Health Tribunal

Our jury members are distinguished individuals with a diversity of backgrounds and experiences. Among them, activists, scholars, religious leaders, journalists, and medical professionals from United States, El Salvador, Chile, Guatemala, and Mexico.

Robert Goodland, President of the International Association for Impact Assessment, United States.

Robert Goodland is a Canadian environmental scientist, winning a PhD in tropical ecology from McGill University in Montreal, based on research in Central Brazil while he was apprenticed at the University of Sao Paulo.  He became a Professor at the University of Brasilia, and also in Manaus at Brazil’s Amazon Research Institute (INPA).  He then helped create the new Ecosystem Center in Millbrook NY.  He served as the World Bank Group’s environmental adviser in Washington DC for 23 years, where he wrote and persuaded the World Bank formally to adopt most of its mandatory environmental and social “Safeguard Policies,” including on ‘Environmental and Social Assessment” and ‘vulnerable ethnic minorities’ (Indigenous Peoples).

From 2001-2004 he was the Technical Director of the independent Extractive Industry Review of the World Bank’s oil, gas and mining portfolio (EIR.org).  He was elected chair of the Ecological Society of America (Metropolitan), and President of the International Association for Impact Assessment. The Library of Congress (loc.gov) lists 39 of his books and monographs. One of his most recent publications for the World Resources Institute is ”Integrating Human Rights into the World Bank Group”.  Last year he was awarded IUCN’s Coolidge Medal for outstanding lifetime achievement in environmental conservation. Much of the last couple of years has been spent helping the Governments of El Salvador, the Philippines and Colombia with their possible metal mining moratoria.

Magali Rey Rosa, Prensa Libre journalist, School of Ecological Thought (SAVIA), Guatemala.

Magali Rey Rosa was born in Guatemalan, in 1955, is mother of 5 and a self taught environmentalist, actively working in defense of the natural wealth of Guatemala . Since 1983 she has founded Defensores de la Naturaleza (1983), Colectivo MadreSelva (1996) and Escuela de Pensamiento Ecologista Savia (2008).  Among her important work, she was a promoter of the effort, supporter and coordinator of the process that led to the legal declaration and establishment of the Sierra de las Minas as a protected area in the category of the Biosphere Reserve (1991); she acted as a coordinator and participator in the process to declare Bisis Cabá as a Biosphere Reserve (1997), worked on the Defense of the National Park Río Dulce against Simpson, a wood logging company, (1996) ; participated in the first action of legal defense, in the history of Guatemala, of a national park, Laguna del Tigre, against oil interests. She has been involved in the defense of guatemalan territory against metal mining harms since 2003. She writes a weekly column, avery friday, for Prensa Libre, since 1996. Her publications include Los caminos de la Vida Silvestre, 1984 (historia natural, fauna y flora, y conservación en Guatemala), Guatemala: aventura natural, 1993 (guía ilustrada para ecoturismo) y Bajo el mismo cielo, 2011 (texto para el libro fotográfico sobre minería a cielo abierto, del fotógrafo Daniele Volpe)

Dr. Rachel Sieder, Centre for Investigation & Study of Social Anthropology ((CIESAS)), Mexico

Rachel Sieder has held the post of Senior Research Professor at the Center for Research and Graduate Studies in Social Anthropology (CIESAS) in Mexico City since 2007. She is associate senior researcher at the Chr. Michelsen Institute in Bergen, Norway, and associate fellow at the Institute for the Study of the Americas, University of London. She has an MA in Latin American Studies and a PhD in Politics from the University of London. Her research interests include: human rights, indigenous rights, social movements, indigenous law, legal anthropology, the state and violence.

Amongst her most recent books are: ed. with John-Andrew McNeish, Gender Justice and Legal Pluralities: Latin American and African Perspectives, Routledge-Cavendish (2012); ed. with Line Schjolden and Alan Angell, La Judicialización de la Política en América Latina, CIESAS, México/ Editorial Universidad Externado de Colombia (2011); with Carlos Y. Flores, Autoridad, autonomía y derecho indígena en la Guatemala de posguerra. Guatemala: F&G Editores-Casa Comal-UAEM (2011); ed. with Javier Couso and Alex Huneeus, Cultures of Legality: Judicialization and Political Activism in Latin America, Cambridge University Press (2010); ed. with Line Schjolden and Alan Angell, The Judicialization of Politics in Latin America, Palgrave Macmillan (2005).

She currently heads a collective research project on “Indigenous Women in Latin America: Access to Justice and Security”, part of a research collaboration between CIESAS and the Chr.Michelsen Institute. She is a member of the international editorial boards of the Journal of Latin American Studies (JLAS) and Latin American and Caribbean Ethnic Studies (LACES).

