Jennifer Domínguez

Organization
Center for Environmental, Social and Legal Action in Guatemala – CALAS

Activity
Environmental defense

Attack experienced
Physical, verbal and psychological attack

THE FACTS – On Sunday afternoon, August 18, defender Jennifer Domínguez was physically, verbally and psychologically attacked by an unidentified assailant in Guatemala City, Zone 12. According to information provided by CALAS, the attack has been denounced before the appropriate authorities.

CALAS has a long, widely recognized history of support for environmental human rights defenders who have been criminalized in Guatemala. The organization does the highly important work of monitoring both State and private entities and defends complainants in concrete cases of environmental human rights violations; in these, it has gone so far as to achieve the suspension of some mining activities. This is why its members have been repeatedly threatened and subjected to attacks of different types and levels of severity.

We of IM-Defensoras and the National Network of Women Human Rights Defenders in Guatemala condemn the attack experienced by Jennifer Dominguez and join with CALAS in calling on the Public Prosecutor’s Office to promptly conduct a thorough investigation of the facts in order to ensure that impunity does not prevail in this case. We also call on the Office of the Human Rights Ombudsman to verify the violation of the defender’s human rights.

In the same vein, we demand that the Guatemalan government comply with its obligation to guarantee the security and the right to defend rights of Jennifer Domínguez and other members of the Center for Environmental, Social and Legal Action in Guatemala – CALAS.