Join us as the representatives of the Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras (COPINH) will discuss the innovative legal and advocacy strategies the organization has developed over the past decade in its pursuit of justice for the assassination of renowned Honduran human rights defender Berta Cáceres. On March 2, 2016, Berta Cáceres was murdered in her home following a prolonged campaign of persecution, surveillance, criminalization, and violence. She had long led the defense of Lenca territory against the imposition of the Agua Zarca hydroelectric project.
In the ten years since her murder, Berta’s family and the organization she co-founded, COPINH, have pursued accountability while continuing to safeguard the territory, self-determination, and environment of the Lenca people.
The event will examine the strategies COPINH has spearheaded at both domestic and international levels. Representatives will share insights from the recently released findings of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights’ Group of Independent Experts (GIEI), which was mandated to investigate those responsible for financing and ordering the crime. In a global context where impunity remains pervasive in cases of violence against land and environmental defenders, these efforts have resulted in the conviction of nine individuals, including the unprecedented conviction of a CEO in a case of retaliatory violence against an Indigenous land rights defender. At the same time, as the GIEI report makes clear, additional financiers and planners of the crime continue to evade accountability.
- Bertha Zúñiga Cáceres, General Coordinator of the Civic Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras (COPINH)
- Camilo Bermúdez, Director of Strategic Litigation and Management of COPINH.
When: Thursday,February 26, 2026 | 12:10pm - 1:10pm
Where: Columbia Law School | JG 107
Lunch will be provided.
Please register below: