Public Citizen
Public Services International
Radios Populares, Chicago IL
Rainforest Action Network
Red Europea de Comites Oscar Romero
Red Mexicana de Lideres y Organizaciones Migrantes
Rights Action (USA)
Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights
RootsAction.org
The Rural Coalition
Sansristi India
The Second Chance Foundation
SEIU Florida Public Services Union
Servicios Internacionales Cristianos de Solidaridad con los Pueblos de America Latina -- Oscar Romero (SICSAL)
Sierra Club
Sister Parish, Inc.
Sisters of Mercy, Institute Justice Team
Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur Justice and Peace Office
Sojourners
The Solidarity Center
SomeOfUs
SOMO (Centre for Research on Multinational Corporations), Netherlands
Soulardarity
Southeast Immigrant Rights Network (SEIRN)
South Florida Interfaith Worker Justice
Student Power Networks
SustainUS
Syracuse Peace Council
Tamales y Bicicletas
Task Force on the Americas
Trade Union Confederation of the Americas (TUCA)
Tri-Valley CAREs (Communities Against a Radioactive Environment)
Trócaire
Unión de Afectados por Texaco, Ecuador (UDAPT)
Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA)
Unitarian Universalist Service Committee (UUSC)
United Auto Workers Union (UAW)
United Church of Christ, Justice and Witness Ministries
The United Methodist Church – General Board of Church and Society
UPROSE
Voces de la Frontera
Washington Defender Association Immigration Project (WDAIP), Seattle, WA
Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA)
WE ACT
Witness for Peace
Women’s Earth and Climate Action Network (WECAN)
Women's Environment and Development Organization
World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT)
Zo Indigenous Forum, Mizoram, India
1199SEIU United Healthcare Workers East – Florida
2020 Action
350.org
Desmond D’Sa, Goldman Environmental Prize Winner 2014, Africa |
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