BHRRC: “630 instances of attacks against people raising concerns about business-related harms” in 2023
The Business & Human Rights Resource Centre (BHRRC) has released its report titled: People power under pressure: Human rights defenders & business in 2023.
A key finding of the report is: “Between January 2015 and December 2023, the Resource Centre documented over 5,300 attacks globally against HRDs challenging corporate harm. In 2023 alone, we identified 630 attacks directly affecting an estimated 20,000 people. Over three quarters (78%) of these attacks were against people taking action to protect the climate, environmental and land rights.”
There are two references to Canada in the BHRRC report:
– “In 2023, we recorded numerous instances of attacks against people engaged in civil disobedience to urge climate action, including arrests of Indigenous defenders opposing the Coastal GasLink pipeline in Canada…”
Video: The BHRRC has noted that Wet’suwet’en land defender Jocey Alec was arrested on March 29, 2023 along with four other land defenders. On April 16, 2023, she participated in our webinar about Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) Community-Industry Response Group (C-IRG) violence against land defenders.
– “On 23 October 2023, at least 30 activists were arrested following protests following the National Assembly’s approval of a contract for copper exploitation in Central America’s largest open-pit copper mine, operated by Minera Panama, a subsidiary of Canada’s First Quantum Minerals, in view of the declaration of unconstitutionality of the previous contract. At the beginning of 2024, 21 of those arrested were charged with terrorism. Since the start of the protests in October 2023, several people have been injured, including journalist and activist Aubrey Baxter, who lost an eye due to excessive use of force by the police. On 1 November 2023, Diógenes Sánchez, a member of the Panamanian Teachers’ Association (Asoprof), was arrested by police following his active participation in the protests. On 7 November, Abdiel Díaz and Iván Rodríguez were shot and killed by a gunman. The Resource Centre invited Minera Panama and First Quantum Minerals to respond; they did not.”
The BHRRC chart above should also be read in the context of statistics provided by MiningWatch Canada that highlight: “47% of the world’s public mining companies are listed on Canadian stock exchanges. More than half of Canadian mining and exploration companies operate overseas (730).”
The report also notes:
“Many attacks involve collusion between state, private sector and other non-state actors, such as organised crime, occurring in contexts where there are high levels of impunity. This often makes it difficult to identify perpetrators. In 2023, direct perpetrators of attacks were largely state actors, with police and the judicial systems being the most common perpetrators, followed by the military/armed forces. However, this does not mean companies were not involved in attacks. In all 630 instances of attacks documented in 2023, HRDs were raising concerns about business-related actual or projected harms. A specific business was mentioned in 50% of cases.”
The full report including recommendations can be read here.
Photo of Jocey Alec by Brandi Morin.
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