Miguel Jimaris, the leader of Shibu Konybu, spent his life protesting the palm oil farms and other agricultural business projects in exploitation Amazon rain forests In his homeland Peru. Last spring, while attending the United Nations Conference for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders in Chile, the convincing men stormed his home, stole his property and hit the place. Guimarares returned a few days later to find “will not live” on the wall.
The United Nations Special Rapporteur on Human Rights defenders, Mary Lulp. Condemnation Peru urged to ensure the protection of Jaimaria. Although Guimaraes enjoyed international support, the attackers have not been determined.
Guimaraes is one of 6400 Activists who endured Hsing or violence to defend human rights Against the interests of companies. This is according to a new Report from the Business and Human Rights Center The civil rights defenders and civil violations attacks all over the world have witnessed over the past decade. Although the original peoples that make up 6 percent of the world’s population, they were five documented crimes in the report. They were also Most likely from killingEspecially in Brazil, the Philippines and Mexico.
Some of these attacks arise from a “set of roads” that restrict the civil space and speech and “give priority to economic profit.” He said: “Over the past ten years, we have seen a steady and sustainable pattern of attacks against people who speak against human rights, risks and effects related to business.”
People like Guimaraes Experience a wide range of harassmentIt includes Judicial intimidationPhysical violence, death threats and killing. Most of the abuse of defenders who raise concerns about the social and environmental harm that brings the industrial development of their societies and lands. (more than Three quarters of all cases include environmental defendersAnd 96 percent of the indigenous population covered in the report were Call to environmental issues and lands.
Most of these attacks are reported by local organizations that focus on documenting and collecting original cases, and the number of crimes against them may be higher. “The only reason that made us even know about a segment of the scope of attacks against defenders around the world is that the defenders themselves share this information, and they are often in great danger,” Dobson said.
Almost every industry has a case in the database maintained by the Business and Human Rights Center. The organization followed the companies, commercial associations and governments that it is believed to have Request thatOr Payand Law enforcement interferes in peaceful protest activity. In 2023, For example, the local authorities in Oxaka attacked, and were injured by members of the Union of Original Communities in the northern region of the binding who were prevented with the peace of Magoni Figo-Viccondio, which poses a threat to 12 local community in the region.
The report found that the protest against the pipeline arriving at Dakota witnessed the largest number of attacks on one project over the past decade. around 100,000
In 2016 and 2017 to oppose the pipeline, and they met with A campaign of harassment, intimidation and arrest. The energy, the company that led the project, filed a defamation lawsuit accusing the green peace of violating the laws of infringement of the property of others and coordinating the protests. In March, a jury Greenpeace ordered $ 660 million In damage, legal experts are called “intense” punitive.
The Business and Human Rights Center cited that the lawsuit, as an example of companies that use a legal tactic called a strategic lawsuit against public participation, or Slapp, to silence the opposition and harass the demonstrators. However, the transfer of energy was martyred by the victory of the courtroom in Its response to a non -profit report“The last rule against Greenpeace was also a victory for the Northern Dakota people who had to live through daily harassment and disturbances caused by the demonstrators who were funded and trained by Greenpece.”
The fossil fuel companies were barely the only perpetrators. Dobson and her team have identified many cases that involve renewable energy sectors, where projects were linked to about 365 cases of harassment and more than 100 human rights defenders.
But mining, including extracting “transitional minerals”, leads each sector in attacks on defenders. Forty per cent of those killed in such crimes were indigenous, a reflection of the fact that more than half of all Critical minerals are located in or near the land of the indigenous people.
Pushing the huge range of harassment and violence against the indigenous people to the United Nations Special Rapporteur A statement released Last year, he explained that “a fair transition to green energy should support the indigenous peoples in securing their collective rights of lands and self -determination on their lands, which He played a vital role in preserving biological diversity and adaptation with climate change”.
Companies, especially companies in mining and minerals, are pressed to ensure that their operations do so. For example, the Unified Mining Initiative, or CSMI, for example, is a voluntary framework for improving industry policies adopted by many commercial societies such as the Mining Association in Canada. The association said: “The standard deals with a wide range of society risks by asking for mining operations to work with societies to determine and work together to alleviate the risks faced by society.” “These risks include human rights defenders, where it exists.”
Another member of this initiative, the International Council for Mining and Minerals, said that “strengthening the obligations of our members on human rights defenders to explicitly include defenders in the due care of companies, the participation of stakeholders, and security operations. Defenders often work on lands related to the land, the environment, and the rights of the indigenous population.”
Although this report highlights the risks faced by human rights defenders, a The increasing need for critical mineralsAnd the increasing demand for infrastructure to support artificial intelligence, and dismantle organizational control in the United States brings new threats. The report also shows that these attacks will not decrease until the wide agreements are enacted to adopt and implement protection for these activists. These policies must be accompanied by legislation that appoints the original supervision of their lands and requires their participation in the project consultations.
However, the original organizations tend to doubt that any industry that can be trusted to voluntarily participate in such efforts. in A message sent to CSMI25 human rights organizations, including the Business and Human Rights Resources Center, said that compulsory participation will be required to ensure strong protection for human rights defenders and relations between industry and indigenous peoples. “People and the environment suffer when companies leave self -regulation with weak voluntary criteria,” the letter said.
Still, change is coming, but slowly. When Dobson and her team began to track harassment and violence against human rights defenders, she was not aware of any companies with a pledge not to contribute to attacks against defenders or assistance. Since then, “51 companies have followed us with this policy.” “Unfortunately, this does not always mean that we see progress in terms of implementing these policies.”
