'Let us make Europe a safe place for environmental human rights defenders', 25 May 2021

In 2017 in Bosnia and Herzegovina, a group of dedicated grassroots environmental activists staged a 500-day-long protest against the construction of new hydropower dams on the Kruščica river. The fight... met with many obstacles, including physical violence and arrests, but... helped to safeguard access to fresh drinking water for local residents... [I]n the United Kingdom, more than ten years of protests and pressure from environmental campaigners resulted in a government moratorium on fracking... These are just a handful of real-life examples of how environmental action has benefited the human rights and collective safety of entire communities in Europe... Sadly, there are places in Europe today where environmental human rights defenders are beaten, threatened, verbally abused, intimidated, or otherwise prevented from carrying out their legitimate activities in a safe and free manner... Increasingly, governments view and present environmental organisations as suspicious and pass legislation or measures with the aim of limiting their scope for action... Public participation in global environmental summits has often been curtailed and large numbers of environmental activists placed under surveillance... Aggressive tactics used against environmental human rights defenders are also frequently extended to investigative journalists... [A] freelance journalist renowned for her investigation into the environmental degradation caused by the discharge of toxic pesticides by the agri-food industry was targeted by ... “strategic lawsuits against public participation” (SLAPPs)... If European governments ... are serious about their stated commitments to fighting environmental pollution and climate change, it is high time that they recognised and acted decisively on their responsibilities vis-à-vis environmental human rights defenders and environmental journalists... As they are increasingly targeted, let us reverse the trend and make Europe a safe place for environmental activism.