According to the latest Front Line Defenders report, published in early January 2018, 312 human and environmental rights defenders were murdered, in 27 different countries in 2017. More than two-thirds of them defended indigenous land and environmental rights, and almost always pertaining to the extractive industry and large companies’ megaprojects. Despite this violence, there are more defenders (of different rights) than ever before in a growing number of countries. It is worth noting that 80% of the deaths occurred in only four countries: Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, and the Philippines.

Conflicts almost always break out when the extractive, agricultural, or tourist (ecotourism often being fictitious) industries’ megaprojects as well as other large companies’ projects are involved. For activists, these conflicts are about defending land and the rights that indigenous peoples have over them. In the best-case scenarios, governments and security forces simply ignore the threats and attacks that human rights defenders receive. However, in the worst-case scenarios, those same security forces are the ones responsible for the defenders’ slaughter. 

The majority of foreign investors and their parent companies, whose funds and support have contributed to the undertaking of such projects, do not acknowledge the rights of local communities nor do they make the time to consult them in the project-planning phase, even when they are legally obliged to, which increases the risk of conflict. 

Killers’ impunity and the diversification of threats

Front Line Defenders estimates that more than 3,500 defenders have been murdered since the inception of the UN’s Declaration on human rights defenders, signed in 1998, making their protection a priority.

 Less than 12% of the murders have resulted in arrests. The impunity of the acts of violence against human and environmental rights defenders as well as their chronic lack of protection when recognized threats are detected encourages the violence, said Front Line Defenders. From amongst the data collected on threats, 84% of the murdered defenders received at least a death threat before their murder. The weak reaction received from governments and the international community does not give, at least in the short-term, hope for a change.

Human and environmental rights defenders risk their lives because they challenge dictators, destructive corporations, religious conservatives, and oppressive regimes that orchestrate and organize defamation, criminalization, and violence strategies with the intent to intimidate, marginalize, and silence these peaceful activists.

Some good news after all

A new era appears to have begun in Gambia following the elections at the end of 2016 in which Barrow Adam came to power. The nation’s human and environmental rights defenders say that, after Yahya Jammeh’s 23 years of authoritarian rule, the new president has greatly increased the freedom of expression.

Another sign of hope is that in January a Canadian Court of Appeals allowed a group of seven Guatemalan human and environmental rights defenders to bring an action against Tahoe Resources, a Canadian mining company that had violently suppressed a peaceful demonstration against the Escobal silver mine. Setting this precedent could force Canadian mining companies to improve their human rights standards, especially when it comes to respecting those who protest against mining’s destructive impact.

Uzbekistan, one of the most oppressive countries in Asia, has announced the forthcoming release of multiple human and environmental rights defenders who have spent many years imprisoned. Azam Farmonov, Ganihon Mamathanov, and Salizhon Abdurajmanov have already been set free whilst journalist Jamshid Karimov has been prepped for release from a psychiatric prison.

Another positive step can be seen in the Uzbek government since it has invited the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights to visit the nation in May, after years of international isolation. Invitations have also been sent out to representatives from international NGOs. Despite these promising developments, more journalists were detained at the end of 2017.

On the other hand, there was another murder in Peru. The Guardian reports that, on the night of December 30^th, 2017, 50-year old José Napoleón Tarrillo Astonitas was attacked by four men in his home. His wife, Flor Vallejos, told police that they had tied his hands and feet, hit him with sticks, and strangled him with an electrical cord. Despite being covered with a blanket, she was forced to hear it all. On a national radio station, Mrs. Vallejos stated that the assailants told her that they had been paid to kill her husband. A local police chief stated that an investigation regarding the murder had been opened and that the killers were being searched for.

His nickname was Napo, and he was against dealers who had taken possession of some parts the Chaparrí Ecological Reserve, which they had deforested and then replanted with crops. The reserve is rich with rare wildlife, including the spectacled bear, which looks like Paddington the bear. Vallejos said that her husband had received death threats from members of their community because of his opposition to the deforestation and destruction of the reserve. “He was threatened once more two days before his death,” said Juan Carrasco, a member of the agricultural community of Muchik Santa Catalina in Chongoyape, in northern Peru’s Lambayeque region. “However, he was a brave man who never lost his temper. He used to say that we had to organize our own patrol in order to drive out the invaders because “the authorities would not do anything!””