By Leslie Joryet | CDH Vitoria
Youth Defenders Work: New challenges, new opportunities
As youth defenders of human rights, we are very grateful for the trust placed in our work. Since the deceased of our dear director and colleague Miguel Concha Malo, it has been a challenge to continue his great legacy. However, we continue to embrace and honor his struggles, trajectory, and ideology to make a dignified life possible for everyone. Therefore, we would share the most significant events of the past few months.
From Centro Vitoria team, we warmly welcome Fr. Gonzalo Bernabé Ituarte Verduzco, who will be joining us as General Director in the organization. We trust that his guide and collaborative approach, characterized by active listening, enthusiasm, and dialogue, will strengthen the connections that have shaped the essence of local organization. We are convinced that his contribution to knowledge and diverse experiences will promote our work in face on the current human rights crisis.
The School for Young Human Rights Defenders "Miguel Concha" has begun its 21st generation, composed of around 30 youth from the central region of the country. Every Saturday for 7 months, we aim to share knowledge and experiences in order to strengthen the tools available to these youth for their personal and collective journeys in which they actively participate. Welcome to "Escuelita"!
Likewise, we also welcome the 6 new youth who join the work of CDH Vitoria through the modalities of social service, professional practices , and voluntary actions in our program "Semillero: Youth Defenders and Promoters of Human Rights". Through each area of expertise and training, they strengthen the work carried out in the organization with great enthusiasm and commitment, with a strong belief in social transformation too.
In our agenda of freedom and political participation, we reaffirm our support in the case of Eloxochitlán de Flores Magón, Oaxaca. We call on competent authorities to either issue a verdict of freedom or modify the precautionary measure of preventive detention to a less restrictive one for the 6 Mazateco political prisoners. Due to the imposition of preventive custody, they have been deprived of their freedom for over 8 years without a verdict or sufficient evidence to consider them guilty.
Similarly, through advocacy and monitoring, we accompanied GZL and JVE teachers, who are victims of harassment by their job center and state of Morelos. We call on authorities of the state of Morelos and the federal government to put an end to the political persecution against them due to their work in defending human rights and land in the communities of Alpuyeca and Amilcingo, respectively. Defending is a right, repressing is a crime!
We believe that having spaces for dialogue and networking from our resistance, dreams, and hopes is immensely valuable for the construction and sharing of knowledge, experiences, and tools to confront the complex context of violence we face. That is why we have been present in various spaces such as the International Seminar: Protection Policies for Human Rights Defenders and Journalists, where government institutions, human rights commissions, prosecutors office, judges, academic institutions,, civil society organizations, human rights collectives, human rights defenders, and journalists jointly reflect on the achievements and shortcomings of protection policies from a broader perspective for its analysis.
We participated in the World Expression Forum Youth in Norway, as a platform for cooperation, coordination, and diffusion. This forum brought together organizations and activists working on common issues related to youth and freedom of expression to exchange experiences and share knowledge. The forum aimed to weave networks and increase youth participation in society through dialogue on challenges and successful measures that can be taken.
Finally we participated in the national assembly of the National Network of Civil Human Rights Organizations "Todos los Derechos para Todas y Todos" (Red TDT), where over 80 people from civil society organizations across the country gathered for 3 days to listen, share experiences, and weave resistances from collectivity, enabling us to confront this complex context for human rights.
Thank you for continuing to believe in our work.
Regards,
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