Enemies of the State?
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ENEMIES OF THE STATE? How governments and business silence land and environmental defenders JULY 2019 ENEMIES OF THE STATE? How governments and business silence land and environmental defenders 1 2 ENEMIES OF THE STATE? How governments and business silence land and environmental defenders Executive summary 6 Number of killings per country in 2018 8 Top findings of this report 9 Global map of physical and legal attacks in 2018 10-15 Philippines: The world’s deadliest country 16 Guatemala: A five-fold surge in killings 22 A focus on criminalisation 27 Iran: Crackdown on human rights spreads to environmentalists 30 UK: Draconian jail sentences for anti-fracking protesters 31 Conclusion 34 Recommendations 36 Methodology 38 Acknowledgements 39 This report, and our campaign, is dedicated to all JESÚS ORLANDO GRUESO OBREGÓN, COLOMBIA those individuals, communities and organisations that JHONATAN CUNDUMÍ ANCHINO, COLOMBIA are bravely taking a stand to defend human rights, JOSÉ ABRAHAM GARCÍA, COLOMBIA their land, and our environment. JOSÉ OSVALDO TAQUEZ TAQUEZ, COLOMBIA 164 of them were murdered last year for doing just that. JOSÉ URIEL RODRÍGUEZ, COLOMBIA We remember their names, and celebrate their activism. LUIS ALEXANDER CASTELLANOS TRIANA, COLOMBIA ALUÍSIO SAMPAIO DOS SANTOS, BRAZIL MARÍA DEL CARMEN MORENO PAEZ, COLOMBIA CARLOS ANTÔNIO DOS SANTOS, BRAZIL NIXON MUTIS, COLOMBIA EDEMAR RODRIGUES DA SILVA, BRAZIL ÓLIVER HERRERA CAMACHO, COLOMBIA EDUARDO PEREIRA DOS SANTOS, BRAZIL PLINIO PULGARÍN, COLOMBIA GAZIMIRO SENA PACHECO, BRAZIL RAMÓN ASCUÉ, COLOMBIA GILSON MARIA TEMPONI, BRAZIL YOLANDA MATURANA, COLOMBIA HAROLDO BETCEL, BRAZIL BARTHELEMIE KAKULE MULEWA, DRC ISMAURO FATIMO DOS SANTOS, BRAZIL FAUSTIN BIRIKO NZABAKURIKIZA, DRC JOACIR FRAN ALVES DA MOTA, BRAZIL ILA MURANDA, DRC JORGINHO GUAJAJARA, BRAZIL JEAN DE DIEU BYAMUNGU, DRC JOSÉ BERNARDO DA SILVA, BRAZIL KANANWA SIBOMANA, DRC JUVENIL MARTINS RODRIGUES, BRAZIL KASEREKA MASUMBUKO EZECHIEL, DRC KATISON DE SOUZA, BRAZIL LIÉVIN MUMBERE KASUMBA, DRC LEOCI RESPLANDES DE SOUSA, BRAZIL THÉODORE KASEREKA PRINCE, DRC LUCAS DE LIMA BATISTA, BRAZIL BAKARY KUJABI, GAMBIA MÁRCIO MATOS, BRAZIL ISMAILA BAH, GAMBIA NAZILDO DOS SANTOS BRITO, BRAZIL ALEJANDRO HERNÁNDEZ GARCÍA, GUATEMALA PAULO SÉRGIO ALMEIDA NASCIMENTO, BRAZIL ALFREDO NORBERTO MAZARIEGOS PINTO, RODRIGO CELESTINO, BRAZIL GUATEMALA VALDEMIR RESPLANDES, BRAZIL CRISANTO GARCIA OHAJACA, GUATEMALA SEK WATHANA, CAMBODIA DOMINGO ESTEBAN PEDRO, GUATEMALA TEURN SOKNAI, CAMBODIA ELIZANDRO PÉREZ, GUATEMALA THUL KHNA, CAMBODIA FLORENCIO PÉREZ NÁJERA, GUATEMALA ALEJANDRO CASTRO, CHILE FRANCISCO MUNGUIA, GUATEMALA CAMILO CATRILLANCA, CHILE HÉCTOR MANUEL CHOC CUZ, GUATEMALA CARLOS JIMMY PRADO GALLARDO, COLOMBIA JOSÉ CAN XOL, GUATEMALA EDIXON PANCHE NOSCUÉ, COLOMBIA JUANA RAYMUNDO, GUATEMALA EDWIN DAGUA, COLOMBIA LUIS ARMANDO MALDONADO MARIN, GUATEMALA EMILIANO TROCHEZ, COLOMBIA LUÍS ARTURO MARROQUÍN, GUATEMALA FABIOLA FAJARDO, COLOMBIA MATEO CHAMAN PAAU, GUATEMALA FLOVER SAPUYES GAVIRIA, COLOMBIA NERY ESTEBAN PEDRO, GUATEMALA FREDY JULIÁN CONDA DAGUA, COLOMBIA RAMÓN CHOC SACRAB, GUATEMALA HÉCTOR FABIO