The International Office for Human Rights Action on Colombia

The social disaster left behind by the multinational Glencore in Cesar

Article by Agencia Pública Baudó

In this article (in spanish), Camilo Alzate González explains that “for decades, the press and successive governments promoted open-cast coal mining in Cesar and La Guajira as a means of bringing progress to a poor region far removed from the country’s major industrial centres. Now that mining has gone into decline, there is neither progress nor coal left: only vast, desert-like craters, the legacy of the Swiss multinational Glencore, one of the world’s most powerful mining companies with a hundred mines in operation across the globe.”

For this reason, we at the European network OIDHACO have signed the campaign’s call to action against corporate power, to end impunity and in favour of a binding treaty for multinationals within the United Nations.

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Our solidarity is universal.

We are deeply concerned about all victims of armed conflict, repression and violence around the world — from Sudan to Syria, including the persecution of the Rohingya and so many other crises that often receive less international attention than they deserve. Each of these situations calls for solidarity, remembrance, justice and action.

However, we have decided to specifically highlight the message ‘Stop Genocide in Palestine’ because what is happening in Palestine represents not only a human tragedy of enormous magnitude, but also a direct challenge to the fundamental principles of international humanitarian law and to the rules-based international system itself. The indifference and complicity of much of the international community in the face of the apartheid regime imposed by the Israeli government on the Palestinian people represent one of the greatest moral and political contradictions of our time.

The persistent violation of essential norms — such as the protection of the civilian population, the prohibition of collective punishment and respect for proportionality in the use of force — not only has devastating consequences for the Palestinian population, but also erodes the global mechanisms designed to limit the power of states and prevent abuses.

When these rules are repeatedly breached without any effective consequences, the framework that protects all populations in conflict situations, anywhere in the world, is weakened. Therefore, speaking out in this case does not mean ignoring other forms of suffering, but rather emphasising the urgency of defending an international order which, if it collapses, leaves everyone in a more vulnerable position.

Drawing attention to this situation is, therefore, an act consistent with the universal values we uphold: the protection of life, human dignity and respect for international law, without exception.

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