Collective struggles for land rights [1]

Front Line Defenders is an Irish organization working globally for more than 20 years with different tools and strategies to support HRDs at risk. Historically, land has been at the center of social and armed conflicts worldwide. The dispute over its tenure, control and use has triggered systematic and generally violent struggles. High concentration of land, the lack of recognition of land rights together with the imposition of economic models that disregard local communities and their diverse way of living are among structural causes for the high levels of poverty and vulnerability of rural, indigenous and afro descendant communities in the Global South. Discrimination linked to persisting racism and colonial legacies resulted in land expropriation and, today, continue to be an explicit dimension of the lack of recognition of the land rights of minorities, indigenous and Afro-descendent groups. As a consequence, displacement and land dispossession of millions of peoples and communities struggling to keep the autonomy over their lands and territories are recurrent.

This vision took land as a commercial capital instead of a right, has had a devastating effect on millions of people who historically depended on it for their survival. For rural communities, the territory is understood as a vital space, where their social, cultural, economic and spiritual relationships are developed. The communities hold collective efforts to ensure the subsistence and the improvement of the quality of life of entire populations, while preserving the environment, water sources, flora and fauna. Managing local and diverse agricultural activities is key in the sovereignty of communities over their territories.

The defense of land, territory and environmental rights is a high risky activity [2]. All over the world, human rights defenders (HRDs) and communities face persistent and violent attacks as authorities, military, companies, landowners and farmers seek to further advance their commercial interests through the violent expropriation of land and ancestral territories. In the face of expanding extractive, agro-industrial and tourism projects, defenders and their communities are targets of armed attacks, forced evictions and displacement, destruction of property, stigmatization, surveillance, criminalization, enforced disappearances and killings. The legitimate and peaceful struggle of these groups to protect their collective land rights and way of living bring them into direct confrontation with powerful political-business alliances frequently acting in collusion with military, paramilitary and police forces, non-state armed actors and criminal groups.

The most violent threats often happens at local level, making it difficult for HRDs and their communities to know about or to reach supportive allies, especially helpful in contexts marked by unbalanced power relations. In this sense, to promote information about the HRDs protection support ecosystem is key to develop effective strategies, composed of a variety of local, national, regional and international NGOs, donors and allied organizations working to support the implementation of different protection measures. These measures are backed up by national and international legal standards and State obligations to protect HRDs at risk.

Environmental, land and indigenous HRDs are one of the most targeted group around the world. In 2022, according to Front Line Defenders Global Analysis [3], there were the most attacked group and represented 48% of the killings of HRDs [4]. In the Americas alone those defending land, environment and indigenous rights accounted for 36,7% of the attacks. Criminalisation in all of its forms is one of the most pervasive and complex threats faced by HRDs and their organizations. In 2022, arrest, detention and legal action represented 34% of all violations recorded against HRDs. Legal persecution combined with high levels of impunity and limited access to justice particularly impact those working in the sectors of environmental, land and indigenous peoples’ rights.

Although legal persecution is a strategy used to destabilize community organization and collective resistance, HRDs and community leaders commonly suffer personal consequences of the different forms of criminalization, ranging from social and financial issues to political persecution and criminal records. Even in rare cases of acquittal, slow justice systems combined with higher rates of conviction cases result in irreparable damage to defenders. It may even lead to extreme cases, such as the water and environmental HRD,Victor Guaillas [5], a campesino from Ecuador who died in 2021 in a rebellion at the prison where he was awaiting his judgment for more than five years.

International and domestic obligations to protect HRDs

It is important to recognize that States have been advancing on this agenda since the UN Declaration on Human Rights Defenders was adopted in 1998 and recognized the crucial work done by HRDs and the threats they face [6]. The Declaration affirms “the right, individually and in association with others, to promote and to strive for the protection and realization of human rights and fundamental freedoms at the national and international levels”. It also emphasizes the duty of States to promote and actively participate in the protection of HRDs, a normative and legislative advancement at State and regional level. In practice however, this still need to be secured and effectively implemented.

Since the adoption of the UN Declaration, States and international organizations have developed policies and diverse toolbox for the protection of HRDs. The different resources include practical support, national protection mechanisms, but also tools to support HRDs protection in foreign policy. This diplomatic involvement rests on the assumption that States should aim to promote human rights everywhere, even beyond their own borders, opening space for international advocacy strategies able to directly impact HRDs.

In 2000, the Human Rights Commission established the mandate of the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders [7], tasked with promoting the effective implementation of the UN Declaration. The mandate has a fundamental work in cooperation and dialogue with Governments and other actors. Through direct communication and recommendations, among others, it manages to highlight the situation of HRDs around the world and call for effective measures to protect them.

