The Forest Defenders Conference, organized by the Earth Rights International and Not One More, in August 2018 in Chiang Mai, Thailand, brought together environmental defenders, non-governmental organizations, media representatives, academics and inter-governmental organizations to learn about the challenges and security needs of environmental defenders in Southeast Asia, in their bid to fight for environmental rights.
The meeting assembled approximately 60 participants from Southeast Asia and across the world, who recognized the importance of having an Environmental Defenders Declaration, which will give recognition to the importance of environmental defenders and indigenous people in protecting land, forests, and water, and the disproportionate impact of unsustainable development on women and other groups such as disabled people. The Declaration will also be a tool to publicly denounce the high level of killings and criminalization of environmental defenders across the region.
The Environmental Defenders Declaration welcomes new initiatives to support and protect environmental defenders, as well as increasing attention on environmental defenders from the international media, governments, inter-governmental bodies and civil society organizations. The Declaration expresses concerns about the lack of regional or global binding mechanisms to protect environmental defenders in the region and the lack of implementation of international safeguards and standards.
The Declaration will be a good opportunity to strengthen awareness on threats and challenges faced by environmental defenders among states, inter-governmental organizations and companies (including construction companies, banks and insurance companies).
UN Environment, through its Environmental Rights Initiative, will engage governments to strengthen their institutional capacities to develop and implement policies that protect environmental rights and assist businesses to better understand what their environmental rights are.
For more information, please contact Emeline.Pluchon[at]un.org / Niamh.Brannigan[at]un.org / Catherine.Abuto[at]un.org
