An Unprecedented Opportunity: The Forum for Environmental Defenders in the Caribbean – Center for International Environmental Law

Revealed on April 7, 2025

By Luisa Gomez Betancur, Senior Legal professional on the Middle for Worldwide Environmental Regulation, and Alexandra Cólon-Amil, Communications Marketing campaign Specialist on the Middle for Worldwide Environmental Regulation.

Latin America and the Caribbean is probably the most violent area on this planet for many who defend the land and the surroundings. Brazil, Colombia, Honduras, and Mexico account for 85% of the documented murders of environmental defenders. On this context, governments within the area, civil society organizations, and defenders have labored for many years to materialize the Escazú Settlement — the primary binding regional treaty that promotes environmental democracy and the one one on this planet that features primary ensures for these defending the surroundings. A brand new milestone on this course of would be the Third Discussion board on Human Rights Defenders in Environmental Issues from April 7 to 10 in Saint Kitts and Nevis, the place key measures will likely be taken to guard the rights and work of environmental defenders. This Discussion board will likely be particularly vital as a result of it’s the first time it’s held within the insular Caribbean, one of many areas that suffers and can disproportionately undergo the results of the local weather disaster, which intensifies the stress on the surroundings and people who danger their lives to defend it.

What are the Environmental Defenders Boards?

Inside the framework of the Escazú Settlement, necessary selections have been made to guard and promote the work of environmental defenders. In 2024, the Third COP of Escazú — the convention that brings collectively the events to the Settlement — accredited the Motion Plan on Human Rights Defenders in Environmental Issues, a regional instrument geared toward implementing strategic actions to make sure the security of environmental defenders, taking measures to acknowledge and shield their rights, in addition to stopping, investigating, and sanctioning assaults or threats towards them.

The Environmental Defenders Boards have been established for the creation, implementation, and monitoring of this Plan. They operate as regional platforms for participation and public dialogue to show the challenges confronted by environmental defenders and discover routes and proposals to deal with these points.

What to Anticipate from the third Environmental Defenders Discussion board?

One of many primary aims of this Discussion board in Saint Kitts and Nevis is to outline the actions that the member states and different key actors ought to take to implement the Escazú Settlement’s Motion Plan on Defenders. In coalition with civil society organizations in Latin America and the Caribbean, the Middle for Worldwide Environmental Regulation (CIEL) has supplied strategic suggestions to the states to strengthen these actions. Amongst others, we highlighted:

The significance of indicators to guage the implementation and impression of the Motion Plan;
The urgency of constructing a regional prognosis on the state of affairs of environmental defenders with a participatory methodology that features suggestions; and
The necessity to interact policymakers, judicial actors, and others liable for guaranteeing the rights of defenders in stopping, responding, and sanctioning reprisals towards them.

The Concentrate on the Caribbean

Presently, there are dozens of documented socio-environmental conflicts within the insular Caribbean involving a wide range of industries — from hydrocarbon extraction and mineral mining to infrastructure improvement and tourism. Nonetheless, there’s little info on the state of affairs of environmental defenders and their work on this area’s socio-environmental context, which contributes to the false notion that “nothing occurs within the Caribbean.”

In additional than a decade, authoritative experiences on this area have recorded three deadly assaults on environmental defenders in a single Caribbean nation. Because the experiences themselves acknowledge, these figures are “partial reflections” of the violence towards environmental defenders. There are structural challenges stopping complete documentation and detection of particular instances, such because the restricted presence of civil society organizations in particular areas, media repression, or widespread violence and insecurity. Furthermore, consideration tends to deal with deadly assaults, overshadowing extreme aggressions similar to compelled disappearance, criminalization, harassment, and stigmatization.

The Third Environmental Defenders Discussion board affords a singular alternative to “shine a light-weight” on the a number of dangers confronted by environmental defenders within the Caribbean, whose work and security are more and more indispensable because the local weather emergency worsens.

Escazú and Local weather Justice

Within the yr 2000, in response to the World Atlas of Environmental Justice, there have been practically a thousand reported socio-environmental conflicts worldwide. At present, this quantity has elevated by nearly 400%. As local weather impacts turn out to be extra frequent and intense, stress on territories and sources may even intensify. This example will possible exacerbate socio-environmental conflicts, thereby growing the vulnerabilities of those that defend the surroundings. On this context, it’s important to strengthen the rights and work of environmental defenders, and for this, the Escazú Settlement and its Motion Plan are key. Alongside civil society organizations, CIEL participated within the Advisory Opinion means of the Inter-American Court docket of Human Rights on the Local weather Emergency, advocating for the inclusion of the Escazú Settlement’s requirements as primary authorized ensures when specifying the duty of States to guard the work of environmental defenders, in addition to the rights to info, participation, and environmental justice.

Throughout this Third Discussion board, CIEL, along with different organizations, has convened the occasion #EscazúEnLaCorteIDH to share how we’ve got conceived this advocacy technique, the progress made, and our expectations concerning the Court docket’s Opinion. We will likely be offering updates about this occasion and key moments of the Discussion board in Saint Kitts and Nevis on our social media. Observe us right here:

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About CIEL’s Folks, Land, and Sources Program

CIEL’s Folks, Land & Sources Program (PLR) seeks to guard and defend the surroundings and human rights towards the antagonistic impacts of improvement. We work in any respect ranges – from worldwide to grassroots – to make sure that the legal guidelines and insurance policies governing improvement actions are in line with these defending the surroundings and human rights, and to carry governments and companies accountable for his or her actions.