Collective Letters

On August 4th, 2011, the ESCR-Net Secretariat reiterated its concerns of threats to and harassment of workers by Excellon authorities regarding the workers' right to unionize in the La Platosa mine in Durango, Mexico. ESCR-Net urged Excellon representatives to respect the workers' right to join...

On June 17, 2011 ESCR-Net sent a letter calling on the Government of India to put an end to actions aimed at forcibly entering and seizing lands in and around the village of Govindpur to make way for an integrated steel plant. The letter also requested that India desist from all acts of intimidation and the filing of baseless criminal charges against human rights defenders and undertake to respect the human rights of the affected community.

Prior to the International Donor Conference for Haiti in March of 2010, ESCR-Net drafted a letter to the states attending to urge them to follow a human rights-based approach to international assistance to Haiti.

On February 3, 2011 ESCR-Net issued a statement condemning the arrest of a number of human rights activists, the attacks against journalists, and isolation of Tahrir Square as well as the failure of the Egyptian military to provide protection to pro-democracy protesters. The Network urged both the Egyptian and US governments, as well as the International Community, to condemn such violence and repression, to support pro-democratic movements and to defend the protection of human rights.

On 1 June, 2011, the International Network on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights sent a letter to senior members of the government of Pakistan to express concern regarding ongoing threats and acts of violence against leaders of ESCR-Net member Pakistan Fisherfolk Forum (PFF) who have mobilized in response to the clearing of mangroves and associated land grabbing activities.

In response to reports of threats to and harassment of workers by Excellon authorities regarding the workers’ right to unionize, ESCR-Net urged the Mexican government and representatives of Excellon to ensure an honest, transparent, and participatory negotiation process with the owners of the communal lands of La Sierrita, to cease all threats or harassment of workers choosing to join a union and to respect and uphold the workers’ human rights to integrity, to security, and freedom of association in the La Platosa mine.

In response to a request by an ESCR-Net member, we have written an urgent action letter (attached and below) urging to Mexican authorities to take all necessary measures to clarify the assassination of rights activists Beatriz Alberta Cariño, head of ESCR-Net member CACTUS (Community Working Together Support Center), and Jiry Antero Jaakkola, a citizen of Finland, who was killed this past April 27th, identify and punish all those responsible, and provide immediate and effective protection for his family and colleagues.

ESCR-Net called on the President of Ecuador to protect the human right to life and physical integrity of Mr. Leonidas Iza, president of the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities in Ecuador (CONAIE) and his family members.

ESCR-Net expresses its solidarity with the indigenous populations of Toribio and Jambalo in Cauca, Colombia, who are pacifists in the ongoing war against the guerilla forces.  ESCR-Net asks that attacks and confrontations cease in the urban areas of Toribio and other places with peaceful, indigenous populations.

ESCR-Net and Habitat International Coalition-Housing and Land Rights Network (HIC-HLRN) expressed their solidarity for displaced Zimbabweans who were evicted by their government.