Because of its serious security situation, PBI has accompanied the “Tlachinollan” Human Rights Center since late 2003. PBI originally provided accompaniment through its Guerrero team, then from PBI’s Mexico City head office, and currently its situation is monitored by the Oaxaca team.
Background
The “Tlachinollan” Human Rights Center is a human rights organizations which has worked in the southern Mexican state of Guerrero since 1993. Its offices are located in Tlapa de Comonfort and Ayutla de los Libres. Tlachinollan was created to attend specifically to the situations affecting communities in the Montaña and Costa Chica regions of Guerrero, such as poverty, migration, agrarian conflict, and militarization.
Work
Tlachinollan is a respected organization with a united professional team. The organization is legally constituted, and since its founding has sought to promote and defend the rights of the Na savi, Me’phaa, Nauas, Nn´anncue and Mestizo peoples of the Montaña and Costa Chica regions of Guerrero. Based on principles of cultural diversity, the Center aims – together with its indigenous clients – to create legitimate and peaceful pathways to the guaranteed enactment of human rights.
The human rights center is under a management committee which is responsible for fulfilling institutional goals and keeping activities on track to meet the center’s mission. It also has teams working on communication, community development, international relations, administration and advocacy.
Its aims are to carry out advocacy at a regional, national and international level, in order to eradicate the root causes of human rights violations. This will be achieved through information, communication, legal defense, and building a culture of respect for human rights.
Tlachinollan seeks to foment and strengthen community organization, and thus make human rights easier to enact and defend at a grassroots level. The center works to establish and develop alliances with a range of regional, national and international organizations, to allow for a more efficient, collaborative defense of human rights.
Security Situation
Tlachinollan works to defend and protect the collective rights of indigenous peoples; economic, social and cultural rights; civil and political rights; women’s rights; and especially the cases for which it provides legal representation. As a result, the center faces high levels of risk, as is demonstrated by the many threats and acts of harassment and aggression which Tlachinollan staff have faced over the years.
Protection Measures
In May 2009, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights granted provisional measures to all Tlachinollan staff.
Prizes and Recognition
- 2001: Tlachinollan and its director, anthropologist Abel Barrera Hernández, received the Nicolás Bravo civil award of the state government of Guerrero to recognise its struggle for and defense of human rights.
- 2008: Tlachinollan received the MacArthur Foundation Award for Creative & Effective Institutions.
- 2009: Tlachinollan received the Washington Office on Latin American (WOLA) Human Rights Award.
- 2010: Abel Barrera Hernández received the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award.
- 2011: Abel Barrera Hernández and Tlachinollan received Amnesty International Germany’s Human Rights Award.
- 2016: Abel Barrera Hernández received the Mexican National Commission for the Prevention of Discrimination’s 2015 Recognition for Equality and Nondiscrimination.
- 2017: Abel Barrera Hernández was nominated and chosen for the Franco-German Gilberto Bosques human rights award.
- 2017: Tlachinollan and Abel Barrera Hernández received the Amalia Solórzano de Cárdenas Prize.