It was my great good fortune to attend the Session on Human Rights Defenders in Latin America at the 2016 UN Forum on Business and Human Rights. Fifth U.N. Forum on Business and Human Rights.
The great highlight of that session was the moving and quite powerful presentation of Laura Zúniga Cáceres, the daughter of Berta Isabel Cáceres Flores, a Honduran human rights defender and co-founder of the Consejo Cívico de Organizaciones Populares e Indígenas de Honduras (Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras (COPINH)) (COPINH blog here), who was recently murdered.
Laura Zúniga Cáceres (pix L.C.Backer)
Her speech is worth serious contemplation, both for its power as a witness statement as for its analysis of the context in which front line stakeholders confront issues of globalization, state power, and enterprise markets behavior within the complex web of law and norms that serves as the regulatory framework of globalization. The issue of indigenous and other traditional communities' engagement with productive forces in globalization has yet to be seriously confronted in the mainstream discussion in business, and in human rights. The time for that engagement is seriously overdue.
What follows is (1) information about the session in which Ms. Zúniga Cáceres' presentation was delivered, and the (2) the presentation itself in Spanish (original) and English (my translation with apologies for its lapses).
(1) information about the session in which Ms. Zúniga Cáceres' presentation was delivered,
How many more killings & threats? Solutions to protect human rights defenders working on extractives in Latin America
Date: Wednesday 16 November
Time: 10:00-11:20
Room XX
Moderator: Phil Bloomer, Director, Business & Human Rights Resource Centre
Speakers
Keynote speaker: Laura Zuniga Cáceres, daughter of Berta Cáceres
--Heloisa Covolan, Social Responsibility Coordinator at Itaipu Binacional and Vice President of Global Compact Brazil Network
--Rémy Friedmann, Senior Advisor - Desk Human Security and Business, Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs
--Omar Jeronimo, coordinator of the Nuevo Dia Ch’orti Indigenous Association, Guatemala
--Ben Leather, Campaigner, Global Witness
Organisers: Platform against Impunity, Front Line Defenders, Global Witness, Peace Brigades International, International Service for Human Rights and Business and Human Rights Resource Centre
Link to concept note
Short explanation of the focus and aims of this session: 122 land and environmental rights defenders were killed in Latin America in 2015 for demanding corporate accountability. This year, the trend of attacks, harassment and criminalization of human rights defenders working on issues related to natural resource extraction has continued to worsen within a global context of narrowing civic space. The world rose up in reaction to the murder of Honduran indigenous leader Berta Cáceres in March and led many to ask what more can be done to reverse this trajectory. However, this has not prevented the subsequent deaths of several of her colleagues. What can governments, civil society, investors and progressive companies do to counteract this trend? This session brings together States, companies, activists and NGOs to explore concrete proposals regarding how to ensure the safety of human rights defenders in one of the world’s most dangerous environments in which to demand corporate respect for human rights. The purpose for this session is to shed a light on the current dangers HRDs working on corporate accountability issues are facing; to propose effective ways to counteract this trend, solutions that have been tested, and new ways to tackle the problem; and to analyze the gap between due diligence, responsible financing and impacts on the ground.
Presentación de Laura Zúniga Cáceres (COPINH);
Sesión Defensores de Derechos Humanos en América Latina
Buenos Días, soy Laura Zúniga Cáceres, miembra del Consejo Cívico de Organizaciones Populares e Indígenas de Honduras -- COPINH. El COPINH es una organización que esta conformada por el pueblo indígena lenca y que ha trabajado históricamente en las distintas luchas que como pueblo nos ha tocado librar.Berta Cáceres fue, hasta el 2 de marzo, la coordinadora general del COPINH. Berta Cáceres fue mi compañera de lucha, Berta Cáceres fue mi madre. A mi madre la encarcelaron, la despretigiaron, la amenazarin por su lucha en defensa de law vida. . . en contra del extractivismo.Entre el 2013 y el 2016, Berta Cáceres, recibió 33 amenazas, la mayoría relacionada con proyecto hidroeléctrico Agua Zarca, ejecutado por la empresa Desarrollos Energéticos Sociedad Anónima -- DESA, financiado por el Banco de desarrollo Holandes (FMO), por el Fondo Finlandés para la Cooperación Industrial (FinnFund) y por el Banco Centroamericano de Integración Económica BCIE. Ninguna de las 33 amenazas fue investigada por el Estado Hondureño.El dos de marzo de este año, Berta Cáceres, Mi madre, fue asesinada por su lucha en defensa del territorio de los pueblos indígenas y de la madre tierra. Este asesinato político, femicidio político, nos mostró que los intereses económicos de las empresas siguen estando por encima de nuestras vidas, que las mujeres indígenas, seguimos pagando con nuestra sangre la defensa de nuestros territorios.A Berta Cáceres el Estado hondureño no sólo no la protegió, sino que además la criminalizó y ha permitido que la empresa DESA, principal fuente de amenazas para mi mami y para el COPINH, siga funcionando pesar de que ha demostrado en reiteradas ocasiones ser criminal. Los bancos financiadores del proyecto hidroeléctrico, a pesar de haber sido avisados sobre estas amenazas, lo continuaron financiando. Tuvimos que sufrir el asesinato de Berta, de mi madre, para que el FMO y el FinnFund apenas suspendan provisionalmente el financiamiento al proyecto hidroeléctrico Agua Zarca. Y todavía nos seguimos preguntando qué hubiera pasado, si el asesinato de mi mami, no hubiera sido un escándalo mundial: ¿seguirían financiando ese Proyecto?.Cuando no dimos cuenta que nos habían arrebatado la vida de mi mami quisimos que esto no vuelva a pasar. Que ninguna hija vuelva llorar a su madre asesinada. Pero en el COPINH hemos tenidos que seguir sufriendo más asesinatos, sumado a la represión estatal de nuestras protestas y reivindicaciones. Vivimos la marginación de la investigación del asesinato de mi mami y enterándonos por los medios de comunicación de los "supuestos avances" en la búsqueda de justicia, la cual sigue sin dar pista sobre los autores intelectuales de su asesinato.
