ENOUGH! Pledging zero tolerance to attacks against By Francesco Martone environmental and human With a foreword by Michel Forst, UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights rights defenders Defenders. Front cover images, clockwise from left to right: Credit: Natalie Behring. A man walks down a muddy path in an area which has recently been deforested in preparation to expand the Duta Palma palm oil plantation, Riau Province, Indonesia. Credit: Comisión Interamericana de Derechos Humanos. Protest in honour of Berta Caceres, Honduras. Credit: Forest Peoples Programme. A Baka woman in Djoum-Mintom speaks up at a community training, Cameroon. Credit: Forest Peoples Programme. Training community members in using mapping technology monitor their forests. EDITORIAL TEAM This report was written by Francesco Martone, with contributions from Tom Younger, María del Rosario and Tom Griffiths. The author would like to thank the following people for reviewing and commenting on earlier drafts: Anouska Perram, Helen Tugendhat, Conrad Feather and Tom Dixon. It was edited by Claire Bracegirdle and Helen Tugendhat, with assistance from Laurence Tidy. The report was designed by Tim Harcourt-Powell and MinuteWorks. ©Forest Peoples Programme 2019. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The publication is freely available online at www.forestpeoples.org. Copyright is retained by the Forest Peoples Programme. This overall copyright attribution of the publication does not overwrite the copyright attributions of the single images inside the publication. For all the images and figures that are not Forest Peoples Programme originals, the photographer and original source has been credited, and the copyright is with the authors of those images and figures. ABOUT THE ZERO TOLERANCE INITIATIVE The Zero Tolerance Initiative seeks to address increasing violence, intimidation and killings of indigenous people and other human rights defenders in global supply chains. Bringing together organisations, individuals and communities from across the globe, the Initiative has supported representatives from 16 countries in issuing a call for Zero Tolerance for killings and violence linked to commodity production and trade. Find out more about the Zero Tolerance Initiative at: zerotoleranceinitiative.org This work has been made possible by financial support from Norway’s International Climate and Forest Initiative (NICFI). The views expressed in this paper are those of the author and do not necessarily represent NICFI’s position. 2 ZEROTOLERANCEINITIATIVE.ORG ZEROTOLERANCEINITIATIVE FOREWORD In May 2018, Luis Arturo Marroquin, a Guatemalan Since my appointment as United Nations Special farmer, was shot dead as he was leaving a library. Rapporteur for Human Rights Defenders in 2014, Shot in the back for defending land and indigenous I have heard and witnessed how the list of those rights. That same year, Benjamin Ramos, a Filipino killed keeps growing. Indigenous peoples and rural lawyer, was shot dead by motorcycle-riding communities, in particular, have paid a high price gunmen in front of a store. He was representing the for defending their ancestral lands and traditions. victim families of murdered sugarcane farmers. A Killings are often the final stage of a cycle in which few weeks later, Kasereka Masumbuko Ezechiel, criminalisation, as well as attacks against individuals one of the rangers of the Virunga National Park and their organisations nourish each other. in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) was murdered by an armed militia. Kasereka was one of However, despite public outcry for some of the those in charge of protecting endangered mountain most emblematic cases, substantial changes on gorillas from poachers. He had seven children. the ground have not been made, as the root causes of violence have not been properly addressed. Three courageous Human Rights Defenders cowardly assassinated. Three ordinary people The present research lists dozens of environmental whose hopes, dreams and lives were stolen by conflicts across the globe, many due to illegal logging, greed, corruption and impunity. If these three extractive industries and agribusiness. Many conflicts stories seem to follow a similar pattern, it is take place in the Global South in a context of an because there is a common goal behind these exacerbated race for economic development. In two killings: an attempt to silence human rights reports to the United Nations General Assembly activism, the community of those who dare to speak (UNGA), I presented my assessment on the situation the truth to power. And behind the hitmen involved of those defending land and environment and those in these killings, there is a whole economic and working in the field of business and human rights.2 political system that plots against social activism. In the majority of cases, these conflicts could have Unfortunately, the list of murdered human rights been prevented if meaningful consultation had been activists could go on. In 2018 alone, at least 164 carried out with local communities and rights holders. men and women were killed for defending land and Worse, access to remedy is almost non-existent for environmental rights, according to Global Witness1. victims of human rights abuses in almost all conflicts. Husbands, daughters, grandfathers. Active community members or simple citizens. Today, At the international, regional and national levels, Human Rights Defenders working to protect the initiatives have been developed over the past few environment and those who expose corporate abuse years, thanks to the continued and coordinated efforts are those who are the most at risk, worldwide. of civil society organisations and other actors. More and more actors know now it is not possible anymore 1 Global Witness, 2019. Enemies of the state? How governments and businesses silence land and environmental defenders. Available at: https://bit.ly/2Cwg7iJ 2 All the reports and documents published by the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights Defenders are available at: https://bit.ly/2qpYcYb ZEROTOLERANCEINITIATIVE.ORG 3 to turn a blind eye to so many conflicts. Discussions and take more far reaching actions to fulfil their are spreading all over the world, some with very obligations and responsibilities to end human concrete measures; many of them are presented in this rights abuses, and address roots causes of attacks analysis. Some companies have come together and in particular against Human Rights Defenders. paved the way to better engage and support HRDs as well as to establish stronger grievance mechanisms. As upcoming decades will be likely marked by the intensification of global warming and the scarcity of But nothing can be achieved without the active natural resources, it is urgent to protect those who participation of those affected and concrete access will be at the forefront of the fight for our common to justice. Too often, perpetrators know they future. As Gregorio Mirabal, an indigenous activist will get away with murder, thanks to rampant from the Amazon Basin said: “We’re fighting for corruption and the absence of rule of law. soil, land, food, trees, water, birds. We’re fighting for life.” Human Rights Defenders are not enemy of In 2018, exactly twenty years after the adoption the development nor they are a threat to national of the United Nations Declaration on Human stability: they are the voice and face of hundreds Rights Defenders, civil society called upon of thousands of communities who believe in states to accelerate its implementation. a future where all of us can live in dignity. The in-depth analysis and the call for a Zero Tolerance Pledge put forward in this report Michel Forst, UN Special Rapporteur remind us it is high time for states, companies on Human Rights Defenders and investors to make deeper commitments 4 ZEROTOLERANCEINITIATIVE.ORG ZEROTOLERANCEINITIATIVE EXECUTIVE SUMMARY A silent war is being waged against the indigenous while collective and community-based approaches peoples and local communities defending their to prevention and protection have received less land and environment against the rapid expansion attention in state schemes and global policies. of agribusiness, the extractive industries, and the development of large-scale infrastructure The analysis also highlights that effective measures used to transport materials and products. Recent must include actions by state and international actors research has demonstrated that environmental to combat the root causes of violence and intimidation defenders face significant — and growing — against environmental and human defenders on the risks, experiencing violence, intimidation and agribusiness and extractives frontier, where much criminalisation as a result of their efforts. abuse is concentrated and linked to national and international commodity production, legal and illegal. This paper surveys the various initiatives, led by states, intergovernmental bodies, the private sector In relation to global supply chains and corporate and development finance institutions that seek to accountability, the analysis outlines why a Zero protect environmental defenders. In doing so, it Tolerance Pledge is needed to not only to ramp up highlights some of their limitations, finding that corporate and investor due diligence to prevent harm most stated commitments have not been borne and uphold the rights of environmental and