‘My passion is the defence of the right to land and territory,’ says Lourdes Gómez, a land rights defender and professor working on issues affecting Indigenous women defenders and the impacts of palm oil production.
The ISHR had the chance to meet Lourdes Gómez during her Geneva visit to attend the Human Rights Council’s 55th session. Lourdes, a land right defender and professor working on issues of Indigenous women defenders and the impacts of oil palm production, delivered a powerful statement during the session. She was also one of the speakers at a side event about the human rights situation in Guatemala.
Lourdes recently participated into the ‘artivism’ project by journalist and photographer Teresa Ordás, ‘Paisojos de mujeres defensoras de derechos humanos de Guatemala‘ (‘Landscapes of women human rights defenders from Guatemala’). The project is a collection of beautiful photographs of the real reflections of the subjects’ eyes, where Teresa Ordás highlights ‘the world in people’s eyes.’ [Website: https://www.paisojos.com]
Here is how Lourdes introduces herself in the frame of ‘Paisojos’:
‘I am a Q’eqchi’ Mayan woman of African descent. I inherited my path of defending human rights from my mother Lucia Willis Paau, who since my childhood had joined the movement to defend the rights of Mayan women in the north of Guatemala. My passion is the defense of the right to land and territory. I have dedicated myself to denouncing the violence that the State of Guatemala exerts at the community level on Indigenous, rural and peasant women while they fight for access, use, control and protection of their land. These communities face racism, discrimination and machismo. I have dedicated myself to the defense of land rights, contributing through historical registry and communal research, to the restitution of land rights’.
https://ishr.ch/defender-stories/human-rights-defenders-story-lourdes-gomez-willis-from-guatemala
This post was originally published on Hans Thoolen on Human Rights Defenders and their awards.
