Land Acquisition Fund ambassador Arjan Dwarshuis supports nature
16 December, 2024
Thursday 02 may 2024
Photo: Victor Zambrano, environmental defender and President of the Comité de Gestión de la Reserva Nacional Tambopata in Peru. © Giancarlo Shibayama / SPDA
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.
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.
The Escazú Agreement is a regional treaty on access to information, public participation and justice in environmental matters in Latin America and the Caribbean. It bridges the environment and the human rights perspective. It is an agreement made by and for the region and its people, involving governments and civil society an integral part of an inclusive and participatory negotiation process. The treaty is the world’s first binding agreement with provisions on environmental and human rights activists, making it a pioneering instrument.
The agreement has been signed by 25 governments, of which 15 countries have currently ratified the text, making it applicable at a national level. Peru, Colombia and Brazil have not yet done so. During the COP3, the importance of ratifying and implementing the agreement across the region was highlighted. The treaty went into force in 2021. Since two years have passed, the conference’s Executive Board was renewed at COP 3, with Uruguay now functioning as Chair. A session on national implementation of the Escazú Agreement showcased progress and decisions by seven countries, emphasizing their commitment to the treaty and the need for internal synergies.
Other topics discussed were a regional economic development model that enables growth without affecting the environment, and for the inclusion of Indigenous peoples in environmental participation processes and mechanisms. Measures to integrate and strengthen the gender perspective in the agreement were approved by the Parties[3]UN. 2024. COP 3 of the Escazú Agreement Reinforces the Commitment to Recognize, Protect and Promote All the Rights of Human Rights Defenders in Environmental Matters. Link to source..
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).
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:
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.
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.
↑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 from threat, restriction and insecurity. 2. Each Party shall take adequate and effective measures to recognize, protect and promote all the rights of human rights defenders in environmental matters, including their right to life, personal integrity, freedom of opinion and expression, peaceful assembly and association, and free movement, as well as their ability to exercise their access rights, taking into account its international obligations in the field of human rights, its constitutional principles and the basic concepts of its legal system. 3. Each Party shall also take appropriate, effective and timely measures to prevent, investigate and punish attacks, threats or intimidations that human rights defenders in environmental matters may suffer while exercising the rights set out in the present Agreement. Link to source. |
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↑2 | UN. 2024. States Parties of the Escazú Agreement Approved Action Plan on Human Rights Defenders in Environmental Matters. Link to source. |
↑3 | UN. 2024. COP 3 of the Escazú Agreement Reinforces the Commitment to Recognize, Protect and Promote All the Rights of Human Rights Defenders in Environmental Matters. Link to source. |