Learning from HRDs: Environmental conflicts, extractive industries and human rights in Colombia

Human rights lawyer Johana Rocha Gomez is the Secretary General and Co-founder of Centro de Estudios para la Justicia Social 'Tierra Digna', and currently in charge of its litigation department. She also works in the field, accompanying rural communities, designing and implementing strategies for the defense of their rights. She works with fisher and small scale farmers' communities affected by coal mining operations; Afro-descendant communities involved in restitution mechanisms in relation to armed conflict and forced displacement; and with indigenous communities on right to water.

In her talk, Johana will discuss the work of Tierra Digna in the defense of environmental rights in Colombia.

Johana is currently a visiting fellow under the auspices of the Centre for Applied Human Rights' Protective Fellowship for Human Rights Defenders at Risk.