Nineteen non-governmental development organizations (NGDOs) have joined to form the new Taula Catalana pels Drets Humans i la Pau a l’Amèrica Central (Catalana Coordinating Group for Human Rights and Peace in Central America). This platform aims to strengthen dialogue and Catalonia’s response to the violence and human rights crises in Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, and Nicaragua.
According to the new coordinating group, “the context of repression, persecution and political violence in the region compels us to come together to draw international attention to the situation and strengthen the many links of solidarity that already exist.”
The new platform has ICIP’s support through the “Violence in non-war settings” work area, which aims to provide tools for analysis and action in situations of direct, structural and cultural violence such as those experienced in Central America.
The Taula Catalana Coordinating Group, which is being formally constituted, will be formally launched in Barcelona on 18-19 June with the celebration of the conference “Human Rights and Peace in Central America: Challenges and Opportunities.” This conference, jointly organized with ICIP, will take place at the Barcelona History Museum and will feature the participation of sixteen advocates for human rights and the environment from Central America with renowned academic, political, journalistic, community or social backgrounds.
Social society initiatives
Some of the topics to be addressed during the conference are the co-optation of the state by criminal networks, the unbridled exploitation of territories, social remilitarization, polarization and hate speech (LGBTIQ-phobic, sexist, racist…) as part of the infringements experienced by the population, condemned to inhuman migratory routes also as a consequence of the migratory policies of the global North.
Featured speakers who will be in Barcelona for this event include Dora María Téllez, opponent of the Ortega-Murillo regime in Nicaragua; Morena Herrera, Simone Weil 2023 award winner for her defence of women’s reproductive rights in El Salvador; Yéssica Trinidad, coordinator of the National Network of Women Human Rights Defenders of Honduras and an advocate for the rights of Afro-Indigenous communities; and the Guatemalan journalist Rolanda García, attacked and detained in 2018 when she was reporting on the illegal logging of trees on the banks of the Cahabón River (Alta Verapaz) by workers of the Oxec hydroelectric company.
This link provides all the information about the conference and the program of activities. Registration is free.
Two weeks of activities
Within the framework of the conference “Human Rights and Peace in Central America: Challenges and Opportunities,” and to dedicate a whole week to learning and reflecting on the current situation of defenders in the region, the following events will also take place:
June 20th
Conferment of the Values Award of the Lawyers Association of Barcelona to the lawyers of Nicaragua. The award will be presented to Ana Margarita Vigil, one of the conference participants, at the Lawyers Association of Sabadell at 6 pm.
June 21st
Presentation of the IM-Defensoras Report “Data that hurts us, networks that save us” 10+ years of aggressions against human rights defenders in Mesoamerica (2012-2023). This annual report, which records and documents attacks on human rights defenders in Central America, is the most important report published by this organization, and it presents the conclusions of more than a decade of work. The event will take place at 12 noon at Lafede.cat.
June 27 and 28th
Celebration of a conference entitled Defending the North-South Territory: How do we challenge the political and economic model from our actions and knowledge? This conference will bring together six defenders of human rights and territory from Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador and Nicaragua with activists for the defence of territory from Catalonia and Valencia. We will be invited to relate to territory from our own languages and perspectives, differentiating three aspects to broaden and deepen alliances, understandings and actions: water territory, land territory and home territory. The event will take place on 27 June, from 4-7 pm, at La Base Ateneu cooperative and on 28 June, from 10 am-7 pm, at the same venue.
Organizations that are part of the new platform
The organizations that are part of the Taula Catalana Coordinating Group for Human Rights and Peace in Central America are:
- Alternativa Intercanvi Pobles Indígenes
- Asociación de Mujeres Migrantes Diversas
- Assemblea Catalana per la Pau
- Associació Internacional d’Enginyeria Sense Fronteres
- Associació Entrepobles
- Brigades Internacionals de Pau
- Calala
- Comissió Catalana pels Drets Humans a Nicaragua
- Comitè Óscar Romero
- Cooperacció
- Desos Opció Solidària
- Farmamundi
- Grup de Suport Con Vos
- Huacal
- InteRed
- Justícia Alimentària
- Oxfam Intermón
- REDS
- Suds
