After a four year absence, CoDev’s famous annual fundraising dinner is back!
International Solidarity Conference 2020
Forced Migration - Popular Education- Social Investment
An opportunity for international solidarity activists from CoDevelopment’s Canadian partners to exchange experiences and best practises from their international solidarity work.
Deepen understandings of the distinctions between development, charity, and international solidarity.
Develop toolkits for solidarity action in your organization.
When: Saturday, January 25, 9:30 am – 4:30 pm
Who: International Solidarity Committees of our Canadian partners and other interested members of CoDevelopment Canada and its partners.
Where: BC Teachers’ Federation Building, 550 West 6th Avenue, Vancouver
Registration deadline is Monday, January 20.
The conference opens with a presentation from Daysi Marquez, Coordinator of COPEMH’s (Honduran high school teachers) project on youth migration from Honduras. Daysi’s presentation is followed by panels and workshops where international solidarity committees of CoDev’s Canadian partners share strategies and tips, and participants to deepen their understanding of solidarity and internationalist action. Workshop themes include: Using Labour’s Capital for Social Justice, International Solidarity and the Climate Crisis, Forced Migration: Canada’s Role.
Registration: CoDev members or delegates from a CoDev partner: $40. Non-members: $50
CoDev in Solidarity with Colombian Rights Defenders and Social Leaders
Vancouver, Canada, July 26, 2019.
CoDevelopment Canada (CoDev) stands in solidarity with our Colombian partners and the many human rights and social organizations mobilizing today to demand an end to the systematic killing of social leaders and human right defenders and the undermining of the 2016 peace accords.
The number of social leaders assassinated has increased every year since the Peace Accords between the Colombian government and the Colombian Revolutionary Armed Forces (FARC). Between January 2016 and May 2019, 681 community leaders and human rights defenders have been assassinated , as well as 135 former guerrillas. Hundreds more are under threat or are politically persecuted.
The majority of these crimes take place in territories where indigenous and afro-Colombian communities resist state-supported displacement for mining and oil projects and the expansion of agro-industries, as well as the illegal drug trade. Those killed played important roles defending their communities’ territorial rights, denouncing government corruption, or opposing illegal armed groups and illegal economies. They include community leaders involved in land restitution processes, teachers, trade unionists, representatives of victims and survivors’ groups, and water and forest defenders.
The Final Peace Accords were signed in November 2016, but President Ivan Duque’s administration has resisted their full implementation, attempting to dismantle the Special Jurisdiction for Peace, a transitional system to guarantee justice for the victims of mass atrocities and other human rights violations. Under Duque, Colombia has become even more militarized, with the increased use of soldiers to surveil social leaders and communities, and a suspension of the peace process between the government and the National Liberation Army (ELN, Colombia’s other guerrilla movement).
CoDev, joins human rights and social movements in Colombia and around the world to call on Colombian authorities to:
Protect the life and integrity of social leaders and human rights defenders, and investigate and bring to justice those responsible for their killings.
Respect and fully implement the 2016 Peace Accords, including the Special Jurisdiction for Peace to guarantee the right to Truth, Justice, Reparation, and Non-repetition.
From Canada, we send our support and our commitment to continue to accompany our Colombian partners in their struggle to defend the human, social and environmental rights of their communities, and to call our own government to denounce the human rights violations in Colombia and support the full implementation of the 2016 Peace Accords.
Struggling for Rights in Maquilas
Rosa Dina Rodríguez is 33 years old and has worked for over 9 years in maquilas, producing goods for brands such as Nike, Under Armour, and Gildan and for stores including Walmart. As a result of maquila workplace conditions, Rosa has a disability in her right shoulder, damage to her spine and both her hands. She has already undergone two surgeries in her right hand and is waiting for a third on her left.
Because of these injuries, Rosa Dina must relocate to a position where she does not perform repetitive movements of the shoulder, avoids movement of the neck and any lifting of items over five pounds.
Though the Honduran Institute of Social Security qualified Dina Rosa’s hands as occupational disease, after her contesting their opinion that it is common, Gildan has yet to meet these demands and has actually demanded an increase in production.
A Win for Labour Rights in Honduras
Liliam Castillo is 36 years old. She was born in La Paz and at the age of 15 moved to San Pedro Sula, in northern Honduras, in search of employment. She is a single mother of two, a fifteen-year-old daughter and an eighteen-year-old son. Liliam has been working for Gildan Activewear, a Canadian multinational in Honduras, for 10 years.
