Impunity, freedom of expression and social justice

There is an apparent low profile war going on against progressive circles in Honduras, and this edition of Envio magazine demands that the international community take notice. It reports on an international expert meeting in which Hivos teamed up with CEJIL, ERIC and Jueces por la Democracia to talk about impunity, freedom of expression and Justice. The goal of the event, held in october 2011, was to support Honduran human rights activism with reflextions and lessons from neighbouring countries.

State, society and nature in Ecuador: the case of the Yasuní-ITT initiative

This paper critically analyses the emergence and development of the Yasuní-ITT initiative, which is built on the idea of leaving oil underground in exchange for financial contributions from the international community .Development politics in Ecuador has experienced major changes since the   election of Correa in 2007.

Participation, planning and natural resources in Bolivia: from fiction to practice?

In this paper, we focus on participation in the main planning documents produced in Bolivia in the first decade of the 2000s: the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP) and the National Development Plan (PND). We analyze how these planning instruments have been able to capture popular participation through diverse mechanisms and how these practices fit in the current mainstream participation discourse. For more knowledge programme publications on participation in development click here. In t...

5 Rights, Politics and Power: The Struggle over the 2006 Abortion Reform and the Women’s Movement in Nicaragua Katherine Kruk

Since 2006 the Nicaraguan abortion law eliminates all forms of therapeutic abortion in the country with a penalty of up to three years in prison. This paper considers the 2006 Nicaraguan abortion law reform by looking at the situation in the country, with special attention to women’s rights, in particular reproductive rights—and, more specifically, abortion rights. The paper shows that the reform is unrepresentative of the attitudes and opinions of much of its civil society members, namely, w...

4 Localised Voices in the Globalised Amazon: Challenges of Civil Society Building in Ecuador Brian Wallis

Civil society building efforts in Ecuador have provided the Achuar and Kichwas of the Amazon with a voice. This is particularly relevant given the global significance of the Amazon, which makes it essential that local voices are empowered to have a say in the future of their local space. Civil society building efforts aim at empowering historically excluded groups, leading to their political inclusion, as well as to an increase in their decision-making power.

Seminar: Mining in Paradise?

Large-scale mining and oil extraction by transnational companies have expanded enormously under the current neo-liberal government in Peru. Many of these extraction projects have had a negative impact on local communities and the environment and have generated social, economical and political conflicts.

This Ain't Democracy Anymore...

"This ain´t democracy anymore..." : Reflections based on the referendum on mining in the Northern frontier of Peru.Over the last years conflicts around mining have emerged around Peru. One of the emblematic cases is the resistance against the illegal presence of the Rio Blanco mining in the territories of the Yanta and Segunda y Cajas communities, in the Ayavaca and Huancabamba provinces. In the northern frontier of Peru, apart from direct action, legal initiatives, attempts to dial...

From activist research to promiscuous theories and methodologies

Sexual diversity in Peru found political expression at the beginning of the 1980s, with the formation of the Movimiento Homosexual de Lima and the Grupo de Autoconciencia Lésbico Feminista. The movement spread to include other groups, for example, those who identify with a ‘trans’ identity, and outside the capital to other regions of the country. There are now more than 60 groups engaged in the fight for sexual diversity and gender identity in the country, with a wide range of identities, age...

Knowledge & Change Spotlight - social movements and citizenship

How do social movements work? How do their actions influence social change? And how do outside actors influence their dynamics? In this session, Kees Biekart, Rosalba Icaza and Jose Manuel Valverde offer an inside perspective, adding new pieces to the puzzle of social movement complexity.