Hans Thoolen on Human Rights Defenders and their awards

Indigenous women march in Puyo, Ecuador on March 8, 2018. Photo by Kimberley Brown/Mongabay.

Billy Kyte, head of campaigns for Global Witness, told Mongabay that while the numbers were still being finalized, the death toll in 2018 was lower than in 2017. “Although we are still awaiting verification of cases from in-country partners such as in Guatemala, Colombia, Brazil and Honduras, we’re confident to say there was a marked decrease in land and environmental defender killings this year according to our data,” Kyte said. The data show the Philippines and Brazil had the highest number of killings in 2018. India and Guatemala experienced significant increases, while Mexico also recorded an increase. Honduras was one country that reported a large drop in the number of killings.

In fact, 2018 concluded with a court in Honduras convicting seven men of the murder of Cáceres, who received the Goldman Prize for environmental defenders in 2015. … Kyte welcomed the convictions in the high-profile case as striking a blow against the culture of impunity. “Although real justice has not yet been served, given those who ordered her killing are still at large, a trial of this significance is almost unheard of and should make governments and business think twice in the future before attacking defenders,” he said. [see also: https://humanrightsdefenders.blog/tag/berta-caceres/]……

The troubling landscape for environmental defenders comes alongside an all-time highin tropical forest loss over the past two years. A growing body of evidence highlights the importance of indigenous peoples and other local communities in forest conservation, according to a report co-authored by the United Nations’ special rapporteur for indigenous rights, Victoria Tauli-Corpuz.

Victoria Tauli-Corpuz, a UN special rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples, speaks as part of a panel in Geneva in 2015. Photo courtesy of UN Geneva/Flickr.

“The rate of tree cover loss is less than half in community and indigenous lands compared to elsewhere. Where community rights to own their lands are legally recognized, the difference is even greater,” Tauli-Corpuz said in a letter written for the report. “World leaders have a powerful solution on the table to save forests and protect the planet: recognize and support the world’s indigenous peoples,” she added. “We have stood as a proven solution to climate change for generations. Recognize our rights, and we can continue to do so for generations to come.”

Yet even Tauli-Corpuz was included on a list of some 600 people that the governmentof her native Philippines wanted declared as terrorists. .. The Philippine government has since dropped Tauli-Corpuz from the list, but U.N. experts are “still deeply concerned about the continued naming of many others, including human rights defenders, in the petition, as this tags them as terrorists.” [see also: https://humanrightsdefenders.blog/2018/03/17/meet-some-of-the-women-human-rights-defenders-on-dutertes-list-of-500/]…….

In Brazil, the election of far-right politician Jair Bolsonaro as president has caused alarm among environmentalists who support indigenous land defenders in the Amazon. Bolsonaro campaigned on opening up the Amazon for increased economic exploitation, especially mining, including indigenous territories and quilombolatraditional lands.

A large notice placed during a Munduruku mining monitoring trip in Brazil in March of this year. It reads: “Mother Earth we respect you. Munduruku territory.” Image courtesy of Movimento Munduruku Ipereg Ayu.

In a campaign speech last year, Bolsonaro declared: “Where there is an indigenous land, there is a wealth beneath it … If it depends on me, every citizen will have a firearm at home [to defend their property, and] there won’t be one centimeter demarcated for indigenous reserves or quilombolas.” Brazil’s environmental defenders are preparing for the worst. For example, violence could erupt in the north of Brazil and part of the Amazon in Roraima state. Rural landowners, who helped elect Bolsonaro to office, have argued that an indigenous reserve there occupies too much territory. Spanning 17,430 square kilometers (6,730 square miles), the Raposa Serra do Sol reserve is home to some 17,000 indigenous people of various ethnicities. Already, part of the reserve has been invaded by non-indigenous rice farmers.

Conservationists and journalists

Five conservation researchers in Iran were accused by the government there of spying, and could face the death penalty if convicted, according to multiple media reports. The researchers were monitoring animals such as Asiatic cheetahs (Acinonyx jubatus venaticus) using camera traps. The country’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps alleged that the team used the setup to collect information on Iran’s missile program.

In Indonesia, journalist Muhammad Yusuf died of a reported heart attack while being held on charges of defaming a palm oil company owned by a powerful tycoon. The Indonesian human rights commission plans to investigate his death….