Latin America
Indigenous Women’s March in defense of land and natural resources in Brazil
March 28, 2022
Highlighting MERE Hub Brazil Led by Indigenous women, Indigenous people mobilized in 2021 to counter governmental attempts to further dispossess and displace them of their lands and territories. The Brazilian government is seeking to open large areas to both domestic…
Post filed in: Ecological Justice, Gender Justice/Women of Courage, Indigenous Rights, Latin America
KAIROS joins partners in condemning the assassination of human rights defenders Teófilo Acuña Ribón and Jorge Alberto Tafur in Colombia
March 2, 2022
On February 22, Teófilo Acuña Ribón and Jorge Alberto Tafur, two well respected human rights defenders working for land rights in Colombia were killed. Teófilo and Jorge Alberto are two of thirty-three human rights defenders murdered thus far in 2022…
Post filed in: Gender Justice/Women of Courage, Latin America
Kaji’ Ajpop Strengthens Indigenous Women’s Rights in Guatemala
March 1, 2022
KAIROS has a long history of working with partners in Guatemala on Indigenous rights, environmental and land defense, and gender justice. In 2021, KAIROS began exploring a new partnership and supporting the work of Kaji’ Ajpop, an association that promotes…
Post filed in: Gender Justice/Women of Courage, Indigenous Rights, Latin America
#KAIROS20 memories from Organización Femenina Popular
August 6, 2021
Organización Femenina Popular (OFP), in Colombia, is one of KAIROS’ partners in the Women of Courage: Women, Peace and Security program. KAIROS has a shared history with this group of fabulous women, since the beginning. They offer us this lovely…
Post filed in: #KAIROS20 Anniversary, Latin America
Congratulations to the OFP on their 49th anniversary
July 22, 2021
This week the Organización Femenina Popular (OFP) celebrates their 49th anniversary. The OFP will be hosting two public events in Spanish this week to commemorate the organization’s forty-nine years: Thursday, July 22 at 5:00pm EDT | Virtual conversation on the feminist economic alternatives on Facebook Live via the OFP’s Facebook account Saturday,…
Post filed in: En Español, Gender Justice/Women of Courage, Latin America
Gender and land defense in Abya Yala in times of pandemic
July 9, 2021
“In this new global context, the compilation of struggles and the essential role of women in the defense of territories, the specificities and damages that they experience in socio-environmental conflicts, become relevant…” Latin American Network of Women Defenders of Social and Environmental Rights, 2020 annual report Women…
Post filed in: Gender Justice/Women of Courage, Latin America
Hilando y tejiendo juntas: camino de hermandad y solidaridad #KAIROS20
June 29, 2021
English KAIROS está celebrando 20 años como organización de justicia social, ecuménica y ambiental. Desde sus inicios comenzamos a trabajar juntos. Nuestras organizaciones, hilando y tejiendo juntas. Siempre encontramos sintonía en la lucha frente a los impactos de las actividades…
Post filed in: #KAIROS20 Anniversary, En Español, Gender Justice/Women of Courage, Latin America
Spinning and weaving together: A journey of siblinghood and solidarity #KAIROS20
June 29, 2021
Español KAIROS is celebrating 20 years as a social, ecumenical, and environmental justice organization. From its beginning we began to work together. Our organizations, spinning and weaving together. We always find harmony in the struggles against the impacts of oil and mining activities, climate change, and the role of Indigenous peoples and women in the…
Post filed in: #KAIROS20 Anniversary, Gender Justice/Women of Courage, Latin America, Uncategorized
Letter to the Editor: Canada needs to step up its human rights, with shift to emerging energy technologies
June 29, 2021
Re: Canada better step up its game on battery-powered electric vehicles,(The Hill Times, June 7.) Canada does need to step up, but on human rights, with the shift to emerging energy technologies, especially as it is poised to benefit from…
Post filed in: Gender Justice/Women of Courage, Latin America
Women defending land and water in Brazil: MERE Hub launch in Portuguese (watch the webinar)
June 4, 2021