In 2010, Liliam began experiencing pain in her left arm, spine, neck, and shoulders. A doctor at the Honduran Institute of Social Security diagnosed her with tendinitis, caused by repetitive movements. In 2012, a co-worker invited Liliam to join the Honduran Women’s Collective (CODEMUH), where she joined the training program and the theater group, “The Rebel Transgressors.” In February of 2013, Liliam was dismissed from Gildan and so she began the process of demanding for reinstatement. During this three-year process, Liliam did what she could to make ends meet, including selling goods and cleaning houses.
The lawsuit went through the entire judicial process, from the First Instance Court, the Court of Appeals, to the Supreme Court. After three years, the Court ruled that Gildan immediately reintegrate Liliam in equal or better conditions than she had been previously working in and also to pay lost wages. Gildan refused to adhere to the Supreme Court’s ruling and CODEMUH developed an approach to pressure the multinational corporation and implemented various strategies to demand Liliam’s reinstatement, including sit-ins in front of the company, the use of social media, local, national and international media, and the international solidarity of individuals and allied organizations.
As a result of these actions, Liliam was reinstated in May 2016. She was relocated to “Hygiene and Safety” where she assists the engineer, delivers safety equipment such as masks, ear plugs, and goggles, and ensures that workers are using them. Liliam kept her salary of 1,900.00 lempiras (approximately $100 Canadian dollars) a week, the same amount she earned when she met the production goal at the time she was fired.
Liliam says: “I am greatly grateful to CODEMUH for everything they have done for me. I have been trained, I have learned about my rights, I am a duly informed woman. Thanks to CODEMUH, I have a job, my self-esteem has improved, and I am proud to be part of the Rebel Transgressors group.”
Victory for Public Education in Colombia
After 37 days of striking, CODEV partner the Federation of Colombian Educators (FECODE) reached an agreement with the Ministry of Education in Colombia.
Teachers were joined by students and parents in organized peaceful actions across the country, in some cases there were serious confrontations between peaceful protesters and police officers, and furthermore in the context of the national strike three teachers were killed and one disappeared.Some of the hard fought agreements are:
- A structural reform of the General System of Contributions which will make more resources available for public education. This discussion will also include Congress, mayors, governors and other important actors of the educative community. By July 20th, a commission will be created with representatives of the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Finance, office of the Procurator General and FECODE to present a proposal for the next ten years.
- After the teachers’ strike of 2015, the Colombian government had already agreed to an income equalization by 2019 which has not been fulfilled. With the current agreement the government has agreed to establish the proper mechanisms towards income equalization by 2021. At the same time a new allowance for teachers to be paid progressively; teachers will receive the equivalent of 6% of the monthly salary, until reaching 15% after 2020.
- Defining a road map for the creation of three grades in public preschool by 2024. Although the General Education Law states the importance of universal preschool education, today only one year of preschool is mandatory.
- Develop the project “Schools as Territories of Peace” across the country in order to transform public education institutions into spaces for education in human rights and peaceful coexistence. You can find out more about this initiative here: (link to our Video Clip “FECODE Schools as territories of peace John Avila”)
- Other points revolve around education public policy, union rights and teachers’ health.
Update from Buenaventura, Colombia
On Tuesday June 6, Colombian authorities and community leaders in the Pacific port of Buenaventura reached a deal to lift the 21 day civil strike that emphatically demanded the national government and President Juan Manual Santos, to fulfill their commitments with the peoples of Buenaventura signed in 2014.Peoples in Buenaventura were tired of seeing the economic interests of transnationals always placed first, while their basic public needs were shoved aside and communities forgotten and submerged in extreme poverty and violence.
Under the deal, President Juan Manual Santos’s government promised to present a bill to Congress to create a 10-year special development plan for Buenaventura, and has pledged to invest US$500 million in Colombia’s most important port city. The government would be investing in the areas of running water 24 hours a day, basic sanitation services, housing and infrastructure, education, employment, the environment, healthcare provision, and access to justice.This hard-won deal comes after three weeks of civil striking that brought violent repression by ESMAD (Mobile Anti-Disturbance Squadrons) against communities in Buenaventura. At least two people have died and countless others have been injured.We greatly value and commend the peoples of Buenaventura, for their organization and perseverance in defending their human rights, territories, and life of communities in Buenaventura.We thank all of our supporters who responded to our urgent call to action and wrote letters calling on President Santos to halt the repression faced by citizens of Buenaventura. Our friends at NOMADESC (Association for Research and Social Action) appreciate your solidarity!