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3 December, 2007
Several Belgian trade unions, as well as NGOs, will be forming a human rights chain at the Brussels Palace of Justice on 10 December, International Human Rights Day. Among the Belgian trade unions that have signed on to the event are ICEM-affiliated La Centrale Générale FGBT/ABVV, ACV/CSC, LBC-NVK, and CNE.
Also taking part will be the Brussels-based International Federation of Journalists, the Global Union Federation for journalists and allied workers.
Focussing on the dangerous situations for trade unionists around the world, participating organisations will target a number of specific countries where trade unionists are in every-day danger of violence, kidnapping, or even assassination. The 10 December event in Brussels will highlight the cases of Jonas Burgos from the Philippines, Pedro Zamora from Guatemala, and Ana Sylvia Melo de Rodríguez from Colombia.
All are people who were either murdered or disappeared in 2007. Jonas Burgos, an agriculturist working with peasant groups in the Philippines, disappeared on 28 April. He is the son of free speech advocate and opposition newspaper owner Malaya Jose Burgos. Ana Sylvia Melo, a trade unionist with CGT-SINDIMANUELA in Colombia, was assassinated on 19 May. And Pedro Zamora, the leader of Guatemalan dockworkers’ union STEPQ, who campaigned to rid corruption in the privatisation of Puerto Quetzal, was murdered on 15 January.
The action starts at 19h30 on Monday, 10 December. For more information in Dutch, click here. For the French version, click here.