Since 2012, the NGO Global Witness has been tracking the murders of environmentalists around the world, but had never recorded a death toll as tragic as that of 2020.
Taking to the streets, spreading grassroots information, fighting against drilling and mining: there are many ways to defend the environment, and many people of all ages willing to put themselves on the line. People who, especially in certain difficult contexts, thereby expose themselves to the risk of threats, intimidation, summary arrests and sexual abuse. Or even the risk of being killed. The non-governmental organisation Global Witness has published the new edition of its annual report and – once again – flags a tragic record. In 2020, 227 murders of environmentalists were confirmed, averaging more than four a week. Two densely packed pages of names, which moreover are missing all those cases that were never properly documented or investigated.
Already in 2019, Colombia stood out for a staggering toll of 64 environmentalists murdered out of a global total of 212. A dramatic record maintained this year too, with 65 victims, primarily among indigenous people, people of African descent and smallholder farmers. In a climate of political tension that not even the 2016 peace agreement managed to quell, the pandemic made things worse by confining activists within the four walls of their homes — making them easier targets.
Mexico, meanwhile, has seen a sharp deterioration, with 30 fatal attacks in 2020 (compared to 18 in 2019), only one of which led to criminal proceedings. The signing of the Escazú Agreement gives grounds for hope, having proved decisive in bringing about its final entry into force on 22 April 2021, Earth Day. The treaty provides additional guarantees for citizens, individuals and organisations that defend the environment and human rights, introducing specific measures to prevent attacks and intimidation against them, to investigate such incidents and to punish those responsible. Its scope covers Latin America specifically, but it risks being weakened by the absence of Colombia and Brazil.
It was May 2016 when presidential elections in the Philippines were won by Rodrigo Duterte, nicknamed "the punisher" for the hard line he adopted towards drug traffickers and users. Since then, Global Witness recalls, the international community has repeatedly drawn attention to the precarious state of human rights. From the start of Duterte's term until the end of 2020, as many as 166 environmentalists were killed, 29 of them in the last year alone. An escalation described as "shocking".
Stories and figures like these cannot simply be allowed to pass in silence. Governments – Global Witness thunders – are failing to live up to their duty to protect human rights, are not doing enough to protect environmentalists or, in the most serious cases, are even complicit in or perpetrators of the violence. The lockdown measures imposed in response to the pandemic have further curtailed personal freedoms; and it is precisely where this freedom is absent that attacks become more frequent.
