Protecting our planet
228 land and environmental defenders were killed worldwide in 2020, an increase from 212 in 2019. More than two thirds of these took place in Latin America, with 64 murders taking place in Colombia.
PBI provides tailored protection and support to environmental defenders as part of our commitment to protect the planet. We believe that respect for environmental rights can only be achieved when earth defenders are protected from violent attacks and shielded from risks they face protecting local ecosystems.
Those who defend precious resources like water, clean soil, and land are at the frontline of environmental conservation. They must be empowered and able to continue their work in secure conditions, without fear of losing their lives. At the 40th session of the Human Rights Council the UN passed a resolution recognising the contribution of environmental human rights defenders to strengthening the rule of law and sustainable development.
Pro bono spotlight
The Amerisur case
Defending land rights in Guatemala
Ecology and epidemiology
As the COVID-19 pandemic develops, the work of environmental defenders should be seen within a broader context of human survival. The defence of environmental rights are intimately connected to the current crisis.
Critically, the destruction of untouched forests in the interests of logging, mining or even renewable energy brings people into contact with animal species for the first time. Environmental defenders have been fighting tooth and nail to prevent extractive industries from accelerating these processes, risking the lives of themselves and their families.
Sanitation
Just as rights to water and sanitation were declared an essential component of an adequate standard of living by the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, so has the WHO announced that safe water and hygienic conditions are essential to mitigating the COVID-19 outbreak.
Human-to-human transmission could be prevented through well maintained water and wastewater infrastructure, but in many communities around the world these have been decimated by development projects and polluting industries. By fighting for rights to local resources, human rights defenders have been safeguarding the lives of generations to come.
The urban settlements of Nairobi have severely limited waste management infrastructure
PBI Field volunteer with Honduran family
Green partnerships
Grassroots non-violent resistance from brave individuals and organisations is incredibly effective at protecting people and the planet. PBI works to minimise the risks they face so that their activism can thrive. We need your help to keep them alive and make them stronger.
We provide moral and technical support so that they never stand alone. This involves training and capacity building to ensure defenders are equipped to document, monitory and expose corporate abuses. We focus on improving the security of environmental defenders, and empowering those on the cutting-edge of the global fight for justice, peace, and a sustainable future. Polluting industrial practices like mining, logging, and agribusiness further the social injustices and inequalities that render communities and whole nations more vulnerable to the impacts of the current pandemic and other crises.
At PBI UK we stand by the side of environmental rights defenders and offer them the political protection and support they need to protect Mother Earth. With our pro bono partner Simmons & Simmons, we have developed a range of legal capacity building resources to support them at a time when international solidarity is more important than ever.
UN Human Rights Council
Business and Human Rights
We have focused our support on amplifying the voices of these environmental defenders to ensure they are able to continue protecting our planet. Our combined strategic advocacy, capacity building and awareness raising initiatives is keeping defenders alive and contributing to build their resilience.
In July 2020 PBI UK helped to draft civil society recommendations to the UK, seeking commitments and to uphold universal human rights as they sought re-election to the UN Human Rights Council. Several recommendations have a business and human rights focus including bringing in legislation that enshrines mandatory human rights due diligence and a corporate duty to prevent adverse human rights and environmental impacts.
Defenders in Development
PBI is an active member of the Defenders in Development Campaign within the Coalition for Human Rights in Development. In 2019 the campaign launched the Uncalculated Risks report at an event organised by PBI at the UN Forum on Business and Human Rights.
It called for the international community to take concrete actions to prevent attacks against environmental defenders who put their lives at risk to protect those affected by business activities.
After advocating for the World Bank to commit not to tolerate reprisals and retaliation against those speaking up in the context of its projects and operations and on 10 April 2020, the Bank published a statement expressing this commitment.
Peace Community member Carlos Morales
Pro bono spotlight
Simmons & Simmons toolbox for human rights defenders
We have been working with Simmons & Simmons since 2018 on a project aiming to strengthen the capacity of defenders to document, report and expose such human rights violations carried out by corporations.
We sought to empower them to expose breaches of international human rights standards, hold governments and businesses to account, and guarantee access to justice for the most vulnerable members of their communities.
In consultation with human rights defenders and PBI UK, Simmons & Simmons identified an urgent need for a set of tools to be developed to assist human rights defenders. By equipping them to become watchdogs of corporate abuse our project aims to promote contributing to a culture of respect for human rights and responsible business practices.
“We love what you are achieving with PBI, and are really bowled over by (a) how important the work is, and (b) how much you achieve with the very effective and totally unique toolbox”
- Cassandra Wiener at Treebeard trust
Susi Bascon with Simmons & Simmons pro bono partner Richard Dyton and pro bono manager Victoria Channing (left to right)
“We needed to understand the perspective of defenders themselves."
- Victoria Channing
The Toolbox
The human rights defenders toolbox comprises a range of legal fact sheets designed to inform and assist human rights defenders in their struggles to uphold the rule of law in the face of corporate aggression. The fact sheets focus on the obligations of companies to respect human rights, as set out in the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights.
