Environmental #HumanRights Defenders #EHRDs share their experiences on:
🔹 How #ICJAO is used to #climatechange adaptation in #SolomonIslands
🔹 Using #UPR process to advance HR & CC in #Mozambique
🔹 Addressing HR in energy issues in #Namibia
🔹 Tackling gendered impacts of CC in #SierraLeone
"Every day you work, you are between your life and your death."
Chris Owalla of CIAG Kenya questions our conception of development, as "the goons, the police & the courts" are used against #EHRDs for protecting the environment or for "going against development".
The GEN is at the #AarhusPRTRsMoPs side event "Defending the Planet, Defending Rights: Women Leading #EnvironmentalJustice", highlighting experiences of Women Environmental Human Rights Defenders #EHRDs & exploring how the #AarhusConvention can advance feminist #ClimateJustice. @unwomen.bsky.social
CIEL’s @camillapollera.bsky.social highlights how #EHRDs expose injustice, defend nature, and insist on accountability: “They stand up, even when doing so endangers their lives. The work of this initiative and the outcomes of COP30 must honour those defending our future every day.”
Europe is moving: the #Aarhus Convention created the first rapid-response mechanism for #EHRDs. The @coe.int is making a priority to address human rights and the environment through multiple approaches.
This isn’t optional: protecting defenders is a legal obligation under the UN Declaration on #HRDs and UN_HRC/#UNGA resolutions. The IACourtHR advisory opinion clarifies States must guarantee safety, participation, and freedom from persecution—with heightened care for women #EHRDs.
Today at the #Portugal Pavilion 🇵🇹 at #COP30: powerful panel on protecting Environmental Human Rights Defenders. #EHRDs. Happening during Gender Action Day is a reminder that climate action only works when the people, particularly women, defending our planet can do so safely.
With the ASEAN Declaration on Right to #HealthyEnvironment to be adopted soon, Suraya Ahmad Pauzi, #Malaysia DPR, underscores key commitments: enforcement of env't law, transparent & inclusive EIA, due diligence, protection of #IndigenousPeoples, #EHRDs & vulnerable communities.
Ignacio F. Lara of Asuntos Del Sur underlines the importance of env't democracy in ensuring #EHRDs and #IndigenousPeoples are included in the #JustTransition. One can look to the #EscazuAgreement as the first legally-binding instrument in Latin America that can ensure this.
UN Special Rapporteur on Env't Defenders @michelforst.bsky.social presents a set of guiding and operational principles developed for states on how to better use international obligations when facing peaceful protests, including by climate activists and #EHRDs.
📄 unece.org/sites/defaul...
"The progress achieved in protecting democracy & human rights is thanks to defenders, activists & NGOs."
Ulises Quero of @ishr.ch regrets barriers faced by #EHRDs in accessing int'l fora like this, and shares the contributions they make in tackling climate & environmental crises.
"Defenders cannot properly defend #EnvironmentalRights if they cannot properly access their own #HumanRights to participation, access to information."
Ulises Quero of @ishr.ch underscores the urgency of creating a task force to promote mechanisms for protecting #EHRDs.
H.E. Amb. Michele Cervone D'Urso of @euatun.bsky.social highlights efforts by the EU to protect #EHRDs through a mechanism & the #EU directive on corporate sustainability due diligence, which can help in safeguarding environmental rights and the enforcement of their protection.
#Environment: What's Up in #GENeva from 22-28 Sep?
✅ Env't @ #HRC60
✅ Protecting #EHRDs
✅ #BBNJ Entry into Force
✅ Advancing #ClimateAction
✅ Maison de l'Avenir
✅ #UNGA80 High-Level
✅ #GreenAutumn
✅ & more
Check events, #jobs, & suggestions ▶️ tiny.cc/GEN22-28Sep25
We collected the views of our #EHRDs on developing an updated safety and security protocols amid the challenging working environment in oil host communities. Outstanding, they demanded for sustained support to build their capacities and provide them assistance whenever they are in need.
