Physical accompaniment
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Specifically, they closely accompany the Association for the Integral Sustainable Development of the “Perla Amazónica” (Adispa), an organisation that defends human rights and the environment, and whose legal representative is the emblematic leader Jani Silva. Despite the territorial control of the area imposed by armed actors and the constant threats against Adispa and JyP, the two organisations, with the accompaniment of PBI, were able to enter the ZRCPA to carry out their work on three different occasions during the second semester of the year. Jani Silva, who had not been able to return to the territory for a year due to her high level of risk, was able to do so on two of these occasions. In August PBI accompanied JyP in an emergency response to the confrontations and paramilitary incursions on ancestral indigenous and AfroColombian territories in the Litoral San Juan on Colombia’s Pacific coast, where communities were being forcibly displaced1. PBI Colombia accompanied the verification mission at a time when JyP considered that it could not carry out its work without PBI’s presence. We also accompanied the organisation on numerous occasions in the Bajo Atrato region in the second PBI Colombia’s field teams provided physical half of the year, where JyP works on strengthening accompaniment to accompanied human rights communities in the face of the presence of armed organisations on 215 occasions while also actors. contributing indirectly to the protection of Given the extremely serious human rights violations other organisations, social movements and in the Río Chageradó indigenous reservation in the communities in the territories. Jiguamiandó and Curvaradó basins, as well as in the Embera indigenous reservations of Acandí and Unguía, Over the course of 2021, in line with the thematic JyP has indicated that it was only able to enter the focuses that have been prioritised by PBI Colombia, area along with international accompaniment. the following accompaniments are of special note: PBI also highlights the accompaniment provided to 1. Access to and use of land and territory Nomadesc during a humanitarian mission in the In the department of Putumayo, in the south of the department of Buenaventura, specifically on the country, PBI accompanies the Justice and Peace Yurumanguí, Cajambre and Raposo rivers. Commission (JyP). The organisation in turn The mission, which was made up of United Nations accompanies the communities living in the Peasant agencies, Colombian human rights organisations, Reserve Zone “Perla Amazónica” (ZRCPA) in civilian institutions, and international organisations, their defence of their rights and denouncement of verified the situations of confinement and forced environmental damage to their territories. recruitment which have developed in the territory 6% of the defenders accompanied by PBI Colombia feel that their guarantees of protection for the exercise of their work in defence of human rights had further deteriorated in 2021 compared to the previous year. This is largely due to the reconfiguration of illegal armed actors and their increased presence in the territories. Human rights organisations and victims of sociopolitical violence stress the importance of PBI’s physical accompaniment, given that the activities that they carry out are associated with a high level of risk. All of the accompanied organisations surveyed in 2021 agreed that PBI’s presence reduces potential risks and therefore contributes to the success of their human rights defence strategies and activities. Throughout 2021, PBI had a greater capacity to respond to requests for accompaniment than in 2020. This is due to a combination of the arrival of new brigadistas to the field teams and a gradual return to face-to-face activities. Compared to 2020, PBI’s face-to-face accompaniment increased by 62%, a steady recovery of the capacity of the years prior to the start of the Covid-19 pandemic.
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Annual Rerpotl 2021
following the reconfiguration of various illegal armed actors. It was in these anscestral lands that two emblematic leaders of the Afro-descendant community of the Yurumanguí River, Abencio Caicedo and Edinson Valencia, were forcibly disappeared. The leaders had previously been threatened for their defence of illicit crops substitution, and their opposition to mining and the presence of armed groups. In reaction to the situation, PBI organised an advocacy tour with Berenice Celeita, president of Nomadesc.
As a direct result of this tour, on 31 December the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) took the decision of granting precautionary measures for both leaders2.
Leader Jani Silva has been displaced on numerous occasions due to the extremely high risks that her environmental and human rights defence work exposes her to. Throughout 2021, international campaigns were organised in order to raise her profile and provide her with further protection. Following a year in which she was unable to hold organisational meetings in defence of her territory, in the second half of 2021, Jani Silva was able to return to visit the Peasant Reserve Zone “Perla Amazónica”.
PBI Colombia
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