Tag: #EndMilitarisation

We strongly condemn the killings last April 19 in Barangay Salamanca, Toboso, Negros Occidental, Philippines, perpetrated by the 79th Infantry Battalion of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP). Reports from the ground point to yet another series of violations of international humanitarian law by state forces in communities already persisting through waves of various land and environmental issues.

As we commemorate this year’s International Human Rights Day, the Asia Pacific Network of Environmental Defenders calls on everyone to take notice and act against militarism as one of the grave threats we environmental defenders continue to face. All too often, when environmental human rights defenders (EHRDs) face reprisals, it comes from the state’s own forces protecting the interests of extractive business groups like mining, agribusiness, logging, and many similar ventures. EHRDs not only face intimidation, harassment, and surveillance but also face killings and abductions.

The Asia Pacific is scourged by destructive resource extraction and exploitation by mining companies, agribusiness, aggressive infrastructure development, and other forms of wasteful and unsustainable industry, perpetrated by corporations that put their interests and profits over rights, lives, and communities. We have also seen that where these pillagers operate, they are most often protected by the state – the very entity that we expect to regulate and restrict their destructive behavior.