This World Environment Day, we celebrate the work of women land defenders with the ONLINE PREMIERE of our Women, Land and Peace short films – in partnership with JASS (Just Associates) and the Rigoberta Menchú Tum Foundation! These five minute films follow our delegation to Honduras and Guatemala last October to gather a first-hand account of the criminalization and violence against women land defenders.
Our first film documents our trip to Honduras. Here, Nobel peace laureates Tawakkol Karman and Shirin Ebadi, met with amazing women human rights and environmental defenders facing grave injustices for protecting their land. Watch to hear from defenders Bety Vásquez and Jazmin López, and head of COPINH, Bertha Zúñiga Cáceres, and her sister Laura Zúñiga Cáceres – both daughters of Indigenous environmental activist, Berta Cáceres, who was murdered in 2016 for her work. These incredible women have been leading the resistance ever since.
Our second film follows our trip to Guatemala. Here, Nobel peace laureates Tawakkol Karman and Shirin Ebadi, met up with Rigoberta Menchú Tum and Jody Williams, to speak with inspiring defenders coming together to resist destructive extraction projects in their communities. We visited the town of Casillas to see their work firsthand.
After you’ve watched, tweet us your thoughts using #WomenLandPeace to @NobelWomen!
Happy World Environment Day!
TAKE ACTION:
Human rights and land defenders in Guatemala are still at risk. Three environmental activists were murdered in the course of one week in May. Call on the Guatemalan Attorney General, Thelma Aldana, to investigate crimes against human rights defenders in Guatemala and end the impunity.
Dedicated to the memory of filmmaker Eduardo Spiegeler.