Human Rights Online Philippines

The new UN Climate Report and Environmental Defenders | UN Special Rapporteur on HRDs

The report by the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change which came out earlier this week warns of imminent climate catastrophe. Major atmospheric and climatic changes are already underway.

People have caused climate change, and must now bring it to a halt through radical changes in our behaviour and attitudes. And yet it’s the defenders of our environment who are often forced to risk their lives to advocate for increased environmental protection.

Environmental human rights defenders are ordinary people who defend the environment and the human rights associated with it. They defend their communities from deforestation, they advocate against pollution of water supplies by big business, they reveal corruption networks for the granting of illegal mining licenses, and they advocate for clean breathable air.

In March, I presented a report to the Human Rights Council on threats and killings of Human Rights Defenders. The report found that environmental defenders were among those most at risk. The NGO Global Witness reported that 2019 was the most dangerous year on record for environmental human rights defenders, documenting 212 killings of land and environmental defenders. The same year, Front Line Defenders recorded a total of 319 killings of human rights defenders involved in the defense of all rights.

Read the full article @ the link below

The new UN Climate Report and Environmental Defenders

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