Erick Zelaya
Erick Zelaya is a human rights defender with more than 10 years of experience advocating for labour rights and the rights of the working class in El Salvador. He currently holds the position of Secretary General of the Unión Nacional para la Defensa de la Clase Trabajadora (National Union for Defence of the Working Class), which works to condemn labour rights violations and promote the dignity of working class people. He is also Press Secretary of the Confederación Nacional de Trabajadores Salvadoreños (National Confederation of Salvadorean Workers), a historic labor movement in the country. Additionally, he has been heavily involved in the creation of the Movimiento por la Defensa de los Derechos de la Clase Trabajadora (Movement for the Defence of the Rights of the Working Class), which now is made of more than 80 organisations campaigning for social justice in El Salvador.
The human rights defender community is regularly subjected to campaigns of defamation - they are labeled as 'traitors of the nation', 'terrorists' and 'subversive'. This tactic employed by the authorities is designed to discredit and undermine the work of human rights defenders by isolating and marginalising them, making them a vulnerable target for abuse. Community leaders and environmental activists who are opposed to large-scale mining projects face death threats and violence.