They include specific recommendations for human rights defenders regarding ways of addressing corporate abuse, documenting violations and seeking redress for their communities. The project seeks to address the fact that, despite the existence of these principles, gaps in their implementation mean that human rights defenders confronting corporate interests still face escalating violence.
Environmental lawyer Donald Hernandez
“The toolbox has for two years enabled us to familiarise ourselves with the topic and begin to look for relationships with the rest of civil society.”
- Donald Hernandez,
Adverse practices
Key human rights adverse practices we documented by corporates and shared with Simmons & Simmons lawyers ranged from
forced eviction and displacement of communities
environmental degradation
violence against peaceful protest
an increase in the criminalization of HRDs exposing human rights adverse business practices
the use of private security forces by companies to intimidate communities and protect their operations
the increasing use of defamation campaigns against communities exposing environmental damage.
PBI Field volunteer speaking to Honduran land rights defenders
Screenshot of our Human Rights Defenders Toolbox Training Webinar
Dissemination
In 2019, the toolbox was nominated for the Law Society Excellence Award. In 2020 Simmons & Simmons and PBI UK jointly hosted a series of webinars and training tools on topics of interest from the fact sheets identified by defenders. These reached 106 human rights defenders and members of the legal and humanitarian communities from across 17 countries.
We continue to roll out the toolbox to pilot countries Colombia and Honduras, and Simmons & Simmons have updated them to match shifting standards of international law as part of our ongoing partnership.
We were also invited to share the toolbox on the illustrious Human Rights in Context podcast. We spoke about the toolbox itself, and the importance of pro bono partnerships in the promotion of human rights. The first podcast discussed the duties for companies to respect human rights and explore the Toolbox that builds on the obligations of companies to respect human rights, as set out in the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs). The second considered the importance of pro bono relationships between human rights organisations and lawyers, and how these partnerships can work to benefit human rights.
“You want the parties that are potentially abusing human rights to know that there is some support from international law firms to rebut whatever is being alleged.”
- Richard Dyton
Defending land rights in Guatemala
CCCND members with PBI field volunteer
Meet the CCCND
The Ch’ortí are a Mayan people who have lived for centuries in what is now Eastern Guatemala and Northern Honduras.
While the Ch’ortí once occupied a large share of the region, wars, plundering, and evictions have restricted the area they now occupy. Their right to territory was denied during the 1900s with the creation of the municipality structure and again in 2000 with the creation of the National Land Registry.
The New Day Ch’ortí Campesino Central Coordinator (CCCND) have spearheaded the campaign to reclaim their ancestral lands, and in 2015 filed an appeal to the Constitutional Court demanding co-ownership. The CCCND work in Chiquimula department providing support and legal representation to local communities campaigning on issues related to land, environmental, and cultural rights.
CCCND members with PBI field volunteer
Threats they face
Due to their work defending human rights, CCCND members have suffered numerous aggressions including attacks, death threats, illegal surveillance and acts of intimidation. The situation has become deeply worrying, with spokesman Omar Jerónimo and other prominent figures in the organisation increasingly warned of assassination plots against them.
In addition, the organization continues to denounce a campaign of criminalization against it. Numerous CCCND members have had to respond in court to repeated accusations, mainly from the Chiquimula state prosecutor, after complaints filed by private parties and local public authorities in relation to their human rights work in the region’s communities. CCCND members Agustín García and Timoteo Suchite, members of the Indigenous Council of the community of Las Flores, were sentenced in May 2014 to 6 years in prison. The CCCND has denounced the lack of a proper investigation, due process and the failure to guarantee their rights.
Our work
PBI has been accompanying CCCND since 2009, following initial reports of threats and harassment of its members.
Our protective accompaniment strategy includes risk assessments, documentation of violations, and engagement with influential stakeholders such as pro bono legal experts to ensure their safety. Omar Jeronimo (coordinator of the CCCND) says: ‘accompaniment in Guatemala saves lives’.
Over the past year our work has focused on developing the capacity of criminalised land and environmental rights defenders in Guatemala impacted by adverse corporate human rights practices’. This has included the development and production of training materials and tailored popular bulletins for grassroots defenders and communities affected by criminalisation in the context of business and human rights abuses, based on the Simmons & Simmons Human Rights Defenders Toolbox and UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights.
The popular bulletins have reached at least 2000 indigenous people from communities with low literacy levels and no access to internet who are impacted by negative human rights practices by corporates. They are vital tools for communities to understand their rights and how to claim them, and the obligations of corporations under the UN Guiding principles.
Concurrently, we have advocated on behalf of those impacted by adverse corporate human rights practices in the country. More broadly, we have been raising awareness of criminalized defenders, and the need for compliance by corporations with the UN standards including the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights.
Judgement in support of indigenous communities
Direct impact of our work can be seen in our major victory for indigenous communities fighting to gain recognition of their rights and protect their community from extractive projects.
