📍ECUADOR
🚨Front Line Defenders joins 37 national and international human rights and environmental organisations in expressing deep concern regarding the criminalisation of human rights and nature defenders in Ecuador, Guilberto Talahua, Fausto Arechua, and Wilfrido Escobar, community leaders actively involved in the fight for the communities and water sources impacted by the Canadian mining project Curipamba–El Domo in Las Naves county, Bolívar province.
This case is part of a systematic pattern of criminalisation targeting environmental defenders who have spoken out against the advancement of the mining project. Currently, 32 defenders have been criminalised; 15 of them have received convictions despite the lack of sufficient evidence to establish criminal liability.
We call upon the judges of the National Court of Justice of Ecuador to act with full impartiality to guarantee due process for the HRDs Guilberto Talahua, Fausto Arechua, and Wilfrido Escobar; and to adopt a decision based on the highest international human rights standards
🔗Read more:
frontlinedefenders.org/en/st…