ALMARIO, COLOMBIA RONAL DAVID BARILLAS DÍAZ, GUATEMALA HÉCTOR JANER LATÍN, COLOMBIA CARLOS HERNÁNDEZ, HONDURAS HOLMES ALBERTO NISCUE, COLOMBIA GEOVANNY DÍAZ CÁRCAMO, HONDURAS HOVER ALEXÁNDER ORREGO, COLOMBIA LUIS FERNANDO AYALA, HONDURAS JAMES LUÍS JIMÉNEZ ESTRADA, COLOMBIA 4 RAMÓN FIALLOS, HONDURAS NOEL CASTILLO AGUILAR, MEXICO AJIT MANESHWAR NAIK, INDIA QUINTÍN SALGADO SALGADO, MEXICO ANTONY SELVARAJ, INDIA ROLANDO CRISPIN LÓPEZ, MEXICO B SAILU, INDIA SERGIO RIVERA HERNÁNDEZ, MEXICO CONSTABLE JAGADEESAN, INDIA SAFEER HUSSAIN, PAKISTAN GLADSTON, INDIA AGUDO QUILLIO, PHILIPPINES HIMMAT KOL, INDIA ANGELIFE ARSENAL, PHILIPPINES JANCY RANI, INDIA BENJAMIN RAMOS, PHILIPPINES JAYARAMAN, INDIA BEVERLY GERONIMO, PHILIPPINES KALIAPPAN, INDIA BRONSEL IMPIEL, PHILIPPINES KANTHIAH, INDIA DANIEL TEJAMO, PHILIPPINES KARTHICK, INDIA DOMINADOR LUCAS, PHILIPPINES MANIRAJ, INDIA EGLICERIO VILLEGAS, PHILIPPINES MURUGAN MARUDHAVANAN, INDIA GILBERT PLABIAL, PHILIPPINES POIPYNHUN MAJAW, INDIA JAIME DELOS SANTOS, PHILIPPINES RANJITH KUMAR, INDIA JEAN PLABIAL, PHILIPPINES S JEGADISH DURA, INDIA JERRY TURGA, PHILIPPINES SANDEEP SHARMA, INDIA JOEMARIE OGAHAYON, PHILIPPINES SELVASEKAR, INDIA JOSE UNAHAN, PHILIPPINES SHANMUGAM, INDIA JULIUS BARELLANO, PHILIPPINES SNOWLIN, INDIA LANDO PERDICOS, PHILIPPINES SUBEDAR SINGH KUSHWAHA, INDIA MARCELINA DUMAGUIT, PHILIPPINES SURESH ORAON, INDIA MARCHSTEL SUMICAD, PHILIPPINES TAMILARASAN, INDIA MARCIAL PATTAGUAN, PHILIPPINES MUHAMMAD YUSUF, INDONESIA MARK VENTURA, PHILIPPINES FARSHID HAKKI, IRAN MORENA MENDOZA, PHILIPPINES KAVOUS SEYED EMAMI, IRAN PATERNO BARON, PHILIPPINES MOHAMMAD PAZHOUHI, IRAN RANNEL BANTIGUE, PHILIPPINES OMID KOHNEPOUSHI, IRAN RENE LAURENCIO, PHILIPPINES RAHMAT HAKIMINIA, IRAN RICARDO MAYUMI, PHILIPPINES SHARIF BAJOUR, IRAN RICKY OLADO, PHILIPPINES JOMO NYANGUTI, KENYA ROLLY PANEBIO, PHILIPPINES ROBERT KIROTICH, KENYA ROMMEL ROMON, PHILIPPINES ABRAHAM HERNÁNDEZ GONZÁLEZ, MEXICO RONALD MANLANAT, PHILIPPINES ADRIÁN TIHUILIT, MEXICO YANDONG MENYO, PHILIPPINES GUADALUPE CAMPANUR, MEXICO MOUSTAPHA GUEYE, SENEGAL JANETH GONZÁLEZ LÓPEZ, MEXICO RESPECT MATHEBULA, SOUTH AFRICA JESÚS ÁLVAREZ CHÁVEZ, MEXICO KATERYNA HANDZIUK, UKRAINE JESÚS JAVIER RAMOS ARREOLA, MEXICO MYKOLA BYCHKHO, UKRAINE JOAQUÍN DÍAZ MORALES, MEXICO NIKOLAI YAREMA, UKRAINE JULIÁN CARRILLO, MEXICO PEDRO VIELMA, VENEZUELA MANUEL GASPAR RODRÍGUEZ, MEXICO RAMÓN ROSARIO, VENEZUELA MARGARITO DIAZ GONZALEZ, MEXICO REYES ORLANDO PARRA, VENEZUELA 5 Julián Carrillo was one of at least 14 land and environmental defenders to be killed in Mexico in 2018. © Amnesty International/Marianne Bertrand real figure is likely to be much higher, because cases are often not recorded and very rarely investigated. Reliable EXECUTIVE evidence is hard to find or verify. This report also highlights how killings are the most SUMMARY violent manifestation of myriad abuses. Non-lethal violence and intimidation is rife, and similarly often undocumented. Alongside the physical abuses, Julián Carrillo knew he was a marked man. A vocal governments and businesses use courts and legal systems opponent of the mining concessions on his community’s to silence those who threaten their interests. In a brutally land, in