On July 27 2020, the Guatemalan Constitutional Court resolved the final appeal in the Indigenous Ch’ortí land case, recognising the right to ancestral and community lands in the municipality of Jocotán, Chiquimula.
It held that joint ownership of the 240 square kilometers of indigenous territory once again belongs to the Maya Ch’ortí people, and implied that the municipality must coordinate with the indigenous council for land administration. This is a major victory for the indigenous communities who have fought for years to gain recognition of their rights and to protect their territory from extractive projects.
This reaffirmation of their right to the land will allow them to make decisions about the use and sale of the land, particularly in the context of the installation of extractive projects without consultation. In 2007, the Bosch Gutierrez family’s Tres Niñas hydroelectric plant was granted a licence for 50 years. With the ruling, this and any prospective hydroelectric projects will be cancelled.
The Amerisur Case
Legally empowering communities in Colombia
Our work linking up rural human rights defenders and leading law firms contributed to a significant freezing injunction against an oil company this year.
On the 10th of January 2020, a group of Colombian campesinos from the Putumayo region were granted an urgent interim freezing injunction by the High Court against oil company Amerisur Resources Plc - a UK company.
The injunction requires Amerisur to preserve £3 million of its UK assets, the purpose is to ensure that the claims and legal costs can be met if they succeed in their claim for environmental and health damages from the company’s activities. The injunction is linked to a High Court legal action which was instituted on behalf of the Colombians by Leigh Day on 30 December 2019 against Amerisur for allegedly polluting the waterways in the Putumayo region.
CIJP
The Claimants are members of remote communities living in southern Colombia in Putumayo who allege that over the past 10 years the rivers have become contaminated with oil and are no longer safe to use. PBI provides accompaniment to the Inter-Church Commission for Justice and Peace (CIJP) which in turn works with these local communities affected by Amerisur’s operations.
PBI UK also linked up community members and Leigh Day; in 2017 and 2019 members of CIJP including members of the affected communities came to the UK on PBI speaker tours and met with Leigh Day lawyers, resulting in the legal action.
Speaker tours
Speaking tours are a major component of PBI UK’s advocacy and awareness-raising work. By bringing defenders to the UK to speak and advocate at high-level events, we can secure public and political recognition of their work, draw attention to specific human rights concerns, and provide opportunities for defenders to speak directly to decision- and policy-makers.
The tours also demonstrate to the perpetrators of rights violations that the international community is watching them and remind them that their actions will have consequences, ensuring the physical safety of defenders and their communities.
Kenyan human rights defenders on speaker tour in December 2019
Screenshot from our first ever virtual speaker tour
Digital innovation
With in-person speaking tours on hold, PBI UK are holding virtual speaking tours, scheduling small numbers of very high impact meetings with MPs, ministers, and other NGOs. These tours are proving strategically important, as they can be organised at relatively short notice and for a small expense, and are very well attended.
In July 2020 we virtually welcomed Danilo Rueda – Colombian human rights defender and Executive Secretary of the Inter-Church Commission for Justice and Peace (CIJP) – to speak about transitional justice in Colombia, the current situation under COVID-19 restrictions, and the threats Rueda and his colleagues face daily.
Danilo
Danilo Rueda has received several death threats due to his work on the displacement of Indigenous and Afro-Colombian communities on the Colombian Pacific Coast.
Objectives of Danilo’s visit included raising awareness of the security situation in the Bajo Atrato, and strategic advocacy at political and legal fora. Since 2019, the Bajo Atrato has seen an increase in the armed conflict in the area between the Paramilitary AGC and the Guerrilla ELN.
As part of the speaker tour in July, PBI UK facilitated a meeting between Danilo Rueda and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. Danilo also took part in a virtual Parliamentary Roundtable, chaired by Chris Bryant MP, discussing the ongoing conflict in rural Colombia and the implementation of the Peace Accord.
Danilo also met with the UK legal community including lawyers from Leigh Day and Matrix chambers to explore how lawyers in the UK could help to gain access to remedy for the communities in Putumayo whom CIJP accompany and whose livelihoods have been affected by Amerisur.
Environmental lawyer Danilo Rueda
The meetings were also an opportunity for Danilo to share knowledge about the effect of the pandemic on the rule of law in Colombia. Speaking to the Colombia Caravana, he stated that the killing of social leaders under the curfew has stemmed the flow of data and evidence that lawyers rely on to make their cases. Further, the restrictions on travel have severely limited access to rural areas by the media or international NGOs, and witnesses have been completely unable to travel to court.
During his speaker tour, Rueda also highlighted the UK’s role in the Colombian state’s illegal campaigns against journalists and human rights defenders. He raised concerns around illegal intelligence gathering by the Colombian National Army, who are alleged to have unlawfully surveilled 130 individuals, including lawyers from Rueda’s organisation.
A total of ten parliamentary questions were tabled as a direct result of this speaking tour, a record for a PBI speaker tour, and conclusions were drawn as to concrete actions that could be taken by the international community.