Environmental human rights defenders (EHRDs) are important contributors to the world’s fight against climate change. Through their advocacy, participation in peaceful protests and marches, and campaigns to prevent harmful activities like fracking, climate activists are working to ensure that governments and corporations do everything they can to protect the planet.
However, EHRDs are being increasingly targeted by the world’s biggest contributors to climate change — governments and companies.
An estimated 1,910 EHRDs have been killed since 2012. The Alliance for Land, Indigenous and Environmental Defenders (ALLIED) says this is just the tip of the iceberg in terms of threats to EHRDs; facing death threats, unjust arrests, legal actions (such as strategic lawsuits against public participation or SLAPPs) and closing civic space, activists are constantly subjected to intimidation by governments and corporations because of their climate advocacy. In particular, Indigenous groups face unjust criminalization resulting from their leadership in the environmental movement.
Governments have been focusing on advancing climate action commitments since the 2015 Paris Agreement, with more countries funding renewable energy projects and advancing net-zero emissions targets. However, there is still a gap in involving environmental defenders in such decision-making processes and adopting climate policies that recognize and protect them and the needs of their communities. With current plans to cap an increase in global warming at 1.5°C falling short, world leaders need the knowledge and advocacy of EHRDs now more than ever, as defenders are the most impacted by the climate crisis and can bring important contributions as we seek solutions.
To address this gap, a new initiative is being co-created by defenders, civil society organizations, and governments to ensure that EHRDs are recognized as critical actors in multilateral climate and environment discussions.
"United, we must take on the challenge of reinventing our future. Strategic collaboration is not only essential to building a new world, but also to advocating for justice and defending the rights of all. We are forging new ideas and transforming our reality into a more equitable and just one," said Juan David Amaya, Colombian activist and co-founder of Life of Pachamama. "It is our collective responsibility to ignite the change that ensures a more resilient planet, where every human being has the opportunity to thrive in harmony with nature and with one another. The time to act is now."
“This is urgent work, not only because we have to stop any and all violence against EHRDs,” Gabriella Bianchini, climate justice project lead at Global Witness, told Global Citizen. “We want to create a space where stakeholders can recognize the role of EHRDs in the climate emergency and understand what society must do to protect them.”
Leaders Network for Environmental Activists and Defenders (LEAD)
These groups are working to create a multilateral dialogue in the form of a Leaders Network for Environmental Activists and Defenders (LEAD) as a global trusted space where activists can meet with government representatives to plan how to advance the protection of environmental defenders, as well as strengthen opportunities for participation, in multilateral climate discussions. The ultimate goal is that such dialogue will create good practice, motivate joint action and bring the issues of defenders as well as their recommendations at the center of international climate conventions and commitments in the climate agenda.
“We want to highlight that EHRDs are not only suffering from the effects of climate change — as well as violence from those perpetuating the climate crisis — but are also an integral part of the solutions,” Katerina Hadzi-Miceva Evans, Executive Director of the European Center for Not-for-Profit Law, told Global Citizen. “To do this, we have to bring diverse groups together in a room to show the humanity and joint commitment of the climate change fight.”
The initiative hopes to be shaped and launched by the UN Climate Change Conference in Brazil (COP30) in 2025.
“Defenders fight at the cost of their lives and freedom, sometimes close to death, confronting high risk for our collective future, and this initiative will help work toward just, sustainable solutions for the climate emergency by linking the fight for the object to the actors of the fight,” says Olivier Ndoole, co-founder of Alerte Congolaise pour l’Environnement et les Droits de l’Homme. “The LEAD initiative gives us hope that the near future will be a just one for environmental defenders across the world, by allowing them to have a seat at the table in the climate and environmental discussions that affect them.”
Continued Threats to Environmental Human Rights Defenders
Members of civil society have acknowledged a gap in human rights protections, as well as implementation of commitments and obligations, within the climate and environmental spaces for decades. They have pushed forward innovative solutions like the Aarhus Convention in 1998, and the Escazú Agreement in 2018, to guarantee access to information and public participation, as well as protect EHRDs exercising these rights.
While these treaties were necessary steps to protect the human rights of environmental human rights defenders, groups affiliated with LEAD point out that they are disconnected from what defenders are experiencing at the hands of national governments. Even with the aforementioned treaties, in addition to international- and national-level commitments to protect EHRDs, defenders are still being excluded from discussions, targeted, and killed for their advocacy, and commitments made in these instruments are not being implemented.
For instance, the UK’s recent Public Order Act was enforced last year to detain climate activists who engaged in protest activities; in a fact sheet published by the UK government, protests organized by environmental organizations Just Stop Oil and Insulate Britain are cited as justifications for the policy. Initiating the Public Order Act occurred at the same time the UK has committed to fund climate-friendly initiatives in developing nations, replace fossil fuels, and achieve net-zero government emissions by 2050.
Even when governments consult with civil society about their efforts to fight climate change, the lack of respect for grassroots activists and local leaders ends up limiting civic space. In another example, the ability of EHRDs to peacefully gather and demonstrate at COP28 in Dubai was hampered by government restrictions and arbitrary protest guidelines.
These clear contradictions by government administrations that support climate advancements show that governments don’t understand the links between climate action and defenders, resulting in further attacks and harassment.
How LEAD Aims to Drive Change in the Climate and Environmental Multilateral Spaces
LEAD seeks to better explain and demonstrate the crucial connection between EHRDs and sustainable climate solutions, not only protect activists from harm, but to ensure climate solutions are rooted in human rights and driven by defenders themselves.
Those behind LEAD are actively pursuing support from governments, which will make it easier for EHRDs to formally engage with world leaders in these spaces. They’re also talking to other stakeholders, including grassroots activists and large civil society organizations, about how the initiative can contribute to ensuring their participation and protection in climate discussions so they can finally be at the center of these conversations.
“We’re finding that when groups get together, the veil of negativity breaks down and an opportunity forms,” Hadzi-Miceva Evans told Global Citizen. “In a multilateral multistakeholder space, we can overcome differences and create a fabric of progressive responses to the climate emergency with defenders at the center of it.”
Of course, in their efforts to create a safe and collaborative space, LEAD is considering how EHRDs — many of whom have undergone incredible amounts of persecution — will feel comfortable collaborating with governments.
Ahead of its launch next year, LEAD is focused on gaining support from the governments of Colombia and Brazil, which are the hosts of the 2024 United Nations Biodiversity Conference COP16 and UNFCCC COP30, respectively.
"It is crucial that we, environmental defenders, have active and meaningful participation in all climate-related decision-making processes,” says Claudelice dos Santos, Environmental Defender from Pará, Brazil, and Coordinator of Instituto Zé Cláudio e Maria. “We need full support from civil society, the media, the government, and other sectors to build an international space where dialogue between different actors is possible, promoting the recognition, protection, and participation of environmental defenders in the context of climate change. Without our presence at the discussion tables, there will be no climate justice or just energy transition."
To help drive the impact of LEAD forward ahead of these important checkpoints, Global Citizens everywhere can take action to support EHRDs.
Inform your governments of the importance of defenders’ voices in multilateral climate and environment spaces, and recognize that defenders’ participation is not only crucial to ensure their protection, but also to provide the world with the much-needed solutions to climate change and environmental degradation. Further, you can continue taking action with Global Citizen to advocate for open civic space to ensure everyone has the ability to participate and voice their opinions free from fear of persecution.