Translation by Protection International of the original article by Proética
With the aim of training justice operators at national and sub-national levels on the functioning of the Timber Legality Observatory and the Inter-sectoral Mechanism for the protection of human rights defenders, on Tuesday 19 October, Proética, the Peruvian chapter of Transparency International, developed a training module in which more than 50 justice operators participated, including prosecutors specialised in environmental matters, lawyers from the Public Prosecutor’s Office Specialised in Environmental Matters and the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights.
The module began with a presentation on the relationship between corruption and human rights violations, given by the director of Proética’s Environmental Governance Programme, Magaly Avila, who presented general aspects related to the impact of corruption on access to justice for human rights defenders in the country.
Afterwards, the forestry specialist of Proética’s Environmental Governance Programme, Frank Rivero, gave a presentation on the Observatory on the legality of timber. In this space, prosecutors and lawyers attending the module had the opportunity to learn about its operation, the content of the platform, which includes information on Forest Management Plans (FMP) approved with false information or non-existence of trees by the forestry authorities from 2005 to 2021. This space was used to gather input and comments for the improvement of the tool and to promote its use by prosecutors and justice operators. Finally, the lawyer from the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights (MINSJUDH), Jorge Abrego, gave a presentation on the current context of human rights defenders in the country, the main sources of risk and the functioning of the Intersectoral Mechanism for the protection of human rights defenders.
This training module is the first in a series of information dissemination spaces that Proética has been promoting to strengthen the capacities of justice operators at national and sub-national levels, with the aim of improving access to justice for the most vulnerable populations as well as to disseminate the situation of human rights defenders and their demands, who are constantly being attacked by illegal activities linked to acts of corruption.
