Protecting the Rights of Environmental Defenders

In countries all over the world, environmental defenders are under attack and their human rights are being violated. Governments, corporations, and others attempt to silence environmental defenders by bringing fabricated criminal charges, filing defamation lawsuits, threatening, assaulting, and even killing them. The most basic civil and political rights of environmental defenders- the rights of freedom of expression, participation, petition, association, and even the right to life – are being routinely violated.

EDLC has created this resource section to help environmental defenders, their families, their lawyers, and others assisting them fight back against these human rights violations.

Today, in too many countries, it is dangerous business to be an environmentalist. In democracies and dictatorships, in developed and developing economies, the basic human rights of environmental activists are being abused.

- "Environmentalists Under Fire," a Joint Report of Amnesty International and the Sierra Club, 2000.