Both ENDS
Last week, another round of trade negotiations between the EU and India took place in Brussels, Belgium. Local organisations in India are concerned that the outcome of these negotiations will have a negative impact on their livelihoods and access to natural resources. They also worry about its effect on political conflicts and the maintenance of human rights in their country. Recent public demonstrations such as a rally last month in the border town of Moreh, Manipur, North East India, reflect these concerns.
Yesterday Jasper van Dijk, MP of the Socialist Party (SP), submitted written parliamentary questions to Minister Lilianne Ploumen for Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation about the construction of the Barro Blanco dam in Panama. The construction of this controversial dam continues despite violent protests in Panama against human rights violations and environmental damage. What does the Netherlands have to do with it? At the end of 2012 the SP also asked parliamentary questions about this issue. Anouk Franck of Both ENDS explains why.
DEN HAAG, 11 November 2024 - Today, the Dutch government published its policy on future cooperation with development organisations, both in the Netherlands and abroad. PVV minister Reinette Klever is putting the axe to this funding: she has decided to cut the budget for aid to international civil society by more than two-thirds: from roughly €1.4 billion to €0.4 billion in the period 2026 to 2030. This has major implications for critical voices at home and abroad, at a time when civic space for organisations around the world is already shrinking. Karin van Boxtel, director of environmental and human rights organisation Both ENDS: ‘This is an unprecedented step in exactly the wrong direction. Civil society organisations are essential for sustainable and social change worldwide. International movements fulfil multiple, indispensable roles: as a watchdog of the rule of law, as a driver of change, and as a counterforce against authoritarian tendencies. The weakening of support for these roles is a telling signal.’
Stuart Hugo Jabini, a Saramakan who was raised on the Upper Surinam River, made a stand against the plans of the Surinam government to cut down the forest in which his community lives. On his behalf the Forest People Programme (FPP), a non-governmental organisation that campaigns for the rights of indigenous forest people, won a case against the Surinam government at the Inter-American Court of Human Rights. The court forbid the plans of exploiting the Saramakan territory for industrial development. This resulted in an international landmark ruling for indigenous and tribal communities to prevent exploitation of their livelihoods.
The European Parliament in its plenary session on the 5th of April, adopted a proposal to regulate Export Credit Agencies (ECAs) that will force them to become more transparent on where their funds come from, and go to, as well as how they count social and environmental risks. Furthermore, the Parliament requires ECAs to comply with EU human rights objectives in their activities, and to phase out the subsidising of fossil fuel projects in line with commitments adopted by the G20 in 2009.
During the UNFCCC Climate Change Conference next week in Bonn, Both ENDS,Transparency International, Human Rights Watch and Carbon Market Watch will host the side event “Environmental and social accountability for results based finance - Lessons learned and ways forward’’. This event will discuss how lessons from International Financial Institutions can inform the design and operation of appropriate redress mechanisms for the Green Climate Fund and other private and public climate finance flows.
This week, a special rapporteur of the United Nations spoke out against the opening of an open-pit coalmine in Phulbari in the northwestern part of Bangladesh. He did this because of the enormous human rights violations this project might lead to. A year ago, the International Accountability Project (IAP) presented a proposal for research on this subject to a number of UN Special Rapporteurs. Olivier de Schutter (UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food) has worked on the proposal since then. From the start, Both ENDS has been active within several networks that are trying to prevent the opening of this coalmine.
