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	Suspend loans tainted by Uzbek forced labour by Walk Free, Cotton Campaign, agencies Uzbekistan   Mar. 2016   In December 2015, we joined our partner, the Cotton Campaign, in a protest outside the World Bank headquarters in Washington D.C. We projected a showcase of striking images and videos of Uzbek slavery onto the side of the Bank’s building.   Drugged, beaten and detained by police – this was the fate of Elena Urlaeva when she dared to document state-sponsored slavery in the cotton fields of Uzbekistan.   In Uzbekistan, the whole country suffers because of the government’s dependence on revenue from the cotton harvest. The government operate the world’s largest state-run system of forced labour where activists like Elena are brutally repressed, pensioners are being forced to pick cotton or submit 50% of their pension, and education and health care are undermined for two months every year due to the mass mobilisation of teachers and doctors.   What’s worse is that there are international actors helping Uzbekistan keep its dirty secret – including the World Bank. The World Bank is an international institution that provides loans for developing countries. Right now they are funding projects totalling $500 million in Uzbekistan that are documented to be using forced labour.   The good news is that the World Bank signed a contract agreeing to suspend loans if evidence of forced labour was uncovered. Now we need your help to hold them to this promise.   This year, as the latest announcements calling “everyone to the cotton fields” were heard echoing around the countryside of Uzbekistan, we’re planning to hit the Uzbek government where it hurts – its pocket.   By calling on the World Bank to account for its actions in propagating Uzbekistan’s forced labour regime, we’re showing that the international community will not accept or fund state-sanctioned forced labour. But without huge public pressure, the World Bank may turn a blind eye – please don’t let this happen.   * Sign our petition now and help put an end to forced labour in Uzbekistan, see also the Cotton Campaign for more details: http://www.cottoncampaign.org/ http://www.opensocietyfoundations.org/voices/uzbekistan-s-perfect-storm-corruption Visit the related web page
	Criminalization of human rights defenders: an alarming phenomenon in Latin America by OHCHR, FIDH, World Organisation Against Torture   June 2016   Funding shortfall for the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. (UN High Commissioner for Human Rights)   We are disturbed by the severe financial crisis that the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights is facing. Should the Commission not receive the necessary funds in the coming weeks, the capacity of the regional human rights system to respond to victims of rights violations across the Americas may be seriously diminished.   The pioneering work of the Inter-American Commission, as an agent of constitutional, legislative and policy reform, has had a strong impact on human rights in the region and beyond. It has provided a vital recourse for victims of human rights violations in the region and has played an important role in advocating for the rights of vulnerable groups.   The Commission is also a strategic partner for the UN Human Rights Offices in the region and a point of reference for the development of human rights standards worldwide.   Unfortunately, in recent years, the Commission has faced undue pressure from a number of States.   We urge States to reaffirm their commitment to human rights by providing the Commission with the required resources to fulfil its crucial mandate and indeed to strengthen this key institution. The Commission’s robust defence of human rights in the region should be encouraged – not punished.   March 3, 2016   Berta Cáceres, Honduran Indigenous Rights Leader, is Murdered. (NPR)   Berta Cáceres, a hugely influential Honduran indigenous rights activist, was killed in her hometown of La Esperenza, Intibucá, on Thursday. She would have turned 46 tomorrow.   Cáceres was awarded the Goldman Environmental Prize after she led a peaceful campaign to stop one of the world''s largest dam builders from pursuing the Agua Zarca Dam, which would have cut off the ethnic Lenca people from water, food and medicine.   La Prensa of Honduras reports that Cáceres was currently working to stop a company from building a hydroelectric dam on the Gualcarque river, which the Rio Blanco community said would fundamentally change their way of life. Authorities, the paper reports, said she was killed during a robbery, but her mother said that Cáceres was killed "because of her struggle."   Cáceres had faced threats for her environmental activism. So much so that the the InterAmerican Commission for Human Rights had called on the government of Honduras to provide her with protection.   Cáceres family is calling her death an assassination.   "They were waiting for the chance to get to her," Silvio Carrillo, her nephew, said in a phone interview. "They were just waiting and she knew it was gonna happen. We all knew but we didn''t dissuade her because we believe in this too."   In a statement, COPINH, the indigenous rights group that Cáceres worked for, said:   "In the last few weeks, violence and repression towards Berta, COPINH, and the communities they support, had escalated. In Rio Blanco on February 20th, Berta, COPINH, and the community of Rio Blanco faced threats and repression as they carried out a peaceful action to protect the River Gualcarque against the construction of a hydroelectric dam by the internationally-financed Honduran company DESA.   