Como COPINH seguimos las enseñanzas de nuestra compañera Berta, vamos a seguir defendiendo la madre tierra, nuestros territorios, nuestras propias vidas. Nuestra búsqueda de justicia es también pos los 185 defensores y defensoras asesinadas sólo el 2015. Es por todos los pueblos indígenas y negros del mundo que han sufrido el racismo colonialista de este sistema económico.
Necesitamos que se respeten las decisiones autónomas de nuestros los pueblos. Este respeto es imprecindible para el verdadero ejercicio de los derechos humanos.
La defensa de la tierra y el territorio no pueden ser criminalizadas por ningún Estado. Lo hacemos en ejercicio de nuestro derecho a la libre determinación, la libertad de expresión y de defender los derechos humanos. Y además estamos asistidos por la legitimidad ancestral de proteger a la madre tierra.
Los Estados deben investigar todas las amenazas y cualquier hecho de violencia en contra de los defensores y defensoras de derechos humanos. Los precedentes de verdad y justicia son indispensables para prevenir más asesinatos.
Queremos ser protegidas. Las medidas de proteción deben ser desarrolladas desde nuestras cosmovisiones y realidades concretas.
Necesitamos acciones urgentes, para prevenir y frenar la violencia que como pueblos estamos sufriendo.
Nuestra lucha es por la madre tierra por la vida misma y en defensa de esta se nos esta yendo la vida. El quedarse sólo viendo que esto ocurre es complicidad.
Cada vez que un defensor o defensora es asesinada, muere una parte de nosotros, muere un parte de la humanidad, entonces. . . Hacer Justicia para Berta, es hacer justicia para el mundo.
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ENGLISH TRANSLATION (L.C. Backer, Trans.)
Presentation by Laura Zúniga Cáceres (COPINH);
Human Rights Defenders Session in Latin America
Good morning, I am Laura Zúniga Cáceres, member of the Civic Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras - COPINH. The COPINH is an organization that is made up of the Lenca indigenous people and has historically worked in the particular struggles that we as a people have had to fight.
Berta Cáceres was, until March 2, the general coordinator of COPINH. Berta Cáceres was my partner in the struggle, Berta Cáceres was my mother. My mother was imprisoned, despised, threatened for her fight to defend life. . . Against extractivism.
Between 2013 and 2016, Berta Cáceres received 33 threats, most of them related to the Agua Zarca hydroelectric project, undertaken by the Desarrollos Energéticos Sociedad Anónima - DESA, financed by the Dutch Development Bank (FMO), the Finnish Fund For Industrial Cooperation (FinnFund) and by the Central American Bank for Economic Integration BCIE. None of the 33 threats were investigated by the Honduran State.
On March 2 of this year, Berta Cáceres, Mi madre, was killed for her struggle to defend the territory of indigenous peoples and Mother Earth. This political assassination, political femicide, showed us that the economic interests of companies are still more important than our lives, that as indigenous women, we continue to pay with our blood in the defense of our territories.
To Berta Cáceres, the Honduran state not only failed to protect her, but also criminalized her and allowed DESA, the main source of threats to my mother and COPINH, to continue to function despite the fact that she has repeatedly evidenced its own criminality. The financing banks of the hydroelectric project, despite being warned about these threats, continued to fund it. We had to suffer the murder of Berta, of my mother, for FMO and FinnFund barely and provisionally to suspend funding for the Agua Zarca hydroelectric project. And we still wondered what would have happened, had the murder of my mom not been a worldwide scandal: would they have continued to finance that Project?.
When we came to realize that they had taken from my mom's life we wanted this not to happen again. That no daughter return to mourn her murdered mother. But at COPINH we have had to continue to suffer more murders, coupled with state repression of our protests and demands. We live the marginalization of the investigation of the murder of my mother that we come to know by means of the communication of the "supposed advances" in the search for justice, which continues without giving a hint on the intellectual authors of her murder.
As COPINH we follow the teachings of our comrade Berta, we will continue to defend Mother Earth, our territories, our own lives. Our search for justice is also undertaken as well for the 185 defenders murdered just in 2015. It is also for all the indigenous and black peoples of the world who have suffered the colonialist racism of this economic system.
We need to respect the autonomous decisions of our peoples. This respect is imperative for the true exercise of human rights.
The defense of land and territory can not be criminalized by any state. We do this in the exercise of our right to self-determination, freedom of expression and to defend human rights. And we are also assisted by the ancestral legitimacy of protecting Mother Earth.
States should investigate all threats and any acts of violence against human rights defenders. The precedents of truth and justice are indispensable to prevent further murders.
We want to be protected. Protection measures shpuld be developed from on the basis of our worldviews and concrete realities.
We need urgent action, to prevent and stop the violence that we as peoples are suffering.
Our struggle is for Mother Earth for life itself and in its defense that we devote our lives. Those who merey observe all this that is ocurring is complicit.
Every time a defender is killed, a part of us dies, a part of humanity dies, then. . . To do Justice for Berta, is to do justice for the world.
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