Profile: Tlachinollan Human Rights Center

In April 2008, the Chicago-based John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation awarded a three-year, $350,000 grant to Centro de Derechos Humanos de la Montaña Tlachinollan (Tlachinollan Human Rights Center), recognizing it as a “imaginative and influential small [organization that has] an impact altogether disproportionate to their size.” This is the second year in a row a Fund grantee has won the award.

In the photo to the right: A soldier intimidates Me’phaa women of the village of Caxitepec in southern Mexico. Indigenous communities in the south are mobilizing to defend their rights in a region facing increasing militarization. 

Based in the Mexican state of Guerrero, where indigenous communities have been caught in the crossfire of the drug war, Tlachinollan documents human rights violations against indigenous people in the state of Guerrero, brings legal cases on their behalf, and builds the capacity of smaller human rights organizations in the state to develop state-wide, coordinated campaigns. Through their presence on the ground and strategic human rights work, Tlachinollan has emerged as one of Mexico’s premier human rights organizations.

Last year, Tlachinollan played a key role in a national coalition of rights groups helping indigenous communities to stop the construction of the La Parota hydroelectric dam, which would have flooded approximately 41,000 acres of land, displacing 25,000 poor farmers and indigenous people with no genuine opportunity for their participation in the decision to build the dam. Another 75,000 people would have lost access to their farmlands and forests. Last year, a federal judge in Mexico ruled in favor of affected communities by ordering the temporary suspension of all work related to the construction of the dam. This groundbreaking legal victory was the culmination of three years of legal work, public education, and organizing by the Mexican Center for Environmental Law (CEMDA), Tlachinollan Human Rights Center, Institute for Environmental Law (IDEA), and Maderas del Pueblo.  The judge’s decision sought to prevent irreversible damage to the farmers’ constitutional rights to a healthy environment, a fair trial, and adequate judicial protection.

In the photo to the left: Felipe Arreaga Sánchez, environmental activist and co-founder of the Peasant Environmentalist Organization of the Sierra de Petatlán (OCESP) was arrested on bogus charges after leading peaceful resistance efforts against the illegal logging. Local and international activists believe he was arrested in retaliation for his organizing efforts to protect the area’s forests. Tlachinollan provided lawyers and garnered national international attention and demands for his release. He was ultimately acquitted after nine months of detention.

“Tlachinollan is a vital advocate for indigenous communities that suffer abuse from state agents and illegal armed groups. These communities also face threats to the natural resources on which they depend for their livelihoods,” said David Mattingly, the Fund’s program officer for Latin America, “We are honored to support them.”

Tlachinollan says it will use the $350,000 award for integrated advocacy campaigns grounded in litigation and expand into more states in Mexico.
 

For more information:

» Read more about the award here.

» Visit Tlachinollan’s website in English or in Spanish.

July 2008