Mexico, DF. Alirio Luis Quiroz left Tegucigalpa (Honduras) on August 6, 2007 to the United States (USA): "When he left the house, he said he would work to help us"1. The last time Maximina Giron Maria spoke with her son was on August 14, 2008. After this call, a friend of her husband who lives in the USA said he had seen his son in the news saying that he was beaten and had been taken off the train.

"By aligning itself with human rights defenders for the long haul, PBI's emphasis is squarely on relationships rather than log frames, harking back to an era in the history of NGOs when solidarity was more important than annual reports."

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During a recent interview for a radio programme, I was asked what I thought the future international NGO would look like. NGOs are so diverse in objectives and strategy that the question is a bit broad to answer sensibly, but, on reflection, the kind of NGO I would like to be a part of in 10 years' time would look a lot like Peace Brigades International (PBI), whose conference on defending environment and land rights took place in London on Monday.