[UNITY STATEMENT] Environmental Defenders Across Asia-Pacific Unite On International Human Rights Day 2024 to Fight Judicial Harassment and Militarization

December 10, 2024

Environmental Defenders Across Asia-Pacific Unite On International Human Rights Day 2024 to Fight Judicial Harassment and Militarization

Unity Statement of Asia Pacific Network of Environmental Defenders (APNED) Members and Partners

December 10, 2024

Today, on International Human Rights Day 2024, we environmental human rights defenders and concerned civil society have come together to firmly call: STAND WITH ENVIRONMENTAL HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDERS! FIGHT JUDICIAL HARASSMENT AND MILITARIZATION! 

Seventy-six years after the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was adopted in response to the devastation of World War II, this “living document” has inspired nearly 60 human rights instruments, all contributing to the current body of international human rights law which have advanced global efforts for education, employment, healthcare, and the human rights of all.

But despite the adoption and recognition of fundamental human rights, truly achieving and upholding them remains a challenge. As the climate crisis intensifies, people worldwide face increasing threats not only to their livelihoods but to their survival and the future of succeeding generations. Large-scale projects such as large-scale mining, reclamation, mega-dams, and industrial plantations have also plundered and destroyed entire ecosystems, undermining people’s rights to life, food, clean air and water, a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment, among other basic rights. Worse, corporate interests and foreign investments have caused development aggression in the name of economic development, displacing marginalized and Indigenous communities and enabling the killings, arbitrary arrests, and criminalization of those who oppose these projects.

Environmental human rights defenders (EHRDs), or individuals or groups that strive to protect and promote human rights relating to the environment, are on the frontlines of our collective survival and yet are themselves increasingly under attack. From 2012 to 2023, 2,106 defenders were killed with 352 of them coming from Asia and the Pacific1. Violations of EHRDs’ civil and political rights are widespread across the region, as their critical work in interrogating environmentally destructive projects or mobilizing communities to learn of and defend their environmental rights are too often suppressed by authoritarian regimes through judicial harassment, or the use of the legal and/ or judicial system to silence and intimidate critics. Judicial harassment was the most commonly recorded violation against human rights defenders in Asia in 2021 and 20222.  This judicial harassment not only attacks the rights of defenders, but also the communities which they advocate and safeguard. 

Communities targeted by development aggression, such as in the form of the expansion for large-scale mining for minerals for the “just” energy transition, or mega-dams that are recklessly funded by international financial institutions, are too often accompanied by militarization by state security forces.  Militarization undermines and violates communities’ exercise of democratic rights. Through various wars of aggression waged for control and use of natural resources around the globe, the military has also contributed about 5.5% of world’s global greenhouse emissions3. We stand in solidarity with all peoples reeling from and struggling against the heavy environmental and social costs of war, armed conflict, and militarization, from Palestine to Myanmar. The culture of impunity and the lack of accountability of world leaders in enabling these attacks on EHRDs and communities must be addressed. 

Jointly, judicial harassment and militarization represent top threats to the economic, social, and cultural rights as well as the civil and political rights of EHRDs and the broader populations of Asia and Pacific. To protect the rights everyone is entitled to, it is crucial to acknowledge that escalating global environmental issues are deeply intertwined with the numerous human rights violations. Addressing this requires holding states and corporations accountable for fueling the relentless exploitation of natural resources for profit above people and planet and weaponizing legal systems and the military in doing so. Exposing and opposing these linkages, which occur and are perpetuated by neoliberal frameworks of power and economy, must be done alongside marginalized and climate-vulnerable communities.

We, the undersigned civil society and defender organizations, unite and stand in solidarity with all peoples of Asia and the Pacific who continue to face the denial of their human rights. We honor the resilience and tireless efforts of the environmental and human rights defenders who risk their lives on the frontlines to protect the rights of all and safeguard the future of our people and planet. We join the calls of all other EHRDs for the following:

  1. Justice for all the extra-judicial killings, judicial harassment, and other attacks on EHRDs in their defense of land, water, and life,
  2. Proper recognition and protection for EHRDs in international, regional, and national policies, upholding a safe and enabling environment for their work, such as through the adoption of a genuine and robust ASEAN Declaration on Environmental Rights and local legislation,
  3. Support EHRDs and environmental movements in promoting and strengthening human rights and environmental rights for local communities and vulnerable groups, in order to safeguard a safe, livable, and sustainable future.

We celebrate International Human Rights Day 2024 in joyful recognition of all that environmental human rights defenders have achieved, and in enthusiastic dedication towards defending our defenders and joining their struggle for the enjoyment of human rights for all.

 

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Signed by: (As of December 16, 11:00am) 25 local, national, and regional organizations, 13 individuals

 

Organizations

  1. Youth Advocates for Climate Action Philippines
  2. Society for Peace and Sustainable Development, Pakistan
  3. National Coalition For Education (NCE), India
  4. Inisiasi Masyarakat Adat (IMA), Indonesia
  5. Humanitarian Enhancement Aid for Resilient Transformation-HEART, Bangladesh
  6. Homonhon Environmental Advocates & Rights Defenders (HEARD), Philippines
  7. Forum Petani Plasma Buol (Buol Plasma Peasants Forum), Indonesia
  8. Community Development Trust, India
  9. JusticeMakers Bangladesh in France (JMBF)
  10. Kalikasan People’s Network for the Environment, Philippines
  11. AKKMA National Coalition PILIPINAS, Philippines
  12. Centre for Research and Advocacy Manipur, India
  13. National Indigenous Women Forum, Nepal
  14. Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development (FORUM-ASIA), Regional
  15. Lembaga studi dan bantuan hukum Nusa Tenggara Barat, Indonesia
  16. Oyu Tolgoi Watch, Mongolia
  17. Palangkaraya Ecological and Human Rights Studies (PROGRESS), Indonesia
  18. Borok Peoples Human Rights Organization, India
  19. Ponlok Khmer Organization, Cambodia
  20. Mother Nature Cambodia
  21. Center for Environmental Concerns – Philippines
  22. International Rivers
  23. PA “Bir Duino-Kyrgyzstan”
  24. Ecoton Foundation, Indonesia
  • 1 organization requested to stay anonymous

Individuals

  1. Tak Tamang 
  2. Martha Patty
  3. Jobair Mahmud 
  4. Tirtha Prasad Saikia 
  5. Taslima Akter
  6. Resi Falu
  7. Tala Batangan
  8. Kevin Christopher Cordoviz
  9. Harry Sandy Ame
  10. Tanya Lee Roberts Davis
  11. Sabina Sabic
  12. Deepti Karan Weiss 
  13. Saowalak Jingjungvisut

#InternationalHumanRightsDay2024 #UpholdHumanRights #DefendTheDefenders #EHRDs

References

[1]  Global Witness. (2024). Missing voices. https://www.globalwitness.org/en/campaigns/environmental-activists/missing-voices/

[2] FORUM-ASIA. (2023). Defending in Numbers 2021-2022. https://forum-asia.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/Defending-in-Numbers-Rising-Together-Against-All-Odds-com.pdf

[3] Scientists for Global Responsibility and the Conflict and Environment Observatory. (2022). Estimating the Military’s Global Greenhouse Gas Emissions. https://ceobs.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/SGRCEOBS-Estimating_Global_MIlitary_GHG_Emissions_Nov22_rev.pdf

SIGN ON: https://tinyurl.com/DefendTheDefendersIHRD2024