At regional level, the European Union (EU) developed the Guidelines on Human Rights Defenders in 2004 [8], intended to provide an operational guideline for diplomats and covering a range of issues ranging from monitoring and reporting to promotion, protection and engagement with other institutions. Since adoption of the EU Guidelines, there have been important developments in the overall EU architecture for HRDs. For example, in 2012 the EU created the position of EU Special Representative for Human Rights and, in 2015, the ProtectDefenders.eu mechanism to provide emergency grants for HRDs at risk [9]. Several EU Delegations have created tools and mechanisms to more systematically support HRDs, demonstrating promising practices in tailoring the implementation of the Guidelines to the local context [10] [11]. Thus, when made public, the EU Guidelines are a useful tool for civil society to hold States accountable.

However, there is still a gap between its intended objectives and its effective use and knowledge among civil society organizations, but also among EU diplomatic corps around the world. In addition, EU Delegations and Member State embassies tend to act reactively towards the needs of HRDs, rather than proactively providing support and co-developing preventive strategies [12]. This links to a lack of overall strategy and integration with human rights country strategies which remain internal and confidential documents. The places where HRDs tend to need the most support are also some of the most politically challenging environments. This has resulted in frequent hesitation to stand up for HRDs and a lack of systematic action. The voluntary nature of the guidelines has accentuated this tendency [13], as implementation in the most challenging contexts rests on diplomats’ personal willingness to engage with the issue of HRD protection.
When it comes to environmental issues, multinational companies play an important role in the conflicts experienced by local communities. In 2022, the EU thus took a significant step to address business and human rights issues by proposing an EU Directive on Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence [14], recognizing the need for mandatory human rights and environmental due diligence. The negotiations are still in progress, but it is critical to ensure explicitly references to HRDs in the final text and that mandatory, safe and meaningful stakeholder engagement is required throughout the due diligence process.

In Latin America and The Caribbean, a regional binding agreement for the right to information, public participation and access to justice on environmental issues, known as Escazu Agreement [15], was adopted in 2018. The agreement is a milestone for the protection of environmental rights in one of the most violent regions for environmental rights defenders. It is the first regional agreement in the world to contain specific provisions on HRDs in environmental matters. So far, 24 of the 33 countries in the region have signed it, but there are still challenges in its ratification and implementation and on how to adapt it to the existing policies of each country, in particular some of the national HRDs protection mechanisms.

The current protection mechanisms have been systematically failing to respond to the complex situations HRDs are facing, including environmental and land defenders, and there is still an uncertainty as to whether those policies will be restructured or new ones will need to be developed. For example, when it comes to HRDs facing criminalization, national protection mechanisms do not consider this type of violation as a high risk in their risk assessment to decide which cases to include in their systems and do not count with specific measures to support the defenders target with legal harassment, not even supporting their legal defense.

It urges the effective improvement and implementation of regional and international agreements and standards to protect HRDs that respond to the increasing forms of criminalization impacting them. Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation (SLAPPs) [16] being used by companies as a strategy to silence and criminalize defenders and their communities or States weaponising a wide range of laws, to persecute HRDs are two trends intensifying in recent years that need to be better addressed by international law.

Different strategies and resources for practical support

From the civil society perspective, the support of the international community also resulted into significant push for the concrete implementation of States protection obligations for HRDs at risk and also a direct and fast support for those being criminalized. The capacity to increase political and social pressure on local and national authorities is possible through a range of strategies such as statements and increase visibility , the connection of defenders and their local lawyers with legal human rights experts to strengthen legal strategies, accompany trials as international observers and even support cases directly at international legal systems such as the Inter American Court or the International Court of Justice. These are some of the useful strategies carried out by international organizations which can be effective if guided by the needs of criminalized HRDs and local organizations. This demands a real involvement of organizations, resources and internal capacities and the possibility to follow up closely these cases. This can be a challenge considering how time consuming legal case are and the amount of cases happening worldwide as one of the main threats against HRDs.

This high demand makes joint and strategic action between civil society organizations at all levels essential. The construction of networks is definitely a strong contribution to the protection of HRDs. Work on a complementary perspective, considering real capacities of the support network, elevate the chances of positive outcomes, besides making possible to optimize the use of human and financial resources. It is very important to consider that HRDs facing criminalization may require other types of direct support due to the high risks they face, such as protection grants to fulfill other security needs. Those defenders are the most suitable people to evaluate the most urgent kind of support.

While working in collaboration with other organizations, Front Line Defenders provides rapid and practical support to human rights defenders at risk [17]. The work of the organization is done with a combination of responses that includes : international advocacy on behalf of human rights defenders at risk ; emergency support ; protection grants including temporary relocation of human rights defenders ; capacity building and resource materials [18] on protection, including digital security and networking and exchange between human rights defenders, emergency and crisis response through a Secure form and emergency 24-hour phone line operating in Arabic, English, French, Russian and Spanish.

The complexity and the dimension of the violations against HRDs working on land and environmental issues require solutions on the same scale, that are capable to challenge unequal and structure power relations and make justice achievable for defenders and communities. However, the urgency of the strategies must also prioritize protecting people for having their lives directly impacted by different forms of persecution, harassment and violence.

This article belongs to Beet The System ! 2023 "Defend the Defenders : Stop the criminalisation of defenders for the right to food". Click here to read other articles in english or in dutch.