SIPAZ Activities (mid-August to mid-November 2024)

INTERNATIONAL PRESENCE AND ACCOMPANIMENT

CHIAPAS

AUGUST

• We attended a press conference in which the situation of the prisoners of San Juan Cancuc was updated.
• We attended the anniversary of the relocation of displaced families from Agua Clara, municipality of Salto de Agua.
• We attended the quarterly assembly of the Believing People of the diocese of San Cristobal de Las Casas.
• On August 30, the day in which the victims of forced disappearance are commemorated, we were present at various actions that took place in the center of San Cristobal de Las Casas, which was coordinated by the Working Group against Disappearance in Chiapas.

SEPTEMBER

• We accompanied the pilgrimage of thousands of people called by the ecclesiastical Province of Chiapas made up of three dioceses that marched in the city of Tuxtla Gutierrez to denounce the lack of peace and security that prevails in the state.
• We were present at the public event organized by families from the Banavil community, in the municipality of Tenejapa, displaced since 2011 by a cacique group that is also accused of being responsible for the forced disappearance of Alonso Lopez Luna.

OCTOBER

• We attended the discussion “Violence and Human Rights: An Assessment from Chiapas” organized by the Fray Bartolome de Las Casas Center for Human Rights (Frayba)
• We attended the Congress held in San Cristobal de Las Casas on the occasion of the celebration of the 50^th anniversary of the Indigenous Congress, 100 years after the birth of Bishop Samuel Ruiz García and ten years after the Congress of the Pastoral of Mother Earth, in which approximately 1,200 people participated, speaking Tsotsil, Tseltal, Ch’ol, Tojolabal and Spanish.
• We accompanied the march against violence and inequality towards girls and adolescent women held in San Cristobal de Las Casas in the framework of International Girls’ Day.
• We attended the discussion “Implementation of the International Recommendations on Human Rights of the Universal Periodic Review in Chiapas – Challenges and Opportunities at the State Level” that took place in San Cristobal de Las Casas.
• We were present at the burial of Father Marcelo Perez Perez in San Andres Sakamanchen de Los Pobres, a town in the Chiapas Highlands, where he was from, as well as at several events organized after his murder.
• We were present at the “Regional Days for Our Disappeared” in which groups of relatives of missing persons and accompanying organizations of 15 groups from Mexico, Central America and the United States met in San Cristobal de Las Casas.
• We attended the discussion “Unjustly Imprisoned Women and Men in Chiapas – Perspectives following the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention after its Visit to Mexico” that took place in San Cristobal de Las Casas.

NOVEMBER

• In the framework of the Day of the Dead, we accompanied the public action “Impune Death” that took place in the center of San Cristobal de Las Casas in memory of the girls, boys and adolescents who “should not have died,” which was convened by the organizations Melel Xojobal C.A. and the Network for the Rights of Children and Adolescents in Chiapas (REDIAS)
• We were present at the pilgrimage that took place in San Cristobal de Las Casas to commemorate the 100^th anniversary of the birth of Bishop Samuel Ruiz Garcia, as well as to demand justice in the case of the murder of the priest Marcelo Perez Perez in October.
• We participated in the Meeting of Peace and Reconciliation Builders convened by the Commission for Community Unity and Reconciliation (CORECO), which this year took place in a community in the municipality of Ocosingo.

OAXACA/GUERRERO

• In October, we attended the Regional Meeting of Women Defenders “Embroidering Resilience from the South” which brought together women defenders from Oaxaca, Guerrero, Chiapas and Veracruz and took place in the Sierra Norte of Oaxaca.
• In November, we participated in the Global Meeting for Climate and Life that took place in Santa María Atzompa.

INFORMATION AND TRAINING FOR ACTION

PUBLIC RELATIONS

• In September, we participated in a meeting with representatives of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (UNHRC) and the Women in Resistance Collective in Tuxtla Gutierrez.
• Also in September, together with other organizations, we were in an online meeting with the rapporteur for Mexico of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), Andrea Pochak.

EDUCATION FOR PEACE

AUGUST

• Together with the organization specialized in digital security Sursiendo, we participated in a space with journalists and communicators in which training and networking proposals for greater security for the guild continued to be defined​.

SEPTEMBER

• We shared an analysis with artisan women who participate in the Mujeres de Maiz collective from various municipalities in the Highlands and the Northern Jungle.

OCTOBER

• We participated with two presentations in the Forum “Young People Talk about Peace” that was organized by the Commission for Community Unity and Reconciliation (CORECO) with young students from the Intercultural University of Chiapas (UNICH) in San Cristobal de Las Casas.
• We gave a workshop on risk analysis, security and protection measures with promoters of the Fray Pedro Lorenzo de la Nada Human Rights Committee of the municipality of Ocosingo.
• We share a contextual analysis with representatives of the Believing People of the highlands Tzeltal pastoral area that took place in Huixtan.

INTERNAL TRAINING

• In August, two team members participated in a training workshop for facilitators on issues related to sexual violence coordinated by the Mennonite Central Committee (MCC).
• In September, a team member participated in a new session of the Positive Conflict Transformation diploma convened by CORECO.
• In September, we attended a new training session on digital care for cell phones coordinated by Sursiendo.
• In October, we participated in aworkshop of workshops”  “designed for facilitators working on Positive Conflict Transformation issues organized by CORECO.

NETWORKING

• At least once a month, we attend plenary meetings and commissions of the network for Peace in Chiapas, Slamalil Kinal.
• On a bi-monthly basis, we attend operational meetings of the People’s Movement for Peace and Justice (MPPJ).
• On a monthly basis, we have virtual meetings of Accompaniment to Unarmed Civilians (USP/A) – Community of Practice.
• In August and October, we had a meeting of organizations that collaborate in the project entitled “Strengthening the Self-protection Capacities of Human Rights Organizations and Communities in Chiapas”, which we coordinate with Voces Mesoamericanas and Huridocs. – In August, we attended the II Regional Meeting on Physical Protection convened by the Acceso Foundation that took place in Costa Rica.
• In September, we participated in a meeting with representatives of the pastoral areas that are part of the Monitoring Commission of the Mother Earth Congress, a component of the social pastoral of the diocese of San Cristobal de Las Casas.
• In September, we attended the meeting of partners of the Civil Service for Peace of Germany that was held in Mexico City.
• In September, we participated in a virtual meeting of the members of the Platform for the construction of peace in Mexico. In November, a face-to-face meeting of this same platform was held in Oaxaca. The space was opened to the participation of about 50 young people from various states of the country to reflect together on diagnosis and proposals. From this same platform, we attended spaces of analysis in which several other networking efforts converge in September and October.
• In November, we participated in the event “Networks of Hope: National Meeting of Women Human Rights Defenders” organized in El Salvador, to which women defenders from Mexico and Colombia were invited.
• In November, we participated in the coordination and implementation of the International Meeting for the Exchange of Experiences of Indigenous Peoples from Mexico, Canada and Norway, convened by the Global Platform for the Prevention of Armed Conflict (GPPAC), to which we belong, which took place in San Cristobal de Las Casas. A meeting of counterparts from the North American region of this same platform was also held.