Criminalizing Environmental Activism | NACLA

5.10.17

Criminalizing Environmental Activism | NACLA: Judicial system harassment attempts to intimidate EHRDs into silence. Such criminalization transforms activism into crime to avoid bloodier tactics that tend to generate greater sympathy and public outcry. Its effectiveness as a tool to silence activists is twofold: not only does it hinder their work because of the time, energy, and financial resources they must dedicate to legal defense but it also stigmatizes and alienates them from support networks.

The most obvious form of criminalization is enforcement of criminal penalties for actions that at most warrant administrative sanction. It can also include limits and restrictions on social protest and individual and collective peaceful resistance; arbitrary detention; specious prosecutions on criminal, civil, or administrative charges; unduly elevated charges; preemptive measures like pretrial detention; lack of due process guarantees; and defamation and stigmatization by public officials.