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Rights and Ecologies is a nonprofit organization sponsored by the the Center for Political Ecology. Launched by Annie Bird after co-founding and co-directing Rights Action over 20 years, Rights and Ecology recognizes that violence, poverty and environmental destruction should be understood within political and ecological contexts — as products of unbalanced systems perpetuated by power abuse — and, thus, action for global justice as an essential element in the struggle to achieve healthy and sustainable communities.
Rights and Ecologies collaborates with Central American community based organizations as part of the web of social movements acting for structural change across continents. Rights and Ecology documents and denounces human rights abuses, engages in existing mechanisms for the defense of human rights, like the Inter American System for Human Rights and the United Nations mechanisms, directs targeted pressure on International Financial Institutions whose policies and practices fuel abuses, and facilitates resources to local organizations to support their capacity to denounce abuses. And, when human and environmental crises occur, Rights and Ecologies works directly with affected communities to secure direct aid from the international community.
Current initiatives include:
- 2020 Hurricane Disaster Support: Honduras’ Caribbean Coast
- Aguan Valley campesino movements in Honduras harmed by African palm oil agri-business
- Mayan communities demanding reparations for harms of the Chixoy Dam in Guatemala
- Garifuna communities along Honduras’ Caribbean coast fighting land grabs by the tourism industry, African palm businesses and drug traffickers
- Miskitu families in Honduras harmed by drug war militarization that coincides with a rush on the Moskitia’s resources – petroleum and wetlands apt for African palm
- Mayan communities resisting sugar cane corporation land grabs in Guatemala’s Polochic Valley
To learn about and to support Rights and Ecologies, contact
Annie Bird@ annie@rightsandecology.org