In the week leading up to their international Rainforest Tribunal, the Swiss rainforest-solidarity NGO Bruno Manser Fonds (BMF), has released a new short film: The Penan World Tour - 30 Years On - Catch up with Indigenous activists, Mutang Tuo and Unga Paren, and Kelabit Mutang Urud, 30 years after they first brought their message of rainforest destruction in Sarawak to the world.
The "Voices for the Borneo Rainforest" tour in 1990 had a number of goals: to raise awareness for rainforest destruction, to call for an immediate end to logging, and to raise funds for humanitarian relief. The most important, however, was to give the Indigenous peoples of Sarawak a direct voice to the world.
More than three decades later, filmmaker Linus Chung asks Sarawak's Indigenous activists - including CUT Campaign partner, Komeok Joe - "What has changed?"
Watch the Film Premiere of The Penan World Tour: 30 Years On
The Rainforest Tribunal: Basel, Tuesday 15/08/2023
Penan activists Mutang Urud, Unga Paren, and Mutang Tuo will appear together at BMF's #RainforestTribunal in their first joint public appearance since the 1990 Voices for the Borneo Rainforest world tour.
The rainforest is gone - where did the logging revenues go?
This and other explosive questions are being investigated by the Rainforest Tribunal of Basel, organised by CUT Campaign partner organisation, Bruno Manser Fonds.
The Rainforest Tribunal is a political theatre with a chair, investigators, witness hearings and a high-profile jury. It serves to review real events and place them in a larger context. After four decades of deforestation, the Indigenous Peoples of Sarawak take stock and ask:
Our forest is gone - where is the money? Who is responsible for this environmental disaster? What are its consequences for people, nature and the climate? Who has profited from it? And what must be done to right this wrong?
Stream the Rainforest Tribunal live to learn more about what those affected by logging and leading experts have to say about the deforestation of the Borneo jungle: Tuesday, 15 August 2023, 9am to 5pm (CET) live from the Scala Basel
SLAPP Trial against Bruno Manser Fonds: Wednesday 16/08/2023
The Rainforest Tribunal comes a day before Swiss human rights and environmental NGO, #BrunoManserFonds are are up in court for the start of their SLAPP* trial.
BMF face a powerful Malaysian heiress in a defamation lawsuit. Jamilah Taib Murray, daughter of the Governor of Sarawak, Malaysia, her husband Sean Murray, and her corporation Sakto Group, are suing BMF in the Civil Court of Basel-Stadt, Switzerland for their advocacy against corruption. 75 international organisations have written a joint letter demanding the law-suit be dropped.
*The Coalition Against SLAPPs in Europe (CASE) has identified the suit as a Strategic Lawsuit against Public Participation (SLAPP). SLAPPs are abusive lawsuits designed to silence NGOs, journalists, and other advocates. They drive defendants to financial ruin with costly legal fees. SLAPPs exploit the fundamental power imbalance between wealthy individuals or corporations and grassroots activists.