PBI-Canada calls on Canada to support human rights defenders at the COP26 summit in November

Photo: Environment Minister Jonathan Wilkinson and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau joined with other leaders to sign the Paris Agreement on April 22, 2016. By October 5, 2016, his cabinet had approved the ratification of the deal and the House of Commons had voted 207 to 81 to endorse the Paris Agreement.

The United Nations COP26 this coming November is widely recognized as the most significant climate summit since COP21 in December 2015 (where the Paris Agreement was reached) and it will be an opportunity for leaders to report on their progress since then and to strengthen their commitments to address climate change.

As the Canadian government determines its priorities for COP26, PBI-Canada is calling on it to affirm the Human Rights Council resolution on environmental human rights defenders and their role in supporting states to fulfil their obligations under the Paris Agreement.

We believe language from that resolution should be reflected in the Canadian government’s policy statements and that it should advocate for A/HRC/40/L.22/Rev.1 to be acknowledged in the final declaration from COP26.

That Human Rights Council resolution can be read in full here. The main sponsor of the resolution was Norway and its 71 co-sponsors included Canada.

In the 28-point resolution, the Human Rights Council:

– Expressed grave concern at the situation of environmental human rights defenders around the world, and strongly condemns the killing of and all other human rights violations or abuses against environmental human rights defenders, including women and indigenous human rights defenders, by State and non-State actors

– Stressed that human rights defenders, including environmental human rights defenders, must be ensured a safe and enabling environment to undertake their work free from hindrance and insecurity, in recognition of their important role in supporting States to fulfil their obligations under the Paris Agreement and to realize the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development

– Urged all States to take all measures necessary to ensure the rights, protection and safety of all persons, including environmental human rights defenders, who exercise, inter alia, the rights to freedom of opinion, expression, peaceful assembly and association, online and offline, which are essential for the promotion and protection of human rights and the protection and conservation of the environment

– Urged States to acknowledge, through public statements, policies, programmes or laws, the important and legitimate role of human rights defenders in the promotion of all human rights, democracy and the rule of law as essential components of ensuring their protection, including by respecting the independence of their organizations and by avoiding the stigmatization of their work, including with regard to the environment.

Prior to the Human Rights Council adopting this resolution, 197 organizations – including Peace Brigades International – signed this letter that outlined 13 key points that should be noted in the resolution including:

– Naming the industries most dangerous to defenders, such as the mining industry, natural resource exploitation, agribusiness and large-scale development projects

– Calling on States to guarantee the right to free, prior and informed consent for indigenous peoples

– Calling on States to adopt legislation that creates due diligence obligations for companies registered in their jurisdictions and those of their subsidiaries.

The International Service for Human Rights has commented: “While the resolution was adopted by consensus [by the Human Rights Council on March 21, 2019], the unity came at the price of a lack of specificity in certain areas.”

“For instance, the resolution does not clearly recognize all of the root causes of the insecurity facing environmental human rights defenders, as documented by UN experts, nor comprehensively name the perpetrators or the most dangerous industries. It also fails to clearly spell out the human rights obligations of development finance institutions, and to detail the corresponding necessary steps to consult, respect and protect the work of environmental human rights defenders.”

PBI-Canada is working in collaboration with other PBI entities and allies around the world to highlight the relationship between climate change and human rights in the lead-up to the UN COP26 climate summit in Glasgow this coming November 1-12.