Debate
Water for life: Film screening and panel discussion
- Date
- Wednesday 27 May 2026
- Time
- Address
-
Wijnhaven
Turfmarkt 99
2511 DP The Hague - Room
- 3.60
Open to all students and colleagues interested in politics, human rights, sustainability, Latin America, law, or social justice.
Who pays the price for water?
Water for Life is a powerful film about Indigenous resistance, environmental justice, and the fight for accountability in Honduras. The film follows three Latin American leaders who defended water and territory from extractive projects, including Berta Cáceres, the Lenca leader who co-founded the Civic Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras (COPINH) in 1993 and helped lead opposition to the Agua Zarca hydroelectric project on the Gualcarque River.
Berta Cáceres was murdered in 2016. The Grupo Interdisciplinario de Expertos Independientes (GIEI) Honduras, an independent group of international experts created by the Inter-American Commission on Humn Rights, has established that this was not an isolated crime, but a coordinated operation involving gunmen, military-trained intermediaries, corporate personnel and directors, and networks of support within the Honduran government. The investigation also uncovered evidence that funds from international lenders, including the Dutch development bank FMO, were diverted to finance surveillance, intimidation, and ultimately the operation that led to Berta Cáceres’s murder.
These findings raise serious questions about due diligence, oversight, and the responsibility of development banks operating in high-risk contexts.
Programme
- Screening: approximately 35 minutes, in English
- Panel discussion: 45–60 minute, in Spanish and English with simultaneous translation
Panelists
- Berta Zúñiga Cáceres, COPINH's general coordinator
- Camilo Bermúdez, COPINH's legal director
- Roxanna Altholz, former GIEI member and director of Berkeley Law's Human Rights Clinic
- Pedro Biscay, former GIEI member and expert in anti-corruption
- Rosalba Icaza, professor Institute of Political Science (moderator)