Foreign Affairs committee  Thank you very much for the question. In fact, I would like to show you something here. I've been travelling to Colombia since 1989 and I'd have to say that I've never met as courageous men and women as Colombians, and I'm thinking particularly of human rights defenders. I was

Foreign Affairs committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair and members of the committee. It's really good to see you again today. Thank you for the invitation to come and make a presentation. I've been asked to give some input about your upcoming trip to Latin America, as well as to provide some insights and recomme

Foreign Affairs committee  I think that Inter Pares as a model would work. The name “Inter Pares” means among equals. I think that we're structured as a feminist collective. Internally, we have an interesting structure. A lot of our counterparts are very interested in knowing how we operate in a very non-h

Foreign Affairs committee  Personally, I've worked since the 1980s in a number of countries in Latin America, mainly on human rights issues. I've been working very closely with human rights defenders. In terms of Inter Pares, right now we're working in five countries in Latin America: Guatemala, Mexico, E

Foreign Affairs committee  Yes. She's a front-runner. On Sunday she was a front-runner, and there will be a second round.

Foreign Affairs committee  I would be happy to give you more information about this. It was a general sense that we're getting from partners on the ground, that often when peace accords are signed, the attention span of the international media disappears. We think about the wars in Central America. At the

Foreign Affairs committee  Of course. I apologize, Ms. Laverdière, but I will answer in English since my French is a bit shaky. I would say that women are at the forefront of a lot of these struggles. Resource extraction increasingly is a real problem in the region. I'm saying this from my personal expe

Foreign Affairs committee  Maybe I'll talk about Sepur Zarco, because it's very fresh in my mind. I was with the women just recently. I've met them a number of times over the years. In different circumstances, and sometimes when we were taking pictures of them, they would put veils over their faces becau

Foreign Affairs committee  In Colombia, in particular, I know that women's organizations have been pressing the Government of Colombia to adopt a plan. The women's movement in Colombia is extremely strong and courageous. What I'm hearing about the Organización Femenina Popular is that these are women who h

Foreign Affairs committee  Good afternoon, my name is Bill Fairbairn and I'm a program manager at Inter Pares.

Foreign Affairs committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair, and members of the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Development. Thank you for the opportunity to speak to a theme that's very close to the heart of my organization, Inter Pares. We are a feminist social justice organization that's d