By Claudia Romero, Community Resource Exchange – Latin America Facilitator at the Coalition for Human Rights in Development
As a lawyer, ally and member of movements defending water and land in Mexico, I know what it means – and what it takes – to confront industrial or infrastructure projects that harm ecosystems and communities, prioritising profits over dignified living conditions.
I am familiar with the exhaustion, the toll, and the risks involved as well as how distant the decision-making spaces can feel when policies and financial systems are imposed on territories. I also understand the precariousness that results, in many cases and especially for women, from resisting, while simultaneously fighting, sustaining daily life and maintaining or building something different. Yet, I have also witnessed the immense value of local knowledge and the power of weaving ties between common struggles. The support that solidarity provides. The strength that comes from feeling that we are many, that we are not alone.
Claudia at the IX International Meeting of the WATERLAT-GOBACIT Network, 2018
That is why when I learned about the existence of the Community Resource Exchange System (CRE), I felt compelled to join such a relevant and urgent task to strengthen the defense of territories. CRE is a program that interconnects communities to share experiences and knowledge in spaces for learning and action, while linking specific needs with support resources through a holistic lens. It is also the result of hard and committed collective work.
Much of my path has been dedicated to co-creating collaborative spaces, connecting local realities with national, regional or global contexts and developing collective-action strategies for participation, advocacy and accountability. For this reason, I am happy that by joining I can serve the common search for dignity, equity and justice. I am particularly grateful to be able to do so from a platform that allows me to strengthen environmental and human rights defense in the global south, where I am from.
I find the Coalition’s perspective key to exposing and stopping the impacts of projects that, in the name of a hegemonic vision of development, are threatening life in all its forms in contexts that remain neocolonial, extractivist and deeply unequal.
Throughout these five months as Regional Facilitator, every day I find it inspiring to meet with communities and organizations defending forests, lands, rivers and peoples of Abya Yala from a space that allows us to create other possibilities. I also find it inspiring belonging to a team of sensitive people who overcome the complexity of uniting wills aiming to always do more and do better. I am excited about the initiatives we are preparing to strengthen community tissue in 2025.