Country: Guatemala

Warning cry about the impact of agrotoxics in Latin America and the Caribbean

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Brasilia, Brazil. 28 April 2021. Yesterday, the Latin American sections of FIAN International presented the report Toxic Pesticides in Latin America: Violations of the Right to Adequate and Nutrition at a well-attended online event.

This 108-page publication features data and reports on the impacts of these toxic substances in eight countries across Latin America and the Caribbean: Brazil, Colombia, Paraguay, Ecuador, Honduras, Guatemala, Mexico, and Haiti.

The report documents how pesticides affect environmental health and that of humans' as well, as they hinder the full realization of the human right to adequate food and nutrition. It also identifies a widespread pattern in the business strategies of companies in the region which is based on corporate capture of public institutions and territories.

Over 700 participants attended the online release of this report. During the event, Juan Carlos Morales González, from FIAN Colombia, and researcher Leonardo Melgarejo presented the report’s main findings and conclusions. Affected communities in Brazil, Haiti and Paraguay shared their stories about the devastating and destructive effects pesticides have had on their livelihoods. Then, geographer Larissa Bombardi, author of Geography of the Use of Agrochemicals in Brazil and Connections with the European Union, and the UN Special Rapporteur for toxics and human rights, Marcos Orellana, analyzed the results of the report and presented their viewpoints. Rapporteur Orellana clarified:

 “The fact that certain types of pollution are legal does not justify violating human rights … dangerous substances must be eliminated”. He went on to underscore “[the] shared responsibilities of exporting and importing countries…nations’ obligations to prevent exposure to toxic substances are based on human rights”.

As follow-up on the work documented in this report, FIAN International will soon file a complaint with the relevant United Nations special rapporteurs regarding the Brazilian case presented during the online event, in which aerial fumigation was weaponized to evict rural workers from a disputed area in Pernambuco.

On May 5th, another online seminar will showcase this report before a global audience: during which FIAN International will explain the results of a study on the experiences of farmers transitioning towards pesticide-free communities and food systems.

Find out how the discussion unfolded and access the report in Portuguese, Spanish or English, and the executive summary in English

View another webinar  Poisoned Food, Poisoned ecosystems: how people are working towards pesticides free communities

For more information please contact: Ana María Suárez Franco Suarez-franco@fian.org

 

A child who dies of hunger, dies murdered

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A year ago, after several weeks hospitalized and after being subjected to numerous interventions, an 8-year-old girl from the municipality of Camotán, Mavelita Lucila Interiano Amador, died at the Roosevelt Hospital in Guatemala City. For months, her family had fought for the State of Guatemala to give her adequate attention, but this was only provided when it was too late. Paradoxically, Mavelita died despite being beneficiary of judicial sentences aimed at the protection and restitution of her rights.

The death of Mavelita “could have been prevented,” according to the report on the “Situation of human rights in Guatemala” released in 2017 by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR). With a similar message, former Special Rapporteur on the Right to the Food of the United Nations (UN), Jean Ziegler, asserted before the UN General Assembly that “a child who dies of hunger dies murdered”.

The case of Mavelita is not isolated in Guatemala, where half of the children suffer from chronic undernourishment, despite the fact that national legislation establishes mechanisms to guarantee their right to adequate food and nutrition, and to ensure protection in situations of food risk. The lack of access to adequate food, shelter and sanitation, as well as poor management of public health, can be deadly causes for children suffering from undernutrition. The figures are even higher for the indigenous and rural population, which further underlines that there is a structural and historical discrimination against these groups.

On the anniversary of the death of Mavelita, and in view of the increasing criminalization of human rights defenders, Guatemalan and international civil society urge the State of Guatemala to fully and comprehensively comply with the sentences for cases of child undernutrition in Camotán and ensure similar fates are prevented in future.

 You can access the statement here.

Child’s life at risk due to Guatemala´s noncompliance

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In 2011, four Chortís women in the municipality of Camotán, Guatemala filed lawsuits against the State claiming that the right to adequate food and nutrition (RtFN) of their five children (3 girls and 2 boys) was being violated as they suffered from malnutrition. Following a lengthy legal process, in 2013 the court declared that the State of Guatemala had not only violated the RtFN, but also the right to life, health, education, housing, and work of the children and their families. After several appeals, the sentences were finally confirmed in 2015 by the Constitutional Court – the highest judicial body in the country – which ordered that various State agencies take specific measures to remedy the damages caused to the families. Nevertheless, at this time, the life of one of these girls, who is just 8 years old, is in grave danger, which again confirms that said measures have yet to be implemented. Despite some incomplete and fragmented actions by the State, these families’ living conditions have not improved substantially.

