A few weeks ago, International Human Rights Day was celebrated (December 10), but it is increasingly necessary that every other day of the year the work of the people who defend them, along with the environment and natural resources, be made visible .
Conflict around the defense of water, food or the environment entails a systematic violation of the rights of the people who take care of it; that they are assassinated, persecuted or threatened, a risk that is aggravated in the case of women and indigenous communities.
The latest report from Global Witness reflects how, as the climate crisis has intensified, violence has increased against those who protect and defend their homes, land and livelihoods, ecosystems and biodiversity. The result has been an average of more than four people killed each week around the world in 2020 (a total of 227).
Also Michel Forst, United Nations Special Rapporteur for Defenders, has reiterated its concern for the “staggering number of murders, threats and cases of harassment and intimidation” of human rights defenders linked to the environment and the territory.
Along with the actions of dispossession of natural resources, mechanisms and strategies of judicial persecution and criminalization are put in place that try to deactivate and discredit collective movements in a framework of impunity of the companies behind and, in many cases, complicity of State institutions, as defended by various activists. DY, a Honduran, criticizes that justice is not applied to everyone with the same standard and refers to the trial faced by several people to protect the San Pedro and Guapinol Rivers, in Honduras.
The recent case known as Guanipol is a clear example of violation of the human right to water and its defense. At the moment there are eight members of the Municipal Committee for the Defense of Public and Property of Tocoa (CMDBCP) who they have been in prison for more than two years for opposing a mining project of the Inversiones los Pinares company in an environmentally protected area that will seriously affect the San Pedro and Guapinol rivers. Already in 2018, when the preliminary works and the construction of a road that would facilitate access to the area began, the water from the tributary was no longer usable by the community, which mobilized organizing a resistance camp and was evicted with violence.
Today there are eight defenders who are members of the Municipal Committee for the Defense of Public and Property Assets of Tocoa who have been in prison for more than two years for opposing a mining project
The imprisonment of these activists responds to a strategy of intimidation and criminalization of all those who oppose the project, an unjust and arbitrary imprisonment – this has also been described by the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention – which has led to the mobilization of numerous social organizations related to the environment and the right to water.
As sustained by the campaign to support these defenders, and with the slogans #GuapinolResiste, #LibertadparaGuapinol or #Aguaesvida, Guapinol’s fight is a fight for “the life of the rivers and mountains that give us life. It is also the life of eight activists illegally imprisoned for having the courage to join their community to protect their families and future generations ”.
It is urgent to insist on the contribution that environmentalists make to the enjoyment of human rights, the protection of the environment and sustainable development and must be done without losing sight of the fact that their protection activities are internationally recognized.
Framing the right to safeguard water or territory implies that a safe and conducive environment must be ensured that allows them to carry out their work without obstacles or insecurity. This framework of obligations is the responsibility of the States, but also of the companies. Nothing is above life.
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