\n Nobel Peace Prize laureate Tawakkul Karman proposed in Honduras on Tuesday the creation of a global tribunal to prosecute executives of multinational firms who damage the earth.\n<\/p>\n
\n Karman, of Yemen, made the suggestion in the Central American country that Amnesty International last year described -- along with its neighbor Guatemala -- as the most dangerous in the world for environmentalists.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"A world court should be created that could punish all these multinational corporations\" that damage the environment and contribute to climate change, Karman said through a translator.\n<\/p>\n
\n She spoke at a press conference with Shirin Ebadi of Iran, a fellow Nobel laureate who won the peace prize in 2003.\n<\/p>\n
\n As part of the Nobel Women's Initiative, they aimed \"to gather a first-hand account of the ongoing violence against women land defenders\" in Honduras and in Guatemala, where they travelled later Tuesday, the group's website says.\n<\/p>\n
\n The murder of Berta Caceres, 45, gunned down last year, highlighted the threat to Honduran activists and sparked international outrage.\n<\/p>\n
\n Caceres opposed plans by the company Desarrollos Energeticos to build a hydroelectric dam across a river on which indigenous communities depended.\n<\/p>\n
\n Rachel Vincent, advocacy and media director for the Nobel Women's Initiative, said Honduras has the world's highest rate of murders for human rights and land defenders.\n<\/p>\n
\n Since 2009, 123 activists have been killed, she said.\n<\/p>\n
\n In comments to AFP, Karman said a special international court is needed \"to fight against corruption and money laundering and against all those involved in destroying the environment and exploiting the climate in a damaging way.\"\n<\/p>\n
\n She said such a tribunal could be similar to The Hague-based International Criminal Court which investigates and tries people charged with genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity.\n<\/p>\n
\n Karman said the court she proposes would handle cases in which human rights and environmental activists or anti-corruption fighters are \"found dead.\"\n<\/p>\n
\n She also said the investigation of Caceres's murder must be deepened \"to discover all those who benefited from this crime.\"\n<\/p>\n
\n Eight people were arrested, among them an employee of Desarrollos Energeticos.\n<\/p>\n
\n The Nobel laureates met Austra Berta Flores, the mother of Caceres, on Saturday.\n<\/p>\n
\n In Guatemala, they are to join two other Nobel Peace Prize winners, Guatemala's Rigoberta Menchu and Jody Williams of the United States.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Nobel Peace Prize laureate Tawakkul Karman proposed in Honduras on Tuesday the creation of a global tribunal to prosecute executives of multinational firms who damage the earth. Karman, of Yemen, made the suggestion in the Central American country that Amnesty International last year described -- along with its neighbor Guatemala -- as the most dangerous […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":60,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[553],"tags":[],"ji_location":[],"class_list":["post-35033","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-live-feed"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n