These cases of malnourished children in Camotán are not isolated incidents, but indicative of a widespread problem. The suffering of these children illustrates structural issues and human rights violations in Guatemala, where women and children are especially vulnerable, and discrimination against rural and indigenous peoples is also prevalent. The young girl has been transferred to a hospital in the country’s capital after battling infection and undergoing several surgeries. Her health status is aggravated by acute and chronic malnutrition and is the result of other unaddressed problems. Therefore, the State must guarantee urgent and adequate medical treatment, and be held accountable for violating its human rights obligations and complying with the Court’s sentences. If something were to happen to this child, the State is required to provide reparation, including compensation to the family. The State of Guatemala has yet to comply with the Court’s sentences. It is imperative that it does so and thereby restores the affected families' RtFN and their economic, social and cultural rights as well.

In a press conference on July 25th, the Office of the Human Rights Ombudsman (PDH) reported that the girl suffers from chronic malnutrition. She is in grave physical condition involving several serious health problems. The PDH authorities have brought this case to the attention of the Public Ministry who will investigate the public institutions responsible for non-compliance with the sentences issued. These cases have been reported regionally and internationally, including before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) and the United Nations’ human rights system.

Guatemala has one the highest rates of chronic malnutrition for children in Latin America. The National Maternal and Children’s Health Survey (ENSMI) found that 46% of children in Guatemala suffer from chronic malnutrition; this rate increases substantially among rural and indigenous populations.

For more information, please contact morena[at]fian.org

 

UPDATE, August 15: Despite efforts and various medical interventions, the girl, named Mavelita, passed away on August 14. We express our sincere condolences to her family.

 

We will provide more information in the coming days.

IACHR meets European counterparts at a critical time

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The Executive Secretary of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) – Organization of American States (OAS), Paulo Abrão will cross the Atlantic to meet his European counterparts this week.

A series of high-level meetings will be held with EU and EU Members States officials as well as international CSOs, which have been supporting both politically and financially the inter-American system, particularly during last year’s financial crisis.

Abrão will also take the opportunity to present its recently approved Strategic Plan, which various CSOs contributed to, including FIAN International’s section in Ecuador on behalf of all FIAN entities.

Need for real commitment

In a context where States and the private sector (particularly transnational corporations) are increasingly pushing for voluntary guidelines to take over internationally binding human rights instruments and standards, it is crucial to genuinely reinforce the political and legal role of regional human rights systems. This is particularly imperative for OAS Member States that have progressively been withdrawing their financial and political support to the IACHR, thereby leading the latter to its worst crisis in history. 

The lack of political commitment by OAS States is also reflected on some of their sponsored candidates, whose competences are questionable, for the two seats that the 47 Regular Session of the OAS General Assembly will choose in June. The 163rd Period of IACHR Sessions in July will also see the appointment of the first rapporteur on economic, social, cultural and environmental rights, which could suppose a positive change for communities across the Americas. 

Guarani and Kaiowá, seeking justice in IACHR

The Inter-American system is crucial for fighting injustice and structural inequalities against most marginalized groups, especially indigenous communities. This is the case of the indigenous peoples Guarani and Kaiowá in Brazil, who have been facing evictions and violence throughout their struggle for the right to ancestral territory as well as to food and nutrition, and whose situation has only worsened following the Parliamentarian coup d´état.

Last December, the Guarani and Kaiowá’s great assembly Aty Guasu, with the support of CIMI, FIAN International and its Brazilian section, as well as Justicia Global, filed a petition to the IACHR against the State of Brazil. Not only this petition will contribute to further developing standards on the right to food and nutrition in connection with the right to ancestral territory, but also to the IAHRC rapporteurship on economic, social, cultural and environmental rights.

FIAN International hopes that OAS Member States strengthen and prioritize their political and financial support to the IACHR. In addition, this should be reflected on the dialogue and cooperation between the EU and its Member States with the OAS, as regional systems are a crucial element for the development and implementation of the EU Guidelines on Human Rights Defenders and EU Action Plans on Human Rights.  

The organization will engage in the IACHR visit, together with the European CSOs network CIFCA to keep supporting the consolidation of regional human rights systems. 

