Mussington and Frank receive support from Front Line Defenders in their fight against Barbuda airport construction

Front Line Defenders (FLD), an international human rights
organization, is expressing solidarity with the Barbudans as, once
again, they will be going to London to fight a case at the UK-based
Privy Council.
 
Activists John Mussington and Jacklyn Frank will be travelling to
England in early November to defend their challenge to the
construction of the Barbuda International Airport.

The matter went through the local and regional court systems and is
now headed to the country’s final appellate court.
The duo took their action on a number of environmental grounds,
criticizing the Development Control Authority (DCA) and the
Department of the Environment (DoE), among others, for not doing
their jobs properly.
 
But the lawyers defending the Government reportedly are
contending that Mussington and Frank have no local standi in the
matter.
 
FLD says it is standing with these two human-rights defenders as
they seek to protect the lands and their homes on Barbuda.
 
According to the international body, the duo is fighting against the
exploitation of their vulnerable island by foreign developers, who
reportedly are constructing a new luxury airport over previously
pristine forest.
 
This development, FLD says, will prove to be destructive to the
ecology of the sister-island.
 
Meanwhile, the Barbudans are complaining that the approval
process – from which they were excluded – was defective, since it
was undertaken without their participation or, even more
importantly, their consent.
 
Front Line Defenders (FLD) was founded in Dublin in 2001. Its specific
aim is to protect human rights while protecting those who work non-
violently to uphold the human rights of others, among other
principles.