GI-ESCR endorsed the urgent appeal to protect the life and integrity of a Unión Hidalgo's human rights defender (Mexico)
On Friday 11 February a group of organizations presented an Urgent Appeal to relevant Mexican authorities to request measures to protect the life and integrity of a human rights defender of the community of Unión Hidalgo in Mexico. Hours after he participated on a press conference highlighting the human rights abuses committed during the development of a large-scale wind farm on their indigenous territory, Edgar Martín Regalado, member of the Collective in Defence of Human Rights and the Communal Property of Unión Hidalgo, suffered an armed attack during the journey back to his home.
Unión Hidalgo is a Zapoteca indigenous community in Oaxaca, Mexico, which has been the site of important investments for the development of wind parks. These renewable energy projects are having severe human rights implications for the local population, including the violation of their right to free, prior, and informed consent and the restriction to their land and other key natural resources in the region. The development of these large-scale wind parks is also having gender-differentiated implications for the indigenous women of the community of Unión Hidalgo who rely more heavily on these resources to sustain their livelihoods and face structural barriers to make their concerns and their voices heard in key decision-making processes. The construction of wind parks has created divisions among community members and increased social tensions that have escalated in recent years.
The attack on Edgar Martín Regalado constitutes a serious threat to the life and work of the human rights defenders of the community who are voicing their concerns and struggling to defend their land and livelihoods from these renewable energy projects that disregard the rights of the local Zapoteca community. For these reasons, the undersigned organizations requested the Mexican authorities to:
Conduct a prompt and expeditious investigation into the facts of the attack.
Guarantee the life, physical and psychological integrity and safety of Edgar Martín Regalado and the other members of the Collective in Defence of Human Rights and the Communal Property of Unión Hidalgo,
Identify and punish those responsible for this attack, and
Guarantee protection and measures of non-repetition for the defenders of the Collective in Defense of Human Rights and Communal Property of Unión Hidalgo.