Dr. Morna Macleod, Centre for Investigation & Study of Social Anthropology ((CIESAS)), Mexico

Morna Macleod has a Master’s and Doctorate in Latin American Studies at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM). She is an independent consultant and visiting researcher at the Centre for Research and Further Studies in Social Anthropology (CIESAS DF) and a member of Mexico’s National System of Researchers. She has worked in human rights, development and international aid agencies. She was the regional representative for Oxfam Australia supporting indigenous organisations in Mesoamerica.

Amongst her publications are: Nietas del fuego, creadoras del alba. Luchas político-culturales de mujeres mayas (2011), FLACSO-Guatemala; Poder Local: Reflexiones sobre Guatemala. 1997, Oxfam GB, Magna Terra, Guatemala; “Complementarity, Duality and Equilibrium: Mayan women negotiating gender equity through cosmovision in Guatemala”, in Indigenous Women and Religion, Sylvia Marcos (editor) Praeger Publishers/ABC-Clio, Santa Barbara, 2011; “Voces Diversas, Opresiones y Resistencias Múltiples: las Luchas de Mujeres Mayas en Guatemala” (2008) en: Etnografías e historias de resistencia. Mujeres indígenas, procesos organizativos y nuevas identidades políticas, Hernández Castillo (Ed), CIESAS y PUEG/UNAM, México

Claudia Campero, Blue Planet Project, Council of Canadians

Claudia Campero is an organizer based in Mexico with Food and Water Watch and Blue Planet Project. She helps coordinate networking among water organizations around the world and monitors water issues in Mexico and other Latin-American countries to help raise awareness for action. She is a founding member of COMDA (Coalition of Mexican Organizations for the Right to Water). She studied geography at Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México and holds a Masters in Urban Development from UCL.

Abel Jesús Barrera Hernández, Founder & Director of the Centre for Human Rights Tlachinollan

Abel Barrera is the founder and director of the Centre for Human Rights Tlachinollan. Since 1993 he has worked as a consultant and professor at the National Pedagogical University in Tlapa. Abel and Tlachinollan have received several awards for commitment to the defense and promotion of human rights. In 2008, he received the MacArthur Award International Award For Creative and Effective Institutions (MACEI) awarded by the MacArthur Foundation, based in Chicago. In 2009, he received a recognition from the Washington Office in Latin America (WOLA in English). In 2010 Abel Barrera, was laureate Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights, awarded by the Center for Justice and Human Rights Robert F. Kennedy in Washington D.C. In 2011 Abel Barrera and Tlachinollan VI received the Human Rights Award of Amnesty International Germany. And in 2012 the Anthropologist Abel Barrera, was honored at the event called “Anthropology in the service of human rights” under the first meeting of graduates from the National School of Anthropology and History (ENAH).

Judy Deutsch, Faculty of University of Toronto Psychoanalytic Institute; President of Science for Peace.

Judith Deutsch holds a MSW from the University of California, Berkley and currently works as Psychoanalyst and faculty member of the Toronto Psychoanalytic Institute at the University of Toronto.  She was president of Science for Peace from 2008-2012 and continues as chair of the Climate Justice Working Group. She is also a columnist for Canadian Dimension Magazine. She has a background in Family Law, Disclosure and Consent Law and International Human Rights Law. In 2008, she presented a keynote paper at the Gaza Community Mental HealthProgramme/World Health Organization conference Siege and Mental Health…Walls vs. Bridges.

Dr. A. Corea Tobar, Latin American Institute of Social Medicine (ILAMES), El Salvador

Dr. Tobar graduated as a medical doctor with a focus on social community medicine, and a strong background in social sciences and the humanities. He studied in the Western Multidisciplinary School at the University of El Salvador. He also has a bachelor of natural sciences from the National Academic Institute of Santa Ana.In 2005, he facilitated and engaged in community organizing jointly with CEICOM through his the Association of Students of the Faculty of the Western Multidisciplinary School, University of El Salvador, momentum and coordinate talks with the Centre for Research and Investment CEICOM, within the faculty, he participated in the National Table Against Metal Mining. In December 2005, he participated in the environmental table in the Sixth Mesoamerican Forum held in San Jose, Costa Rica. He is the founding member of the Jaguar Steps Foundation, an organization that fights for the rights of indigenous peoples.

 Yolanda Chalì, Association of Community Health Services (ASECSA), Guatemala

Aurora Yolanda Colaj Challis is a kaqchilel Mayan woman  from the municipality of San Martin Jilotepeque Chimaltenango Department. She has a Bachelor of Social Work with an emphasis on Development and Administration from the Faculty of Social and Political Sciences from the University of Rafael Landivar where she graduated in 2008. She has a knowledge base in the Maya worldview and is a member of the political Council of Mayan Organizations Convergence Waqib Kej. She currently leads the advocacy department in the Association of Community Health Services ASECSA.