land rights
Thursday 21.4.2022 Paraguay - Latest Developments -
Paraguay: efforts to criminalise road blockades following protests
Over several days in March 2022, truck drivers in Paraguay protested and blocked roads to demand a reduction in fuel prices. On 17th March 2022, the fourth day of protests, police authorities threatened to intervene to clear out road blockades. Read more
Tuesday 12.4.2022 Peru - Latest Developments -
Peru: protests over price rises and violence against human rights defenders
On 3rd December 2021, Indigenous Asháninka leader Lucio Pascual Yumanga was found dead with gunshot wounds in the Puerto Bermúdez district, Pasco department. Rising fuel, fertilizer and food costs led transport workers to call for a strike in late March 2022, in protests that soon spread throughout Peru. Read more | Read in Spanish
Wednesday 30.3.2022 Ecuador - Latest Developments -
Ecuador: Amnesty granted to 268 rights defenders and protesters
On 11th March 2022, the National Assembly approved a bill granting amnesty to 268 people who faced prosecution for their defence of land, Indigenous and environmental rights, and for their involvement in 2019 protests. The bill was approved by the plenary of the National Assembly with 99 favourable votes out of the 125 parliamentarians in attendance. Read more | Read in Spanish
Friday 18.3.2022 Costa Rica - Latest Developments -
Costa Rica: violent attacks increase against Indigenous land defenders and territory in China Kichá
On 25th February 2022, Cabecár Indigenous land defenders were attacked with stones, sticks and machetes in China Kichá, an Indigenous territory in the San José province. According to the Coordinadora de Lucha Sur Sur (South-South Struggle Coordinator), the assailants are known to people of the region and have previously attacked other land defenders. Read more | Read in Spanish
Wednesday 2.3.2022 Colombia - Latest Developments -
Colombia: surveillance of civil society and detention of protest leaders
2022 began with astounding violence in the north-eastern department of Arauca along the Colombia-Venezuela border. Over 60 homicides were recorded in the region in January 2022, attributed to the escalating dispute over narcotrafficking routes between armed groups ELN (Ejército de Liberación Nacional) and dissidents of the FARC (Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia). Read more
Monday 28.2.2022 India - Latest Developments -
Authorities harass and squeeze funding of NGOs while activists, journalists targeted in India
The authorities have blocked access to foreign funding for NGOs using the restrictive Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act and raided the offices of human rights groups for allegedly violating the law. There continues to be a lack of accountability on the use of the Pegasus spyware against activists, while human rights defenders and journalists continue to be targeted, including in Jammu and Kashmir. Activists and protesters also remain in detention on various trumped up charges. Read more
Wednesday 16.2.2022 Japan - Latest Developments -
Increasing Twitter takedowns by Japan while teachers and Okinawans hold protests
In recent months there have been a high number of Twitter takedowns requested by the Japanese government and attempts through the courts to block a film on ‘comfort women’. There have also been protests by teachers’ unions and Okinawa residents against a US base. Read more
Friday 4.2.2022 Argentina - Latest Developments -
Protesters in Argentina take to the streets against IMF and large-scale mining
On 24th September 2021, police in Neuquén evicted a Mapuche Lof Quemquemtreu community from territory they had occupied near El Bolsón, Río Negro province. About 30 Indigenous people, who are in the process of reclaiming ancestral territory, were violently evicted by police using disproportionate force – including rubber bullets and firearms. Read more | Read in Spanish
Monday 31.1.2022 Kenya - Latest Developments -
LGBTIQ+ rights facing increasing threat, journalists attacked
journalists attacked for what may be related to their work; LGBTIQ+ NGO awaits supreme court ruling on registration; WHRD killed; Read more
Wednesday 26.1.2022 Paraguay - Latest Developments -
Paraguay: Protests for land rights amid wave of forced evictions
In a landmark decision published on 12th October 2021, the United Nations Human Rights Committee found that Paraguay’s failure to prevent and control the toxic contamination of traditional lands, due to the intensive use of pesticides by nearby commercial farms, violates Indigenous communities’ rights and sense of “home”. Read more | Read in Spanish