As a result of COPINH''s work supporting the Rio Blanco struggle, Berta had received countless threats against her life and was granted precautionary measures by the InterAmerican Commission for Human Rights. On February 25th, another Lenca community supported by COPINH in Guise, Intibuca was violently evicted and destroyed."   In a message, the Goldman Prize said it was "devastated to hear of Berta Cáceres assassination."   Annie Bird, who supported Caceres actions for more than a decade, says her murder will have a chilling effect on other activists.   "It sends a very strong message," she said. "And it makes everybody feel very vulnerable."   Carrillo said he doesn''t expect justice. Honduras, he said, is too far gone for that.   "But what I do see is people being inspired to speak up and to push forth and to stand up and say we can''t do this anymore," he said. "We can''t have this happen anymore."   Cáceres is survived by her four children — ages 26, 24, 23 and 21 — and her mother.   http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/03/03/469045372/berta-c-ceres-honduran-indigenous-rights-leader-is-murdered http://reliefweb.int/report/honduras/honduras-one-most-dangerous-countries-human-rights-defenders-experts-warn http://bit.ly/2bBgFFW http://bit.ly/2c1btdJ http://bit.ly/2bKCh1w http://bit.ly/2bsQzX0   * Global Witness report: Honduras: the deadliest country in the world for environmental activism, where more than 120 people have died since 2010, see link below.   25 February 2016   The criminalization of human rights defenders in the context of the extraction of natural resources and megaprojects is becoming a very worrisome phenomenon in Latin America, reports the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders in a report published today in Mexico.   Entitled “The criminalization of human rights defenders in the context of industrial projects: a regional phenomenon in Latin America”, the report also points to the role of businesses, civil servants, public prosecutors, judges, and the State, among others, in this phenomenon.   The report describes the specific cases of human rights defenders criminalized in eight Latin American countries (Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua and Peru).   “Criminalizing and harassing those who defend human rights and land rights is becoming a recurring pattern in Latin America. It is not an isolated phenomenon” points out the Observatory.   “Judges and attorneys often have their share of responsibility with regard to this criminalization. This must end immediately. They can no longer be complicit”.   The report especially stresses two core issues common to all the countries studied:   Firstly, it is in the contexts of extraction of natural resources and of megaprojects that criminalization of human rights defenders is most virulent. They are targeted because they promote landrights and defend vulnerable groups, such as indigenous, afro and rural communities.   But also because they have a key role in drawing attention to human rights violations related to property, exploitation of land and resources, the environment, water rights and respect for labor rights, among others.   All of the cases documented in the report demonstrate how the inappropriate use of criminal law to criminalize community leaders contributed to the collapse of their capacity to act.   Moreover, the report emphasizes the key role of businesses and the judiciary in criminalizing defenders, despite their human rights obligation and the legitimacy of peaceful social protest.   Nearly all criminal cases against defenders have been initiated by businesses, who request the application of emergency laws such as, for example, anti-terrorism legislation.   Furthermore, the report denounces the lack of independence and impartiality of justice and its determining impact on the criminalization of defenders.   In most of the cases presented, additionally to charging abusively the defenders, the Public Ministry leads criminal action and calls regularly for preventive prison. In many cases defenders are prosecuted once, twice or more.   This is extremely serious in that it violates the minimum guarantees of due process and the right to personal liberty.   Likewise, although judges do not always convict defenders, they almost systematically assent to requests for cautionary measures such as preventive arrest.   The Observatory urges the judiciary of the above-mentioned countries not to be accomplices to the undue criminalization of human rights defenders and to initiate a period of reflection within the judicial system on the need for practicing justice in a way that respects the equality of all parties without favoring political and economic interests.   (The Observatory, is dedicated to the protection of human rights defenders and aims to offer them concrete support in their time of need. Organizations who contributed to the elaboration of this report: - FIDH, within the framework of the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders - World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT), within the framework of the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders - Justiça Global – Brazil - CAJAR – Colombia - INREDH – Ecuador - CEDHU - Ecuador - UDEFEGUA – Guatemala - COFADEH – Honduras - COPINH – Honduras - CMDPDH – Mexico - CENIDH - Nicaragua - APRODEH – Peru)   http://reliefweb.int/report/world/criminalization-human-rights-defenders-alarming-phenomenon-latin-america http://bit.ly/1Xzm9B9 http://bit.ly/2bPHBT9 Visit the related web page
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