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Rapid Response Network

RRN Case Update
RRN Case Update: RRN 2019 - urgent human rights cases
August 22, 2019
RRN case summaries at a glance
On behalf of our 190 Rapid Response Network members, IRTF volunteers write and send six letters each month to government officials in southern Mexico, Colombia, and Central America (with copies to officials in the US). Who is being targeted? indigenous and Afro-descendant leaders, labor organizers, LGBTI rights defenders, women’s rights defenders, journalists, environmental defenders, and others. By signing our names to these crucial letters, human rights crimes are brought to light, perpetrators are brought to justice and lives are spared. Our solidarity is more important than ever. Together, our voices do make a difference.
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RRN Case Update
RRN Case Update: Colombia - 12/31/2018
March 7, 2019
Colombia - case summaries 2018
More than one-third of the urgent action letters that IRTF's Rapid Response team wrote in 2018 were sent to officials in Colombia because of the disturbing increase in human rights abuses there (namely assassinations) targeting social leaders. Here is a summary of the 27 human rights cases. For more information on any of these cases, please contact irtf@irtfcleveland.org .
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RRN Case Update
RRN Case Update: Mexico - 12/31/18
March 7, 2019
Mexico - case summaries 2018
IRTF's team of Rapid Response volunteers wrote letters on behalf of environmental defenders in the mostly indigenous states of Guerrero and Oaxaca. Throughout 2018 we saw a significant increase in two areas of human rights violations: assassinations and criminalization of protest. Many of these occurred where communities are organizing resistance to protect their ancestral lands, waterways, and cultures against the enormous threats they are facing from "development" mega-projects, such as hydro-electric dams and “clean energy” windfarms. This is a disturbing trend that threatens their ability to protect the environment and their democratic rights to peaceful assembly and freedom of speech.
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RRN Case Update
RRN Case Update: Honduras - 12/31/18
March 7, 2019
Honduras - case summaries 2018
Here is a summary of the 18 urgent actions that IRTF's Rapid Response Team responded to in 2018. We saw a significant increase in two areas of human rights violations: assassinations and criminalization of protest. Many of these occurred where communities (peasant, indigenous, Afro-descendant) are organizing resistance to protect their ancestral lands, waterways, and cultures against the enormous threats they are facing from mega-projects: extractive industries, industrial agriculture, hydro-electric dams, and other “development” projects. Police and military do the bidding of private companies—breaking up peaceful protest, beating demonstrators, and jailing leaders. This is a disturbing trend that threatens their ability to protect the environment and their democratic rights to peaceful assembly and freedom of speech. (Even journalists reporting on these environmental defense movements are being attacked by police; see letter Nov 23).
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RRN Case Update
RRN Case Update: Guatemala - 12/31/18
March 7, 2019
Guatemala- case summaries 2018
Here is a summary of the 21 urgent action cases that the IRTF Rapid Response team responded to in 2018. We saw a significant increase in two areas of human rights violations: assassinations and criminalization of protest. Many of these occurred where communities are organizing resistance to protect their ancestral lands, waterways, and cultures against the enormous threats they are facing from mega-projects: extractive industries, industrial agriculture, hydro-electric dams, and other “development” projects. Police and military do the bidding of private companies—breaking up peaceful protest, beating demonstrators, and jailing leaders. This is a disturbing trend that threatens their ability to protect the environment and their democratic rights to peaceful assembly and freedom of speech. For more information on any of these cases, please contact irtf@irtfcleveland.org .
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RRN Case Update
RRN Case Update: 4/1/2016
April 1, 2016
Indigenous Human Rights and Envirnonmental Defender Berta Cáceres Assassinated

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RRN Case Update
RRN Case Update: Mexico, 01/01/2016
January 1, 2016
Disappearance of 43 Students: suspicion of torture, collusion between officials and organized crime

RRN letter  [excerpted]

October 13, 2014: to the governor of Guerrero and federal interior minister, with copies to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IAHCR) and other officials

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RRN Case Update
RRN Case Update: El Salvador, 12/1/2015
December 1, 2015
US deports Salvadoran general for 1980s assassinations

Gen. Carlos Eugenio Vides Casanova is the highest-ranking foreign official to be deported under laws enacted in 2004 to prevent human rights violators from seeking haven in the US

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RRN Case Update
RRN Case Update: Colombia, 10/1/2015
October 1, 2015
Colombian Constitutional Court rules in favor of Las Pavas community land-holders

RRN letter  [excerpted]

August 11, 2009- sent to the president and vice-president of Colombia 

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RRN Case Update
RRN Case Update: Honduras, 6/1/2015
June 1, 2015
Garífuna community of Barra Vieja on trial for defending ancestral territory

Over the past few decade, RRN members have sent more than a dozen letters to officials in Honduras. They have have denounced an endless series of politically motivated killings and attacks against the Afro-descendant Garífuna people, carried out by wealthy and powerful sectors trying to take over Garífuna lands on the  Atlantic coast for agri-business and the global tourist industry. The government of Honduras has been either complicit in the repression, or complicit through its utter lack of political and legal action to hold the powerful accountable for their political crimes.

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