Denouncing the radical change in #NGOs freedom in Georgia in recent years, Martin Skalsky of @arnikaorg.bsky.social warns of the risk of being pushed into a legal vacuum, threats of sanctions & imprisonment. He stresses #EHRDs & local communities depend on NGOs, risking losing vital support.
Underscoring the vital role of #EHRDs in climate action, including through opposing critical minerals mining, Elisa Morgera stresses the need to align mitigation measures to priorities for biodiversity protection & halting pollution and #HumanRights protection.
H.E. Amb. Tovar Da Silva Nunes of #Brazil stresses a #JustTransition must respect international #HumanRights obligations & recognize the vital role of #EHRDs in protecting & restoring natural resources.
Hosting #COP30 in Belém aims to foster equitable, participatory solutions.
Stressing "there's nothing more fundamental than #water", UN Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights Nadal-Al-Nashif lists key principles for 2026 #UNWaterConference:
🔹 Govs upholding HR commitments
🔹 Ensuring participation of most affected & #EHRDs
🔹 Multilevel cooperation
➤ the role of #EHRDs in the fight against climate change
➤ that the right to defend environmental rights protects all
➤ the need for standards guiding the interpretation of the American Convention on Human Rights
➤ Tailored protection for women & girls in their diversity.
Environment-related resolutions adopted at #HRC58 include:
🔹 #RightToHealthyEnvironment | #Ocean & human rights
🔹 #ESCR
🔹 UN SR #RightToFood Mandate
🔹 Effects of Foreign Debt on HR
🔹 Human rights defenders #EHRDs
🔹 Anti-personnel mines
🔹 & more
▶️ tiny.cc/HRC58Environ...
"We cannot go from one COP to another while forgetting the other."
As the number detained people in host countries increase, Yves Lador of @earthjustice.bsky.social underscores important linkages between int'l human rights framework & climate change COPs, especially in protecting #EHRDs.
UN @srenvironment.bsky.social underscores that talking about ocean defenders is by no means redefining the concept, but to remind ourselves and States that when we talk about #EHRDs, we need to include those working on the ocean as defenders as well.
Providing her concluding comments, UN @srenvironment.bsky.social Astrid Puentes underscores the importance and value of advancing the recognition of the right to #HealthyEnvironment, including the ocean, as well as protection of environmental human rights defenders #EHRDs &ocean defenders.
On behalf of a cross-regional group of 45 countries, Costa Rica emphasizes environmental human rights defenders #EHRDs, including those working on ocean, are most at-risk. "The best way to protect the environment is to protect & empower those who seek to defend the environment."
Highlighting the crucial role the #ocean plays in tackling #climatechange, UN @srenvironment.bsky.social underscores risks posed by developments, particularly in #geoengineering & #DeepSeaMining, as they increase human rights violations against #EHRDs by the expansion of harmful activities.
Ghazali Ohorella of Int'l Indian Treaty Council stresses that ways for #RightToHealthyEnvironment to move from statement to implementation:
🔸 Respecting #IndigenousPeoples rights, including right to self-determination
🔸 Supporting their participation in decision-making
🔸 Protecting #EHRDs
"The #RightToHealthyEnvironment is a tool for better environmental & human rights policy."
Stressing the role of civil society in #RtHE implementation, Sandra Epal-Ratjen of ICJ provides various ways forward, including #EHRDs protection, #RuleOfLaw promotion & role of LRGs.
H.E. Alejandro Solano Ortiz of #CostaRica discusses ways to expand and multiply the transformative power of the #RightToHealthyEnvironment to include stronger collaboration and inclusion of local governments & of the private sector, while ensuring the protection of #EHRDs.
With the #environment high on the agenda, the 58th session of the UN Human Rights Council kicks off next week, as it tackles:
🌱 #RightToHealthyEnvironment
🪙 #ClimateFinance, Debt & #HumanRights
🌾 #RightToFood
✊ #EHRDs
🔹 & more!
For more info & updates on #HRC58▶️ tiny.cc/HRC58Environ...
