Environmental Defenders Are Being Murdered at an Unprecedented Rate, Says UN Special Rapporteur / newsecuritybeat.org

24.12.16

Environmental Defenders Are Being Murdered at an Unprecedented Rate, Says UN Special Rapporteur / newsecuritybeat.org: “I am extremely appalled by the number of killings and attacks and the lack of response from states,” writes the special rapporteur, Michel Forst, who was given his mandate to investigate the issue by the United Nations Human Rights Council. “This report is dedicated to the heroic activists who have braved the dangers facing them and defended the rights of their communities to a safe and healthy environment… They spoke truth to power, and were murdered in cold blood.”

Latin America and Asia are the hotspots for increased environmental human rights violence, where industries like mining, deforestation, and palm oil cultivation are taking a toll on the land and people. Land and resource rights in many hotspots are highly contested, especially concerning ancestral lands and the rights of indigenous populations, and there are few legal protections that can be counted on. The report finds that in almost every Latin American country where such abuses are present, government and corporate actors were involved.