From Mexico to Ireland; a discussion on corporate responsibility & Human Rights

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Speakers

Grecia Eugenia Rodríguez Navarro, Zacatecas Mining Conflict Observatory

Sofia Larriera, Business & Human Rights officer with Front Line Defenders

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From Zacatecas, Mexico comes a voice that refuses to be silenced. In her words are rivers, forests, and the courage of communities standing against the weight of extraction and corporate power. In Dublin, her story meets ours in a call for solidarity – a shared struggle to hold power to account and imagine a future where people and the planet are put over profit.

Around the world, communities are resisting destructive extractive projects that threaten their ancestral lands, access to water, livelihoods and the planet. In Mexico’s state of Zacatecas, one of the country’s most heavily mined regions, women human rights defenders (WHRDs) face intimidation, environmental devastation, and shrinking civic space as they challenge powerful corporate interests.

In this panel, the WHRD Grecia Eugenia Rodríguez Navarro (Zacatecas Mining Conflict Observatory) will share her testimony of resistance and resilience from the front lines. Her story will be the starting point for a broader conversation linking local struggles in Latin America (and other regions from the global south) with the responsibility of the Global North, including Ireland and the European Union, to ensure that companies based here respect human rights and the environment abroad.

We will explore the urgent fight to defend the EU Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD) — a landmark law meant to hold companies accountable throughout their global operations — now under threat from deregulation efforts in Brussels. The discussion will address what’s at stake, why public awareness matters, and how people in Ireland can take action. This event invites the audience to connect with those in the front lines of the global struggle for justice and protecting the planes, and to see their role in shaping fairer, safer supply chains.

Speaker Biographies:

Grecia Rodríguez is a human rights defender who founded the Zacatecas Mining Conflict Observatory in 2016, an organization that has become an ally in the struggle against mines and dams that threaten the lives of people in Zacatecas, Mexico. The Observatory is an organization that, as far as possible, responds to the human rights crisis currently affecting Mexico, becoming a benchmark in documenting and accompanying rural communities in the defense of their territory. Grecia is part of the Mexican Network of People Affected by Mining (REMA) and is a member of the National Network of Women Human Rights Defenders in Mexico. She has a solid background in social research and a recognized international track record in the defense of human rights in relation to socio-environmental conflicts.

She has collaborated with national and international organizations dedicated to the defense of the environment and human rights, which has allowed her to effectively combine research with direct action in the field, linking the production of knowledge with concrete actions that address strategic national issues such as the water crisis and the defense of territories.

She holds a PhD in Rural Development from the Autonomous Metropolitan University, Xochimilco Unit (2024). She holds a Master’s degree in Social Sciences and Clinical Psychology from the Autonomous University of Zacatecas, and has complemented her training with research stays at high-level institutions such as CIDES-UMSA in Bolivia, ICTA at the Autonomous University of Barcelona, and the University of the Balearic Islands in Mallorca. In addition, she has shared her experience in key international forums, such as the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR) in Berlin, the University of Victoria in Canada, and the Dublin Platform in Ireland, consolidating her presence in academic and advocacy spaces with a global reach. His academic output includes publications on socio-environmental conflicts in north-central Mexico and women’s participation in the defense of territory, as well as opinion articles aimed at critical dissemination.

https://www.frontlinedefenders.org/en/profile/grecia-eugenia-rodriguez-navarro

Front Line Defenders

Front Line Defenders (FLD) is an international human rights organisation founded in Dublin in 2001, with the specific aim of protecting human rights defenders at risk (HRDs). FLD works to improve the security and protection of human rights defenders and organisations around the world at risk for their peaceful and legitimate human rights work. As identified by human rights defenders themselves, FLD responds to protection and security needs by providing support through grants, capacity building, visibility, networking, and advocacy, at the international, regional and local levels. Front Line Defenders has been awarded the 2018 United Nations Human Rights Prize.

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