Stand For Our Rights: A capacity building activity for environmental human rights defenders in the Pacific

March 11, 2022

Stand For Our Rights:  A capacity building activity for environmental human rights defenders in the Pacific

16 – 18 March 2022, 2:00 – 4:30 PM (GMT+12 Fiji) | Zoom

The vibrant islands in the Pacific have long been facing environmental stresses due to so-called development projects such as mining (from terrestrial to deep sea) and logging, among others. These have greatly affected people’s livelihoods, homes and culture. In the face of the climate emergency, this is unacceptable especially to vulnerable island communities.

In addition, EHRDs in the Pacific themselves are faced with various security risks because of their advocacy. There are reported cases of repression of peaceful assembly and freedom of expression in different countries. Moreover, West Papuans are suffering from indiscriminate violence from the Indonesian government.

Despite these challenges, environmental human rights defenders (EHRDs) have braved these challenges and gained significant victories such as the ten-year moratorium of deep sea mining.

EHRDs are at the forefront of protecting the environment and upholding our right to a safe, clean and healthy environment. It is therefore imperative to harness their existing knowledge and skills and hone capacities, and to strengthen solidarity towards collective action to achieve positive change.

It is in this light that the Asia Pacific Network of Environment Defenders (APNED) with the support of United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), Pacific Regional Office and in partnership with other organizations in the Pacific will conduct Stand For Our Rights: A capacity building activity for environmental human rights defenders in the Pacific on 16 – 18 March 2022, 2:00 – 4:30 PM (GMT+12 Fiji) / 11:00AM – 1:30PM (GMT+9 West Papua) / 1:00-3:30PM (GMT+11 Solomon Islands).

 

Objectives

  1. For EHRDs in the Pacific to share their experiences as the foundation to strengthen solidarity across the region;
  2. To have an exchange of knowledge and successful practices that can help to improve the advocacy work of the participants;
  3. To share introductory knowledge on international human rights mechanisms, monitoring and documentation of human rights violations, free, prior and informed consent, and launching environmental defenders campaigns; and
  4. To develop recommendations or initial plans on potential collaborative initiatives among Pacific EHRD

 

Conduct of the Activity

The capacity development will take place on 16 – 18 March 2022 (2:00-4:30 PM, Fiji time). The first day (16 March) will be a webinar / online forum on urgent issues and concerns related to the environment and its defenders in the Pacific. This event is open to the public.

The second and third day (17-18 March) will be the training proper which will include inputs and workshops via Zoom online platform. These sessions are for registered and participants only (maximum of 2-3 per organization).

 

Instruction for Registration

The platform for the training will be Zoom Meeting. To access the activities, you register in the following links. Please note that there are separate links per day.

For questions, you may reach us via email at info@apned.net or apned@protonmail.com

 

Program

March 16 Online Forum Topics

  • Black Sand Mining
  • West Papua Right to Self-Determination
  • Nuclear Pollution
  • Deep Sea Mining
  • Sea Level Rise and Climate Change

March 17 Training Sessions

  • Session 1: United Nations human rights mechanisms
  • Session 2: Intersections of environmental human rights, EHRDs and gender issues
  • Session 3: Monitoring and documentation

March 18 Training Sessions

  • Session 4: Free, prior and informed consent (FPIC)
  • Session 5: Launching environmental defenders’ campaigns

Download the full concept note and program here