With the aim of incorporating community knowledge into jurisdictional work, the General Unit of Scientific Knowledge and Human Rights (UGCCDH) of the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation and the Tosepan Titataniske Cooperative participated in the Dialogue of knowledge: collective rights, life projects and biocultural heritage in the Sierra Norte de Puebla.
This meeting is the first to be held on environmental justice and defense of the territoryand “it is just a small crack that opens, but a crack can fill a pond,” said the researcher from the Benemérita Universidad Autónoma de Puebla, Luis Enrique Fernández Lomelín.
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Through collective reflection, communities and organizations shared their experiences and obstacles that they have faced in the judicial battles against megaprojects in the mining and energy sector; where they reported violations of their rights environmental, territorial, water, its free determination and prior consent.
Include a view of reality in judicial processes
The dialogue allowed us to identify the importance of including in the judicial processes the various forms of knowledge to move towards true legal and knowledge pluralism.
“The first step to decolonize justice is that Judgmental people have a look at reality and the close relationship that indigenous peoples have with their territories,” highlighted the head of the UGCCDH, Víctor Leonel Juan Martínez.
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The meeting was attended by the Altitipíajitl Maseual Council and the Union of Ejidos and Communities for the Defense of Life and the Atcolhua Territory, which bring together more than 50 communities in the region; the Center for Studies for Rural Development, the Mexican Institute for Community Development, Fundar, TerraVida, the Center for Higher Studies in Social Anthropology, in addition to Tosepan, which have outstanding work in the municipalities of Cuetzalan, Ixtacamaxtitlan, San Felipe Tepatlán, Ahuacatlán and Zautla, territories of the Maseual, Nahua and Tutunaku peoples of the Sierra.