PPT panel by Claudia Campero.
La Jornada (one of Mexico City’s leading newspapers with more than 287,000 readers) reports (in Spanish), “The Mexican government abuses communities in various regions of the country to build dams, participants said at the Permanent Peoples’ Tribunal (PPT) prehearing entitled ‘Dams, peoples’ rights and impunity’, held on Monday and Tuesday in Temacapulín… The jury includes Miloon Kothari, former United Nations Special Rapporteur on the right to adequate housing; Maude Barlow, former senior advisor on water to the UN General Assembly president; and Monti Aguirre, coordinator for Latin America at International Rivers… The ruling the PPT issues on Thursday is not legally binding, but the prestige of this organization, founded in 1979 as an international non-governmental ethics tribunal, has great moral weight and made visible rights abuses in various communities. After two days of presentations of evidence in Temacapulín, the PPT jurors will deliberate in Guadalajara on Wednesday, and on Thursday at 10 am they will announce their decision. On Friday, the judges will go to the Supreme Court of Justice to provide a copy of their decision, the document will also be given to the federal government and the Federal Electricity Commission.”
The full article is at http://www.jornada.unam.mx/2012/11/06/estados/033n1est.