Chihuahua State, Mexico, he had seen five savage irony, killers of land and environmental defenders members of his family killed in two years and his house generally escape punishment while the activists burned down. Julián had received numerous death themselves are branded as criminals. threats before his body was found riddled with bullets on That is why this year, for the first time, Global Witness 24 October 2018.1 has documented the use and abuse of laws and policies Fighting to protect land and the environment has become designed to criminalise and intimidate defenders, their more dangerous in Mexico, with at least 14 people killed families and the communities they represent. These in 2018 alone. But Carrillo’s death also fits a worrying tactics can be used to tarnish reputations, choke off global trend. As demand for products like timber, palm oil funding and lock activists into costly legal battles that and minerals continues to grow, governments, companies stop them from carrying out their work. Cracking down and criminal gangs are routinely stealing land and on one individual or organisation also creates a powerful trashing habitats in pursuit of profit. When the ordinary chilling effect for would-be defenders. people who live on these lands take a stand, they come These subtler threats don’t make the headlines like up against companies’ private security, state forces, killings do, which is why they are so useful to those who contract killers, or in less violent confrontations, teams of want to crush dissent. As with killings, indigenous people aggressive lawyers. are on the frontline of attacks by countries’ legal systems, The data, analysis and human stories in this report alongside the institutions and organisations that exist to highlight the scale of this problem. We seek to understand protect them. how and why land and environmental defenders who While this report focuses on events in 2018, at the time should be celebrated as heroes for protecting their of writing in July 2019, the signs are worrying that the communities and ecosystems are routinely being situation for environmental and land defenders will murdered, arrested and intimidated. Our report finds worsen. The rise of populist strongmen around the that on average more than three activists were killed world has brought a clampdown on protest, often under every week in 2018 defending their land from invasion the pretence of protecting national security or fighting by industries like mining, logging and agribusiness. The 6 terrorism. The broader social and political consequences to oil and gas companies.5 Seven US states have also of these developments are generally dire, and they bring introduced legislation to crack down on protest since specific dangers for defenders, as these examples show: 2018, according to the International Center for Not-for- Profit Law.6 In March 2019, a Bill passed in South Dakota Brazil’s new President Jair Bolsonaro has pledged to gave state and local governments new powers to penalise open indigenous reserves to commercial development, groups and individuals even indirectly involved in anti- including mining, agriculture and infrastructure. In pipeline actions.7 2019