Peace Brigades International first endorsed the Escazú Agreement in September 2018 as “a means to guarantee a safe environment in which individuals, groups and organizations that promote and defend human rights related to the environment can act without facing threats, restrictions, attacks or danger.”

PBI-Colombia, PBI-Mexico and PBI-Canada have amplified this with further statements in support of the Escazú Agreement.

In this article published on December 9, Graciela Martinez, Amnesty International’s Mexico City-based campaigner for human rights defenders in the Americas, writes: “The Escazú Agreement is innovative, for one thing because it is the first binding instrument of its kind in the world to include provisions on environmental defenders.”

She adds: “The agreement recognizes the importance of such people’s work and obliges states to ensure their protection by establishing guidelines on appropriate and effective measures that can be taken to ensure they are able to work in safety.”

Martinez further notes: “[While the Agreement] does not explicitly refer to the right to free, prior and informed consultation as recognized in International Labour Organization (ILO) Convention 169, the two instruments are clearly complementary.”

She then highlights: “The right to access information on environmental matters, key to the Escazú Agreement, is part of the informed consent of indigenous and tribal peoples, as is effective participation through legitimate representation and the incorporation and facilitation of traditional decision-making methods.”

Martinez notes that while the Mexican Senate approved its ratification just one month ago, it has yet to deposit the instrument with the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) to make it official.

She also writes that Honduras, which suffers the highest per capita number of murders of environmental defenders, has not even signed it.

Additionally, there are reports of some progress with the agreement in Colombia despite early opposition from the Duque government, while the process of its ratification in Guatemala has stagnated under President Alejandro Giammattei.

More than two-thirds of the 212 land and environmental defenders killed last year were based in Latin America.

And as the fifth anniversary of the Paris climate agreement approaches this weekend, we remember that on average four land and environmental defenders have been killed every week since COP21 in December 2015.

Peace Brigades International-Canada continues to call on the Canadian government to both publicly and through diplomatic channels back the ratification and full implementation of the Escazú Agreement.

Further reading – PBI-Mexico: “The Escazú Agreement, a necessary tool for the fight against climate change”

Social media posts have highlighted that: “Kanehsatà:ke Land Defenders will be hosting a protest at the Oka Golf Club [on December 10].”

To watch a portion of that protest, please click here.

Land defender Ellen Gabriel has noted: “Kanehsatà:ke Land Defenders are organizing a protest to denounce the persistent human rights abuses committed by the mayor of Oka, the lack of good faith and good will by all levels of government to address the systemic racism that has plagued Kanehsatà:ke for over 3 centuries.”

She has additionally explained: “The Oka municipality [has] mounted an unprovoked aggression against the Mohawk People by moving to seize a traditional burial ground on unceded land, the Oka Pines, and making it its own cultural heritage. This move is the latest in a decades-long series of provocations and racist attacks by the municipality.”

This media release issued on December 8 further notes: “Kanienkeha:ká Land Defenders … call on the Canadian and Provincial Governments to intervene to stop the pattern of aggression and meet with land defenders in the presence of impartial observers.”

Among the issues of concern that Gabriel has been highlighting are the cutting of trees in The Pines on November 17 (for more on this, watch her 8-minute Facebook video), the Domaine des Collines d’Oka housing development on ancestral lands that began in 2017, and an archaeological dig that Gabriel noted in a letter this past June lacks the “consultation as well as the free, prior and informed consent” required for projects.

Furthermore, tensions increased after Oka Town Council passed a motion in August 2019 calling on Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to establish an RCMP (Royal Canadian Mounted Police) detachment in Kanesatake.

In this essay published on July 11, Gabriel wrote: “Today marks the 30th anniversary of the 1990 Kanehsatà:ke and Kahnawake Siege where the Kanien’kehá:ka Nation were denied their fundamental human rights without any just recourse. 30 years later, the Rotinonhseshá:ka are still fighting the same issues, while Canada, Québec and Oka collude to continue their land fraud under the auspices of development based on institutionalized racism.”

A still from this video of the protest today.

On November 25, PBI accompanied a march on the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women in Yondó, Antioquia, Colombia.

Throughout this ongoing pandemic, Peace Brigades International has continued to do what is needed to support the human rights defenders who are at risk for speaking against destructive megaprojects, extractivism, state violence and persecution.

Your help with an online donation will enable us to continue to do this work.

PBI provides in-person and remote accompaniment to defenders at meetings and protests, advocacy to help address the situations that generate violence against them and communities, and communications to amplify the concerns of defenders.

Our accompaniment, advocacy and communications all help to make the space for peace so that defenders can continue to advance social change.

Now more than ever before, this is a crucial fundraising moment and we hope that we can count on your support.

To make a year-end online donation, please click here.

Your donation will mean that we can:

• strengthen our efforts to find volunteers able to spend a year or more on the frontlines accompanying defenders,
• scale-up our advocacy efforts with webinars, urgent action petitions, and meetings with officials, and
• expand the audiences we can reach with our articles and social media posts about the struggles we accompany.

Thank you.

Brent Patterson, Peace Brigades International-Canada

Yesterday was International Human Rights Defenders Day. On average four land and environmental defenders have been killed every seek since the Paris climate agreement was reached at COP21 in Paris in December 2015.

On December 10, The Guardian reported on the Climate Ambition Summit which is being hosted by Britain, France and the United Nations this Saturday December 12 in a bid to boost climate commitments ahead of the COP26 summit next year.

The article explains: “The co-hosts, which also include Chile and Italy, wrote to national leaders in October offering speaking slots to countries that promised deeper cuts in greenhouse gas emissions by 2030, backed a long-term strategy to reach net-zero emissions, or offered new commitments on climate finance or adaptation.”

The article highlights that Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison is “unlikely” to have a speaking slot at the summit.

Then in the ninth paragraph of the story, it notes: “Canada and New Zealand, which both have set net zero targets for 2050, are also believed to have missed out.”

This follows a conversation on November 9 between the summit’s host, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on the Climate Ambition Summit and “the importance of global climate action and the need for countries to set ambitious targets to cut emissions and to reach net zero.”

Under the Harper and Trudeau governments, Canada has previously promised to cut emissions by 30 per cent below 2005 levels by 2030. Using the more commonly used international baseline, Greenpeace Canada has calculated that equates to a pledge to reduce emissions by just 14 per cent below 1990 levels by 2030.

Yesterday, December 9, was the 22nd anniversary of the United Nations General Assembly adopting the Declaration on Human Rights Defenders.

The UN High Commissioner for human rights has stated climate change is a massive threat to human rights and the UN Human Rights Council has passed this resolution calling for the protection of environmental human rights defenders given the crucial role they play in protecting vital ecosystems and addressing climate change.

On average four land and environmental defenders have been killed every week since the Paris climate agreement was reached at COP21 in Paris in December 2015. More than one-third of those fatal attacks have been against Indigenous land defenders.

PBI-Canada is asking Prime Minister Trudeau to strengthen Canada’s climate targets, to present credible plans to meet those targets, and to uphold the right of Indigenous land defenders to free, prior and informed consent.

You can add your voice to this call by clicking here.

The Guardian’s environment correspondent Fiona Harvey has commented: “This week’s climate ambition summit will be an important milestone, but the Cop26 summit next year will be the key test.” PBI-Canada will continue to focus on the issue of frontline climate defenders in the lead-up to this November 1-12, 2021 summit.