For more information, please contact castaneda-flores[at]fian.org 
For media enquiries please contact delrey[at]fian.org 

No right to food and nutrition without women’s rights

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Despite calls for the inclusion of women and a gender perspective in food and nutrition security, the status of hunger and malnutrition of women and girls is still not improving. These groups are particularly susceptible to the dominant economic and development model, exploitative of people and natural resources, which coexists with patriarchal policies and practices. With the current trends in global governance weakening the ability of States to comply with their human rights obligations, women’s equal enjoyment of their rights remains unfulfilled and they are denied a life of dignity. 

The event will bring women’s rights activists from around the world together with the Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food to discuss common strategies to hold duty bearers accountable. They will present an understanding of the right to food that does not simply reduce women to their role vis-à-vis their children, families and communities, but rather that sees the realization of women’s rights as an end in itself. 

Coming from Guatemala, India, Spain, Togo, and the USA, the participants will delve into the root causes of hunger and malnutrition, in a world where global and national policies seem to maintain poverty circles and increase inequalities. They will speak up for rural and urban women around the world that feel the impact of economic restructuring, migration, unregulated and unsustainable development, and climate change, with grave implications for their human right to adequate food and nutrition.

Organized by a long list of civil society groups and co-sponsored by several countries, the side event will be held between sessions of the UN Human Rights Council (HRC) at the centre of global policy making, the Palais des Nations, on International Women’s Day, March 8.

For further information, see flyer.
To register, please contact fyfe[at]fian.org and visit the latest updates on the event page. 

Presentation of report on the 3rd International Mission to Guatemala

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Although Guatemala has the legal, political and institutional framework to support the fulfillment of the right to adequate food and nutrition, and it is also rich in natural resources and economically strong, structural changes have yet to take place to improve Guatemalans’ living conditions. The State of Guatemala is the third poorest Latin American country with 54.8% of its population living below the poverty line and has the highest level of chronic malnutrition in the region.

According to the mission’s findings, the aid-based approach of Guatemala’s food security programs constitute a principal factor in this situation. The report points out the lack of coherence between such programs and legislation that recognizes human rights on one hand, and public policies and laws on the use and management of natural, labor and commercial resources on the other hand.

What’s more, the State enforces a development model based on extracting natural resources for export, which primarily benefits the international business sector. Such a model contradicts the vision of development for indigenous communities, peasants and other rural groups, given that it results in natural resource-grabbing, which limits these communities’ access to, management and control over these resources. “This production model is tailored to agribusiness and large estates. Very high levels of land concentration, coupled with the expansion of large-scale monocultures, have a direct impact on the rights of people and Guatemala’s food sovereignty, with alarming incidences of violence and the violation of human rights. The mission noted these aspects, and it really concerns us,” underlines Gerardo Iglesias, secretary of the IUF Latin American Regional Office (Rel -UITA).

Commenting on the report, Angélica Castañeda, FIAN International’s coordinator for the program on Latin America, emphasizes: “As the mission confirmed, the private sector is taking the place of the State in areas related to human rights obligations, such as food assistance, education, health, security, job creation. The private sector also utilizes public space for propaganda and to regulate the population’s access to public services. In some of the cases we visited during the Mission, women and children, who belong to groups and communities that are opposed to such business projects suffer from discrimination, exclusion and even threats.” 

Furthermore, the report also verifies that individuals defending economic, social, cultural or environmental rights (ESCER) – and especially women in these roles – are increasingly suffering from stigmatization, threats, criminalization and violence committed by the State and other actors. Amongst numerous cases, the report also refers to the women from La Puya and their strategy of “women in leadership” who point out that “in order to comply with this duty [of defending the rights of our community] we have to dedicate less time to our families”.
 
The report was presented on 22nd October at a public event in Guatemala, and it will be launched at international institutions and agencies over the coming months.

Download the report (Spanish) and executive summary.
For more information, please contact: castaneda-flores[at]fian.org 
 
NOTES TO EDITORS:

This International Mission and its report are part of an initiative of the ACT Alliance EU, the International Alliance of Catholic Development Agencies (CIDSE), the Copenhagen Initiative for Central America and Mexico (CIFCA), FIAN International, the Latin America branch of the UITA, and La Vía Campesina International. 

The mission included several visits to the sites of significant cases of violations of the right to adequate food and nutrition, as well as meetings with governmental institutions and various social and political actors.