KAIROS is pleased to announce that MERE Hub is now available in Portuguese with content on the gendered impacts of resource extraction in Brazil. On Monday, May 31, 2021, the Brazilian phase of MERE Hub with Sônia Guajajara (Indigenous Peoples Articulation, Apib)Maria Júlia Andrade…
Post filed in: Gender Justice/Women of Courage, Latin America
National feminist vigil in Colombia
May 31, 2021
“We cry out for a just and true peace, a peace that mobilizes us in love for other people and nature, a peace that guarantees respect for human rights, a peace that allows all Colombian families to store sufficient water…
Post filed in: Gender Justice/Women of Courage, Latin America
Media Release: Brazilian phase of KAIROS online gender justice and mining hub launches May 31
May 27, 2021
International panel event kicks off MERE Hub’s Brazilian phase WHAT: KAIROS Canada launches Brazilian Phase of MERE Hub with the international panel event, Women Defending Land and Water in Brazil. English-Portuguese simultaneous interpretation will be provided. Mother Earth and Resource Extraction (MERE) Hub is a living digital resource hub developed for and…
Post filed in: Gender Justice/Women of Courage, Latin America, Media Releases
Organización Femenina Popular’s call to the international community
May 10, 2021
“Women have suffered from hunger, fear, and uncertainty in the face of deepening poverty and unemployment; we have feared that everything could get worse by having to pay more or eat less in the face of the proposed tax reform; we have felt the fragility…
Post filed in: En Español, Gender Justice/Women of Courage, Latin America
KAIROS condemns the Colombian government’s violent repression of its people
May 5, 2021
Since April 28, 2021, thousands of people have taken to the streets of Colombia; the initial catalyst of the protests was the federal government’s proposed tax hike. Amid the social, economic, and health impacts of the pandemic as well as the ongoing insecurity—massacres, the targeting of…
Post filed in: Gender Justice/Women of Courage, Latin America
The gendered impacts of the mining industry in Brazil
April 29, 2021
The impacts of the mining industry in Brazil are best known by the two major tailing dam bursts that took place in Mariana (2015) and Brumadinho (2019) in the state of Minas Gerais. These human-made disasters took the life of hundreds of people and caused massive environmental destruction. However, well before these breaches, the mining industry had been a source of afflictions and human rights…
Post filed in: Ecological Justice, Gender Justice/Women of Courage, Indigenous Rights, Latin America
Gender-based violence in Colombia, from the utopia of norms to reality #CSW65
April 20, 2021
Among the many conclusions at the UN Commission on the Status of Women as well as figures and statistics—concrete data and real cases—on the global increase of gender-based violence experienced in the last year due to the pandemic, the specific case of Colombia continues to astonish. In Colombia femicides have increased by 175% compared to last year, with a total of 630 femicides during 2020. Despite this reality, there is…
Post filed in: Gender Justice/Women of Courage, Latin America
First climate change lawsuit in Ecuador
April 19, 2021
La versión en español de este blog sigue a continuación. The following is a summary and update from Ivonne Yánez of Acción Ecológica (Ecuador) on the status of the first climate change lawsuit to be heard in Ecuador. Acción Ecológica is a KAIROS global partner. Acción Ecológica, together with the Union of People Affected by Texaco (UDAPT),…
Post filed in: Ecological Justice, En Español, Gender Justice/Women of Courage, Indigenous Rights, Latin America
Canadian organizations ask government to publicly condemn violence against Indigenous land defenders in Guatemala
April 9, 2021
Mining Watch Canada On March 30th, 2021, MiningWatch Canada, along with 26 other Canadian organizations, sent a letter to Marc Garneau, Minister of Foreign Affairs, and Mary Ng, Minister of Small Business, Export Promotion and International Trade, asking them to…
Post filed in: Latin America
Ecumenical Forum for Peace pens open letter to Colombian President
February 16, 2021
“The escalation of the armed conflict and the expansion of violence in addition to the health crisis are putting some human groups and communities at serious risk of extinction—t heir survival is in peril. All this is aggravated by the systematic murder of ethnic…
