Francia Marquez

FranciaMárquez

              

The Nobel Prize for the Environment

A Colombian environmental, human.rights and feminist activist.She is noted for her fight against illegal environmental Prize.

Born:1982(age 39), in Suarez, Colombia.

Educated at: Santiago de Cali University

Since she was 15 years old, she started with social leadership to prevent a multinational company from destroying a river in her community.

    She has always worked for the welfore of her people: those black communities hit by mega-mining and the armed conflict.

"when we raise our voices we become a military target" She says.

In 2014 she led the Black Women's Mobilization for the Care of Life and Ancestral Territories, a march to denounce how illegal mining was poisoning the rivers and destroying the territory. 

"For many people it may be nothing, but for me that territory, where they sow our navel, is everything. Our ancestors bequeathed these lands to us and we cannot be mean by not guaranteeing a space for our children." Their battle will continue.

From 1994 to 1997, she participated in the process of evaluating the impacts that the megaproject to divert the Ovejas River to the Salvajina Dam would have on her community and the territory, in particular the impacts that this project would bring to the lives of all members of her community, including the negative effect on her ancestral territory, and therefore on her ethnic identity and culture. In 2005, they participated in the process of enforceability to the CVC and EPSA for the reparation of the impacts created by the Salvajina megaproject. This process has made use of the violation of the fundamental right to prior consultation in order to repair the impacts generated in the 35 years of life of the Salvajina dam.

In 2013, she was appointed as legal representative of the Community Council of Afro-descendant communities of the village of la Toma, a position she held until December 12, 2016. She also participated in the Permanent Assembly declared by the Afro-descendant communities of Cauca, in which they demanded INCODER (now the National Land Agency) to protect the ancestral territories of black communities and to advance in the collective titling, as well as to guarantee access to land through purchases made by that entity.

participated in a permanent assembly organized by the Association of Community Councils of Northern Cauca, which took place on the Panamerican Highway, with the objective of demanding that the National Government guarantee protection for the leaders of northern Cauca, as they are constantly receiving death threats. It also requested the fulfillment of the agreements previously reached between the National Government and the black communities of this region. In September 2015, the Swedish organization Diakonia awarded her the National Prize as Human Rights Defender.

She is currently a candidate for the presidency of Colombia 2022-2026