QUB Human Rights Centre

Speakers: Dr Marisa McVey, Lecturer at QUB School of Law & representatives from Trócaire, Xinka Parliament and Save our Sperrins (NI)

Title: Communities Against Corporate Power
 
As part of NI Human Rights Week, join Trócaire and the Human Rights Centre at Queen’s University Belfast for this fascinating event where will we hear from two grassroots organisations campaigning for justice in the face of corporate power wielded by mining companies. This conversation will show how local communities from very different places have come together to defend their beloved environment and fight for their rights.

Representatives of Trócaire’s Guatemalan partner, the Xinka Parliament, will bring their campaign for justice, indigenous rights and the environment to Northern Ireland. The Xinka indigenous people have lived for 15 years under the shadow of a huge Canadian-owned silver mine that threatens their water, cultural identities and ways of life. Over the many, hard years of resistance they have suffered stigmatisation, criminalisation, intimidation and violent attacks, including the murders of several cherished leaders.

We will also be joined by Save Our Sperrins from Co. Tyrone. The group come from a small rural community in the Sperrins Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and have been conducting a campaign against a proposed gold mine ran by another Canadian company which would be built very close to their village. They are local people who are concerned about the environmental damage that would come from the mine and the implications it could have on the health and safety of their community, along with the damage to the beautiful landscape they live in. Save Our Sperrins continue to defend their community in the face of overwhelming odds taking on a multinational mining company.

We will hear about their respective fights for justice and be able to understand more about the common experiences and challenges these two courageous communities are facing while taking on multinational mining companies.

This event will take place in-person on Monday 9 December 2024 at 18:00pm in the Moot Court, School of Law, QUB (MST.02.006)