Post filed in: Gender Justice/Women of Courage, Latin America
Acción Ecológica files climate change lawsuit in Ecuador
December 14, 2020
On International Human Rights Day, Acción Ecológica, KAIROS partner organization in Ecuador, and a consortium of organizations and groups filed a lawsuit before the Ecuadorian state. The lawsuit claims that the oil refinement process contributes to climate change, which has local and global consequences. In particular, the lawsuit denounces Chinese transnational oil…
Post filed in: Ecological Justice, Latin America
KAIROS condemns violence against Indigenous communities in Chiapas, Mexico
December 2, 2020
KAIROS is gravely concerned about the escalation of violence against Indigenous communities in the municipalities of Aldama, Chenalhó, and Chalchihuitán in Chiapas, Mexico. Members of the human rights program of the Diocese of San Cristobal de las Casas, a KAIROS…
Post filed in: Latin America
The OFP Calls for a National State of Emergency
November 25, 2020
This fall marks both the 20th anniversary of the United Nations Security Council’s Resolution 1325 and the fourth anniversary of the ratification of the Peace Accords in Colombia between the government and the former guerrilla group, the FARC. Integrating some of UNSCR 1325’s recommendations, Colombia’s Peace Accords have been heralded for their attention to the gendered…
Post filed in: Gender Justice/Women of Courage, Latin America
Demand that the Government of Canada Support Peace in Colombia
October 29, 2020
Violence in Colombia continues undaunted, and in some ways aggravated, by the COVID-19 pandemic. Just days after public health directives were put in place to contain the spread of the coronavirus in March, Carlota Isabel Salinas Pérez, a member of the Organización Femenina Popular (OFP) was killed. Carlota is…
Post filed in: Gender Justice/Women of Courage, Latin America
Where is the support for the women defending land and water, Canada?
August 25, 2020
This op-ed by Gabriela Jiménez, KAIROS’ Latin American Partnerships Coordinator was published in Canada’s National Observer on August 23, 2020. Canadians care about the environment. Multiple polls found that the climate crisis was one of the top issues of the…
Post filed in: Ecological Justice, Gender Justice/Women of Courage, Latin America
“Territorial Feminisms and Diverse Ecologies”: A series of virtual gatherings on women and land defense
August 6, 2020
The Latin American Network of Women Defenders of Social and Environmental Rights, a KAIROS partner, will be hosting a series of virtual gatherings collectively called “Territorial Feminisms and Diverse Ecologies” from August to December 2020. The ten gatherings are organized around themes related to…
Post filed in: Gender Justice/Women of Courage, Latin America
KAIROS denounces the feminicide of María Angélica Polanco Medina of Barrancabermeja, Colombia
July 24, 2020
“It is with pain that we once again witness barbarism, dehumanization, and cruelty on the bodies of women.” Organización Femenina Popular On July 22, the Organización Femenina Popular (OFP), a KAIROS partner, released a statement mourning the death and denouncing the feminicide of María Angélica Polanco Medina, an educator…
Post filed in: Gender Justice/Women of Courage, Latin America
Berta Cáceres’ legacy among women land and water defenders in Latin America
June 30, 2020
By Ivonne Ramos KAIROS closes Indigenous Women’s Month with a reflection by Ivonne Ramos of Acción Ecológica (Ecuador). Ivonne was one of three panelists for KAIROS’ virtual book launch of Who Killed Berta Cáceres? Dams, Death Squads, and an Indigenous Defender’s Battle for the Planet. Vidalina Morales, president of ADES and a friend of Berta, and Nina…
Post filed in: Gender Justice/Women of Courage, Latin America
The Art of Sofía Acosta Varea (La Suerte)
June 20, 2020
Yesterday, KAIROS brought you an interview with Sofía Acosta Varea. Today, we bring you a sample of her work. . . CACAÑAN (A Crappy Road) Sometimes it’s good to see so much crap running around town. Take water from the Machángara River. Mix this water with…
Post filed in: Gender Justice/Women of Courage, Latin America