International Mission in Guatemala presents preliminary findings

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Guatemala, 3 December 2014 – The third International Mission on the Right to Food and the Situation of Human Rights Defenders took place from 21 November to 3 December 2014. Its members visited six emblematic cases of violations of the right to adequate food and nutrition (RtAFN) and also held meetings with state authorities, international organisms, and civil society organizations. The Mission presents the following preliminary findings:

In regards to the previous mission, we celebrate the rulings issued in April and May of 2013 that recognized the violation of the right to food of five children in the municipality of Camotán, Chiquimula. These decisions represent a progress for the justiciability of the right to food in Guatemala, as well as a landmark in Central America. Nevertheless, the Mission expresses concern regarding the delay in the implementation of these rulings and the writs of amparo filed by various State institutions. We remind the State of Guatemala of its constitutional and international human rights obligations acquired in good faith, specifically that of providing full redress for victims of violations.

It is also alarming that Guatemala continues to be at the top of the list in Latin America for prevalence of chronic malnutrition , despite adopting programs such as the Zero Hunger Plan (Plan Hambre Cero). The Mission regrets the predominantly welfare-based approach of said programs, which are not accompanied by adequate resources or effective measures to address the structural causes of poverty and hunger. Likewise, the Mission has noted the inefficiency and lack of coordination among state institutions and structures at the national and local level, and also the lack of coherence of public policies with human rights, as illustrated by the failure to implement the Camotán sentences.

Read the full Press Release …

This press release was developed by APRODEV, CIDSE, CIFCA, FIAN Internacional, La Via Campesina, y Rel-UITA.

Hearing alerts current state of right to food and seed regulations in Latin America

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Buenos Aires, Heidelberg, Washington; October 31, 2014: Peasant and human rights organizations make a presentation today before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) regarding food sovereignty, the right to adequate food, and the human rights impact of new seed regulations in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Despite the fact that rural production generated a significant increase in economic growth during the last decade, 80% of those who go hungry and 75% of those who live in extreme poverty are rural inhabitants.

At a public hearing during the Commission’s sessions in Washington, D.C., the organizations aim to alert the IACHR to the state of the right to adequate food in the region, particularly with regard to small-scale farmers and indigenous peoples; the impact of development models; the problems with norms that regulate the use of seeds; and the role of the justice system in these matters. 

In 2014, ten years after the Right to Food Guidelines were established, the organizations contend that this right faces challenges in Latin America and the Caribbean, namely, the grabbing of land and natural resources for mining projects—as seen in the Hatillo community in Colombia and Kimsakocha in Ecuador—and for expanding agro-industry and cultivating crops such as palms, corn and soybeans—as in the cases of the Guaraní Kaiowá in Brazil and Monte Oscuro in Colombia. 

Communities have sought legal recourse but their access to justice has been ineffective. One example lies in the case of malnutrition in Camotán, Guatemala, where the State has been delaying implementation of the first judicial ruling that recognizes the violation of the right to food. The response by the state and private actors to community resistance and defense has tended to be violent and has criminalized peasants. This was true in the agrarian conflict in the Bajo Aguán, where people fighting for their land rights were murdered, and in Curuguaty–Marina Cue in Paraguay, where various peasants face a judicial process without due guarantees.

The public hearing can be watched at 4:15 p.m. local time, in which organizations will ask the IACHR to regularly monitor the status of the rural population’s food and territorial rights; recommend measures to States to improve rural inhabitants’ living conditions, address the structural causes of rights violations, and adopt public policies that benefit them; monitor States’ extraterritorial obligations in cases involving multinational companies; keep watch on the growing criminalization of peasant struggles; develop specific standards to tackle these problems; and exchange information with the United Nations regarding progress on these issues. 

These demands are united conceptually by the defense of food sovereignty and, if addressed, could help reduce violations of human rights, in particular Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ESCR), and eliminate the structural discrimination that rural communities suffer today. In this framework, the promotion, defense and litigation of the right to adequate food can be carried out, along with condemnations and demonstrations regarding land grabs and the negative impact that new trends in seed regulations are having. To mitigate the harm to human rights, regulatory frameworks should be suited to each reality and aimed at preserving farmers’ traditional seed systems. 

The organizations that solicited the hearing are: the Latin American Coordinator of Rural Organizations (CLOC-Vía Campesina); FIAN International; Guatemala’s Social Collective for the Human Right to Food; Honduras’ Permanent Human Rights Observatory of the Aguán (OPDHA); and Argentina’s Center for Legal and Social Studies (CELS).  

For more information please contact:

Diego Montón of CLOC-LVC

Angélica Castañeda Flores of FIAN International

Juan Carlos Morales González of FIAN Colombia

Magali Cano of the Guatemala sin Hambre Campaign

Gabriela Kletzel of CELS