{"id":7595,"date":"2019-08-08T00:56:00","date_gmt":"2019-08-07T22:56:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sonnenseite.com\/politics\/how-governments-and-businesses-silence-land-and-environmental-defender.html"},"modified":"2019-08-08T00:56:00","modified_gmt":"2019-08-07T22:56:00","slug":"how-governments-and-businesses-silence-land-and-environmental-defender","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sonnenseite.com\/en\/politics\/how-governments-and-businesses-silence-land-and-environmental-defender\/","title":{"rendered":"How governments and businesses silence land and environmental defender"},"content":{"rendered":"

More than three people were murdered each week in 2018, with countless more criminalised, for defending their land and our environment.<\/p>\n

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Calls to protect the planet are growing louder – but around the world, those defending their land and our environment are being silenced. More than three such people were murdered on average every week in 2018, with attacks driven by destructive industries like mining, logging and agribusiness.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

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This year, our annual report on the killings of land and environmental defenders also reveals how countless more people were threatened, arrested or thrown in jail for daring to oppose the governments or companies seeking to profit from their land. <\/p>\n

These are ordinary people trying to protect their homes and livelihoods, and standing up for the health of our planet. Often their land is violently grabbed to produce goods used and consumed across the world every day, from food, to mobile phones, to jewellery.<\/p>\n

Download the full report: Enemies of the State? (PDF, 3.8MB)<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

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“They say we are terrorists, delinquents, assassins and that we have armed groups here, but really they’re just killing us.” – Joel Raymundo, member of the Peaceful Resistance of Ixquisis movement<\/em> <\/p><\/blockquote><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

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Our Findings<\/strong><\/p>\n

Julián Carrillo knew he was in danger long before his body was found riddled with bullets in October 2018. He was the sixth member of his family to die in two years after opposing mining on their community’s land in Mexico.  <\/p>\n

Days earlier, gunmen had massacred nine men, women and children over a long-running land dispute on the island of Negros, in central Philippines.<\/p>\n

And in Iran, renowned academic Kavous Seyed-Emami died in prison in suspicious circumstances, one of nine environmentalists jailed over accusations that they were using their work protecting cheetahs as a cover for spying.<\/p>\n

Because many other deaths go unrecorded, the figures in this report are almost certainly a sizeable underestimate. Nonetheless, the stories it tells show how a growing demand for land to meet consumer demand is driving deadly violence around the world.<\/p>\n

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  • In 2018 Guatemala<\/strong> recorded the sharpest rise in murders, which jumped more than fivefold to make it the deadliest country per capita.<\/li>\n
  • The Philippines<\/strong> had the highest number of killings of any country this year, with at least 30 defenders murdered.<\/li>\n
  • Mining <\/strong>was the worst sector, causing 43 deaths, though deaths related to conflicts over water sources<\/strong> also surged. Attacks driven by agribusiness, logging and hydropower continued too.<\/li>\n
  • Private security groups, state forces and contract killers – sometimes working together – are all suspected of carrying out killings. <\/li>\n<\/ul><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
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    Criminalisation of Defenders<\/strong><\/p>\n

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