UN treaty urgently needed for human rights defenders, says new report

GENEVA (SWITZERLAND) 10 June 2014 – Defenders of the environment often face terrible consequences for their actions, suffering rights violations and violence, according to a new report by Friends of the Earth International to be released on June 26, during the 26th Session of the U.N. Human Rights Council on June 10-27. [1]

“A new case of violence against environmental rights defenders and violations of their rights is reported to us on average once a week, and this is just the tip of the iceberg,” said Lucia Ortiz, Friends of the Earth International Economic Justice International Program Coordinator.

Friends of the Earth International recorded more than 100 incidents of violence against environmental rights defenders and violations of their rights in 27 countries around the world in the period November 2011 – October 2013, according to the report.

More than half of the killings recorded by Friends of the Earth International between November 2011 and October 2013 were targeted assassinations of peasant leaders and deaths of peasants during violent confrontations regarding land disputes, often involving the protection of peasant territories from polluting development projects such as hydroelectric dams, monoculture plantations or the extraction of oil, gas and minerals.

The new report calls on the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) to create an international treaty to address corporate human rights violations. [2]

“Environmental defenders who uphold the right of communities to determine their own development path in opposition to corporate-driven mega projects are subject to many types of human rights abuses, often committed by corporations or on their behalf” said Lucia Ortiz, Friends of the Earth International Economic Justice International Program Coordinator.

Friends of the Earth International is part of the Treaty Alliance, an alliance determined to stop corporate human rights violations, and wants UNHRC member States to support a resolution to ensure a legally binding system to bring corporates to justice for human rights violations, as well as remedies and justice for affected people. [3]

“We urgently need an international treaty to address corporate human rights violations. By recognising environmental activism in all its expressions as legitimate defence of human rights, we can contribute to the struggle of environmental rights defenders and keep them safe,” said Alberto Villarreal, Friends of the Earth Uruguay trade and investment campaigner.

The following environmental defenders will be in Geneva on June 23-27:

1) Micaela Antonio Gonzalez from Guatemala and Victor Barro from Friends of the Earth Spain will expose the human rights violations by Spanish company Hidralia in Guatemala.

2) Abeer Al Butmah from Friends of the Earth Palestine will expose the human rights violations by Israeli water company Mekorot in Palestine.

3) Godwin Ojo from Friends of the Earth Nigeria and Paul de Clerck from Friends of the Earth Europe will expose the human rights violations by oil giant Royal Dutch Shell in the Niger Delta.

4) Alberto Villarreal will expose the violations of the human right to health posed by the Philip Morris International challenge to the tobacco control legislation in Uruguay.

Friends of the Earth International is critical of ‘voluntary mechanisms’ such as the Global Compact and Ruggie’s UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights and believes they have not reduced attacks on human rights defenders and are thus insufficient to protect human rights.

FOR MORE INFORMATION

Lucia Ortiz, Economic Justice International Program Coordinator, Friends of the Earth International

Alberto Villarreal, Friends of the Earth Uruguay trade and investment campaigner

NOTES TO EDITORS

[1] Report: ‘We defend the environment, we defend human rights’

[2] On May 7, 2014, a global alliance of civil society organizations known as the Treaty Alliance representing more than 500 groups called on UN Human Rights Council members to support an initiative in June that would begin a process towards creating an international legally binding treaty to address corporate human rights violations. More information here.

[3] A regulatory and enforcement framework that is legally binding for corporations has been proposed at the UNHRC by a group of 84 nations since September 2013, and it is a historical demand by Human Rights movements as well as Friends of the Earth International.