How EDLC Can Help

EDLC has enlisted and continues to enlist top American and European law firms to help combat all of the types of violations of the human rights of environmental defenders described in this resource section. Some specific case examples are provided below, followed by a list of the ways in which the firms and EDLC can help.

Cases where the law firms have helped

• Helping obtain dismissal of criminal charges in cases against several prominent Mexican opponents of illegal logging, and Guatemalan indigenous leaders.
• Preparing and presenting legal briefs to combat civil and criminal defamation charges in the Philippines and Chile brought in retaliation for the defendants' efforts to stop pesticide overuse by a banana plantation, and expose corruption in the logging of government lands.
• Applying international pressure to the Brazilian government that helped lead to the convictions of some of those responsible for the murder of the American nun Dorothy Stang.
• Working with the prosecutor and the lawyer for the families of two murdered environmental defenders in Honduras in preparing for the trial of the police officers who killed them.
• Obtaining asylum in the United States for a threatened environmental defender from Mexico.

Ten Ways in which EDLC and the law firms can help

1. Enlist American and European lawyers to work pro bono with local lawyers or NGOs on individual cases. EDLC can sometimes help obtain local legal help as well.
2. Provide information on human rights laws and remedies that protect environmental defenders and allow them to challenge violations of their human rights.
3. Prepare legal briefs for use in the defender's court case.
4. Travel to the defender's country to meet with government officials and others.
5. Pursue human rights remedies on behalf of the defender at the regional or international level.
6. Collaborate with local, national, and international non-governmental organizations that work on these issues.
7. Get press coverage at the local, national, and international levels.
8. Use political and diplomatic contacts, whether inside or outside the defender's country, as a means of applying pressure.
9. Share the lessons learned from similar cases involving other environmental defenders, whether inside the defender's country or elsewhere.
10. Internationalize the case through some or all of the above strategies, to show how internationally-protected human rights are being violated, and how the case must be looked at as part of the global problem of the persecution of environmental defenders.

While others deserve credit too for the charges being dismissed, it was EDLC that enabled such an effective international campaign.

- Randall Gingrich, former Executive Director of the Sierra Madre Alliance