Action plan on environmental human rights defenders approved at Escazú COP 3

Last week, Latin American and Caribbean countries approved an action plan for the protection of environmental human rights defenders. This approval was a key result of the third Conference of the Parties (COP 3) of the Escazú Agreement that took place from 22 through 24 of April in Santiago, Chile. The Escazú Agreement is an important step forward, yet it falls short in adequately addressing gender issues. FARN, EcoMaxei and IUCN NL therefore organised an official side event on gender action plans for women environmental defenders.

Photo: Victor Zambrano, environmental defender and President of the Comité de Gestión de la Reserva Nacional Tambopata in Peru. © Giancarlo Shibayama / SPDA

Action plan for environmental defenders

During the COP 3, which was attended by 700 people in Santiago and hundreds virtually, the commitment to recognise, protect and promote the rights of environmental defenders was affirmed multiple times. Delegates stressed the urgency and political relevance of an action plan protecting environmental defenders, considering their critical situation in the region.

Marcelo Cousillas, Director of the Legal Area of the Ministry of Environment of Uruguay and President of the COP 3, stated that in the past decade three out of four murders on environmental took place in Latin America and the Caribbean. During the same period, 2,000 people were killed worldwide for standing up for environmental human rights. On the second day of the event, the action plan, prepared by an open-ended working group with the participation from Indigenous peoples and local communities, among others, was approved.

The Action Plan on Human Rights Defenders in Environmental Matters in Latin America and the Caribbean aims to implements a set of priority and strategic measures to advance towards the full and effective implementation of the treaty’s article 9^[1]1. Each Party shall guarantee a safe and enabling environment for persons, groups and organizations that promote and defend human rights in environmental matters, so that they are able to act free … Continue reading on human rights defenders in environmental matters. The plan spans six years, from April 2024 to April 2030, and has several interconnected priority areas: knowledge generation, recognition, capacity building, cooperation for national implementation and evaluation^[2]UN. 2024. States Parties of the Escazú Agreement Approved Action Plan on Human Rights Defenders in Environmental Matters. Link to source.

Event: challenges of environmental defenders

Our Peruvian partner Sociedad Peruana de Derecho Ambiental (SPDA), organised an online event about Escazú and the challenges for environmental defenders in the context of the COP. The event draw attention to the current situation and challenges faced by environmental defenders in Colombia, Brazil and Peru, countries that did not yet ratify the treaty, as well as the urgent need for them to be protected under the protection mechanisms provided for in the action plan.

Side event: gender action plans for women defenders

Despite the Escazú Agreement being an important step forward, but its gender provisions need to become more solid. As they lack an intersectional perspective, these provisions do not allow women in all their diversity to be included in the processes. This is of great importance since, as environmental conflicts increase, women’s role in defending nature, land and territories, as well as promoting a healthy environment is becoming increasingly important.

During the COP 3, FARN, Eco Maxei and IUCN NL therefore organises a side event on generating safe and enabling environments for women environmental defenders in Latin America. During this webinar, experiences and good practices of gender action plans were discussed by panelists with a variety of initiatives and backgrounds, including Olivier Rukundo, Head of the People and Biodiversity Unit of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD); Amelia Arreguin, Coordinator of the CBD Women’s Caucus; and Amalia Añez, Leader of the Indigenous Women’s Area of Federación Nativa del Río Madre de Dios y Afluentes (FENAMAD).

Key messages for solid gender provisions

The Escazú Agreement is of great relevance for the region because it is a binding treaty recognising the rights of environmental defenders and the implementation of Principle 10 of the Rio Declaration. However, it is important to incorporate and strengthen a gender perspective in the treaty.

The key messages of the side event were shared with the Escazú Secretariat:

• The advances in gender in the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), the Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), and the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) throughout the years. Especially, the CBD and UNFCCC gender action plans are essential entry points towards better gender integration in public policies.
• Good civil society monitoring practices of national reports at the CBD have strengthened the rights of women, girls, Indigenous Peoples and local communities in the implementation of international commitments. Women’s groups have played a key role in the CBD and UNFCCC in mainstreaming gender justice and human rights into biodiversity and climate policy. They are also vital in informally monitoring the implementation of the agreements reached. Women defenders’ work and their constant struggles, especially indigenous women and women from local communities, constitute relevant experience and knowledge for a gender approach in different national policies.
• CBD COP 16, which will take place in October 2024, is an excellent opportunity to deepen the connection between gender issues and nature defenders in light of the specific goals contained in the global biodiversity framework.
• The objective proposed by the Escazú Agreement in its text is to articulate with other international environmental processes.

In addition, national reports presented to the CBD, UNCCD and UNFCCC should include concrete gender actions. It is essential to ensure that countries adequately understand the Escazú Agreement when reporting to the conventions.

The panelists also identified multiple challenges, including the challenge in most countries to strengthen gender capacity building for different actors, and to institutionalise these processes in public policies. In this, special consideration must be given to Indigenous women defenders, whose defense activities are heavily criminalised in many countries. Another challenge is for specific financial flows for conservation and restoration activities to be led by women to strengthen their activities, capacities, access to decision-making and technologies.

Why is an adequate gender lens crucial?

It is necessary to learn from organised and unorganised women, who are the ones who best know the planetary balances that make the existence of our species possible. We must all work for it. If we want to avoid environmental deterioration and put a stop to the climate crisis, we have to take gender mainstreaming in environmental policies, roadmaps and action plans seriously, measurement and monitoring of the gender perspective, reports of abuse, the sensitisation of people in charge of making decisions, and the socialisation of the findings.

We must move towards establishing a process for the participatory development of a gender action plan for Escazú, not only with political and technical mandates but also with concrete and possible actions, compliance dates and establishing a reporting mechanism based on evidence and results.

Watch the Spanish version of the recording below.

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