In October 2016, The Justice and Corporate Accountability Project (JCAP) published a report documenting incidents of violence associated with Canadian mining companies in Latin America. This study is the first of its kind, compiling information over a span of 15 years from 14 countries in South and Central America about violence associated with Canadian mining companies.

On September 15th, 2016, the International Criminal Court broadened its process for selecting and prioritising cases to include land grabbing and environmental destruction. The decision presents an opportunity to curb the deforestation and rights abuses driven by illegally-issued agricultural concessions in Cambodia, likely to be the court’s first credible case. It also has important implications for other countries suffering from the worst excesses of illegal deforestation. Neil Loughlin and Tom Johnson report.

On Wednesday, October 26, 2016, another human rights defender was arrested in Guatemala. Domingo Francisco Cristobal was captured on his way home from a peaceful demonstration in the city of Huehuetenango by members of the Special Investigative Crime Division of the Guatemalan police. Traditional Indigenous community leaders, as part of the Plurinational Ancestral Government of the Akateko, Chuj, Popti’ and Q’anjobal Maya Nations, denounced the arrest in a press release.