CPTnet
10 December 2009
COLOMBIA ACTION ALERT: Give the gift of solidarity to Las Pavas families this holiday season

CPT Colombia is asking people to bestow a gift of solidarity on the 123 families of Las Pavas in Southern Bolivar province this holiday season.  Those wishing to give generously should, beginning on 20 December 2009, protest outside local Body Shop outlets and demand justice for the this community

Although CPT Colombia has provided the cosmetic company with documentation regarding the illegal displacement of the Las Pavas community and the destruction of its lands and livelihoods, The Body Shop has failed to pressure sufficiently its palm oil supplier, the Daabon Company, to return the Las Pavas land to the 123 families, whose lives are becoming more difficult by the day. 

The official response to the situation of Las Pavas given by The Body Shop to Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT) is that The Body Shop and/or Daabon are financing an investigative commission to Las Pavas.  CPT Colombia believes that any commission paid for by Daabon and/or The Body Shop cannot be independent and will only continue to serve the interest of the multinational corporations.  Further more, the commission is not an adequate answer to the human rights abuses that Daabon has inflicted on this community.  Therefore, CPT will not participate in the commission.  Instead, we will continue to insist that justice can come only when the land taken by Daabon is given back to the families.  The only way that The Body Shop can live up to its values of “Community trade, Human rights, and Protection for the planet” is by telling Daabon Company to return the land immediately and pay compensation for the damages the community suffered because of the forced displacement.”
 
Everywhere in Colombia, palm plantations are associated with violence and environmental destruction.  Palm monocropping (the practice of growing the same crop year after year, without crop rotation) in Colombia is a policy pushed by the global north, and Colombia has implemented this policy via forced displacement and paramilitary assassinations.  Although paramilitaries have not assassinated Las Pavas community members since the displacement, they have been present on the Las Pavas farms.  Christian Peacemaker Teams has also witnessed the extreme environmental and social damage caused by planting palm.  Preparing the land for plantations involves drying up some rivers, lakes and channels, while the runoff of agricultural chemicals pollutes remaining bodies of water, killing thousands of fish.  For those laboring on the palm plantation, the conditions amount to modern day slavery.  These workers do not have the right to unionize or make a living wage.  CPT questions the idea that sustainable palm oil production in Colombia is even a possibility.

So starting on 20 December, demand that The Body Shop live up to its expressed values of “Community Trade, Human Rights, and Protection for the planet” by publicly announcing it will find other palm oil suppliers if Daabon does not give the land back to the Las Pavas families and pay compensation for the damages they suffered.

To find out The Body Shop retail outlet closest to you and more information about the action go
http://www.cpt.org/work/colombia/actions .