- Buffy Sainte-Marie: The Early Days of Music Video Activism This video of ‘My Country Tis of Thee You’re Dying’ is from an episode of Pete Seeger’s Rainbow Quest, is demonstrates an early blending of video, song, and human rights advocacy.
- Mexico: Peoples’ Tribunal Confirms “Gross Violations” in Dam Projects Communities harmed by dam projects in Mexico won an important victory. A panel of international experts serving as judges for the Mexico chapter of the Permanent Peoples' Tribunal (PPT) recognized a pattern of "gross and systematic human rights violations" in the construction of dams throughout Mexico over the past 40 years. More than 185,000 people have been forcibly evicted.
- Dam-Affected Communities in Mexico Take Government to Peoples’ Tribunal On November 5-6, many of our local partners fighting forced evictions in Mexico will travel to the small town of Temacapulín, in Jalisco state, to tell their stories to an international panel of judges representing the Mexico chapter of the Permanent Peoples' Tribunal (PPT).
- Major Victory for Activists Fighting the La Parota Dam in Mexico After nearly 10 years of campaigning to save their homes and lands, our partners from the CECOP network in Mexico are celebrating a significant victory on the path to the definitive cancellation of the La Parota dam project. If built, the dam would forcibly evict at least 25,000 campesinos and small farmers from their lands and negatively impact an additional 75,000 people due to environmental changes downstream and throughout the region.
- The Belo Monte Dam in Brazil: “Development” vs. Indigenous Communities In every corner of the world, we see unfathomably huge hydroelectric dams that destroy entire ecosystems and indigenous livelihoods. The notorious Three Gorges Dam in China has its rivals on all other continents, from the proposed Grand Inga in the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the James Bay Project in Canada.
- Colombian Filmmaker Flees After Video of Violent Eviction Goes Viral A video depicting the violent forced eviction of nearly 600 people on the banks of Colombia’s Magdalena River has gone viral, eliciting a huge response from viewers around the world, including the President of Colombia (who was obliged to respond to the video publicly and defend the actions of the police force).
- Act Now to Stop the Eviction of 25,000 People in Mexico Our partners in Guerrero, Mexico, need your help. For the past eight years, they have been fighting to defend their homes and communities against the threat posed by the planned construction of a new megadam in the region. If built, the La Parota Dam would displace at least 25,000 people from their lands and negatively impact an additional 75,000 people.
- Stopping the Construction of a Dam to Prevent Your Home from Being Flooded The roughly 300 families that live in Temacapulín – a tiny town nestled between four green hills along the Verde River in the state of Jalisco, Mexico – have been fighting against big odds for the past five years for the basic right to stay in their homes.
- Mexico: Children Protest La Parota Dam Six weeks ago we completed our first video advocacy training in Mexico as part of our global campaign on Forced Evictions. The workshop took place in a charming convent in Mexico City and, for nine intense days, we and our partners at HIC worked with 11 activists/leaders from four local communities whose rights are either being compromised or violated by large-scale dams and other mega-development projects (see photos of the training here).
- Dams and Human Rights: Using Video to Resist Evictions It's International Day of Action Against Dams and, as we kick off our global forced evictions campaign supporting dam-affected communities at risk of eviction in Mexico, this post looks at how video and visual imagery have helped propel campaigns to protect human rights in different dam-resistance struggles around the world.
- Mexico Training on Forced Evictions A quick update from the WITNESS training in Mexico City in association with the Habitat International Coalition (HIC)- Latin America. We've been holed-up for nine days solid in a convent (cheap, good food, peaceful atmosphere, nightly curfew) training a range of human rights defenders either from or working with communities whose rights are being compromised or violated by dam mega-projects.
