Mural at the Supreme Court, Mexico.
Back in November 2012, Maude Barlow was invited to be a judge at the hearing regarding dams for the Permanent Peoples’ Tribunal. After this important hearing, the organizers arranged a meeting at the Mexican Supreme Court so that the judges would deliver their ruling.
An important outcome of this meeting was the interest of the Supreme Court to write a protocol for judges in Mexico regarding human rights violations in the context of development and infrastructure projects. The organizers of the hearing on dams of the Permanent Peoples’ Tribunal engaged in a long process of collaboration to write this important protocol including other sorts of projects that are related again and again with community and human rights violations such as mining, highway construction, touristic projects, fracking and so on. The result is an excellent document that we hope will support many struggles to defend territory in Mexico. We also hope this becomes an inspiration for other countries to write similar protocols that judges can use to understand the implications of these projects and use national and international law to place human rights in the center of their rulings.
To read the report on Maude’s visit to Mexico: Bearing Witness to Community Struggles Against Dams and Mining in Mexico
To read the final ruling of the hearing regarding dams at the Permanent Peoples’ Tribunal: (Spanish)
See the protocol for judges by the Mexican Supreme Court: (Spanish)
