IPS Events

Lessons From the Murder of a Mexican Land Defender
October 5 @ 3:00 pm - 5:00 pm
Online Zoom Event

What does the murder of activist Mariano Abarca in Chiapas, México say about Canadian government accountability?

One might think that public servants are obliged to follow policies and procedures that Canadian government officials testify to in Parliament or publish on the government’s website. But a recent Federal Court ruling says this is not necessarily so. That case is currently before the Federal Court of Appeal.

With support from Mexican and Canadian organizations, the family of environmental defender Mariano Abarca, who was murdered in 2009, is seeking an investigation into the Canadian Embassy in Mexico. They believe that the Embassy’s unconditional lobbying in support of a Canadian mining company put Mariano’s life in greater danger in the lead up to his murder.

This roundtable will discuss Canadian practice when it comes to embassies abroad and conflicts over Canadian mining operations, asking whether Mariano’s case is the pattern or an exception. We will also explore what policy Canadian officials should be expected to follow in such cases, and how Canada’s human rights obligations are fulfilled. Finally, do we have any way to hold public officials to account when things go wrong?

Moderator: Bianca Mugyenyi, Director, Canadian Foreign Policy Institute
First hour: Economic Diplomacy
Representative of the Abarca family from Chicomuselo, Chiapas, Mexico
Charis Kamphuis, Justice and Corporate Accountability Project
Jen Moore, Global Economy Project, Institute for Policy Studies
Nicholas Pope, Lawyer on the case, Hameed Law, Ottawa

Second hour: Approaches to Enforcement
Reflections of expert panel
Ketty Nivyabandi, Secretary-General, Amnesty International Canada
Representative of Canadian Lawyers for International Human Rights
David Yazbek, Lawyer, Centre for Freedom of Expression

Reflections of Soledad García Muñoz, IACHR Special Rapporteur on Economic, Social, Cultural, and Environmental Rights

On Zoom and Facebook live, Time: 12 pm PST / 3 pm EST. This event will be in English and Spanish; if you need interpretation REGISTER HERE (For free!)

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45th Annual Letelier-Moffitt Human Rights Awards
October 13 @ 7:00 pm - 8:00 pm
Zoom Webinar

Since 1976, IPS has hosted the Letelier-Moffitt Awards to honor our fallen colleagues, Orlando Letelier and Ronni Karpen Moffitt, and celebrate new champions of the human rights movement. The Letelier-Moffitt Awards will be held virtually this year, featuring performances from Singer/Songwriter Ayanna Gregory, Spoken Word Artist Joseph Green, and Garífuna musician Kenneth Solano!

Get tickets today! To purchase sponsorships, visit our sponsorship page or email brittanya@ips-dc.org.

DOMESTIC AWARDEE
The Torture Abolition and Survivors Support Coalition International (TASSC) was founded by Sister Dianna Ortiz, who died on February 19th. She was a survivor of torture in Guatemala. She spent nearly three decades advocating against torture and in doing so helped to create the unique survivor-centered model of healing that TASSC represents.

INTERNATIONAL AWARDEE
Since 1978, the Black Fraternal Organization of Honduras (OFRANEH) has served as the representative organization for and a leading voice in Honduras for the self-determination and dignity of the Garífuna people in Honduras, a matrilineal people who are both Indigenous and Afro-descendent, whose ancestral territory in Honduras is principally along the northern coast and under constant threat from African palm plantations, Canadian and U.S. tourist operations, mining, energy projects, and drug trafficking.

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The Ballot and Community Control Over Police
October 14 @ 5:00 pm - 6:30 pm
Online Zoom Event

In the summer of 2016, the Movement for Black Lives Policy Table released a platform that intervenes in this political moment, advances a more radical Black-centered policy vision, and addresses the systemic devaluing and destruction of Black lives. A major part of the platform asserts a world where those most impacted in our communities control the laws, institutions, and policies that are supposedly meant to serve us – from our schools to our local budgets, economies, our land, and the police.

Join IPS ally Sojourner Truth School for Social Change Leadership for a forum about the platform’s call for “community control over police” as a means of shifting power, enforcing democracy, deconstructing the historic relationship between the police and the Black community, and re-imagining a social force designed to actually protect and serve its population as policy, and not as a meaningless slogan. Through multimedia presentation, group dialogue, and interactive exercise, we will learn what it will take to win community control over the police in a given locale and how to start a campaign to achieve it. PRE-REGISTRATION REQUIRED.

The trainer, Netfa Freeman is Events Coordinator and an Analyst for the Institute for Policy Studies in Washington, D.C. and an Organizer for Pan-African Community Action. Netfa has decades of experience in activism, grassroots organizing, and coordinating events around issues and causes ranging in scope from local to national to international.