Co-Violations of Rights

Report Background

Around the world, governments and corporations are harassing, threatening, attacking, imprisoning, and killing defenders of environmental and human rights. Meanwhile, the Natural World suffers from escalating threats including extinctions, toxic pollution, deforestation, mining, a rapidly changing climate, and many other onslaughts. Many of these harms rise to the level of “co-violations,” which occur when governments, industries, or both violate both nature’s rights and human rights with the same action.

Recognizing this alarming trend, Earth Law Center released a report called “Fighting for Our Shared Future: Protecting Both Human Rights and Nature’s Rights.” This report examined and analyzed 100 such cases of co-violations of human and environmental rights and made recommendations on how to establish a better future for people and planet.

Berta Cáceres on the sacred Gaulcarque River, by Goldman Environmental Prize

Berta Cáceres on the sacred Gaulcarque River, by Goldman Environmental Prize

Since then, a wave of new, increasingly violent cases of rights co-violations have swept across the globe, including two Goldman Environmental Prize winners. Berta Cáceres was murdered for helping the indigenous Lenca people of Honduras fight against the Agua Zarca Dam and other “mega-dams” that destroy riparian ecosystems. Maxima Acuña de Chaupe was viciously attacked in Peru for her opposition to gold mining within the an Andean tropical cloud forest. These co-violations indicate serious, systemic governance problems in which the rights of destructive industries outweigh the fundamental rights and well-being of people and the Earth.

Read our Report on Co-Violations, 2016 Update - Fighting for Our Shared Future: Protecting Both Human Rights and Nature's Rights

Read the Executive Summary

Read the Press Release

This report includes only some of the many co-violations occurring across the globe. We want more stories to be heard. Submit your own information below for review.

What we do to the environment we do to ourselves. Human rights and nature’s rights are intertwined and co-dependent; by exploiting and destroying ecosystems and species, we also diminish the quality of human life.

CO-VIOLATIONS REPORT FINDINGS

On International Human Rights Day, Earth Law Center released its second annual report detailing these and other co-violations of human rights and Nature’s rights worldwide. The report analyzes another 100 cases – 200 in total – and highlights many chilling trends.

For example, 28 percent of examined cases involved at least one murder, while 30 percent of involved harm to indigenous peoples’ rights, despite their comprising only five percent of the population. The recent rise in injustices toward environmental and human rights defenders was deemed a “truly global crisis” by Michel Forst, U.N. Special Rapporteur. Additionally, nearly 60 percent of the cases resulted in biodiversity loss, underscoring an alarming study indicating that the world is now on track to lose two-thirds of Earth’s animal life by 2020.

What You Can do to Report a Co-Violation

Everyone can help stop the spread of co-violations.

You can submit alleged rights violations via the United Nations Special Rapporteurs website. The UN Special Rapporteurs act upon submitted information and notify the affected governments.

Affected communities can also reach out to other organizations working to bring awareness to and address co-violations including the Global Witness, Environmental Justice Organizations, Liabilities and Trade (EJOLT), The Gaia Foundation, and Yes to Life No to Mining Campaign.

Other Information

SUBMIT INFORMATION ON ADDITIONAL CO-VIOLATIONS

ELC invites the public to submit information on additional co-violations. Please include a summary below, including any relevant links, and we will review the case promptly.