Science for Action: Protecting Defenders

The Science for Action Series is jointly coordinated by the International Land Coalition (ILC) and the Global Land Programme (GLP). It brings together key findings from research networks relevant to ILC ten commitments to People-Centred Land Governance. The Series facilitates an exchange of knowledge between scientists, civil society, and grassroots organisations to strengthen efforts of land users, practitioners and policy-makers to bring about positive change in land governance.

This brief refers to Commitment 10: Respect and protect the civil and political rights of human rights defenders working on land issues, combat the stigmatisation and criminalisation of peaceful protest and land rights activism, and end impunity for human rights violations, including harassment, threats, violence and political imprisonment.

The brief is based on research carried out by Trócaire, an agency of the Irish Catholic Church and member organisation of the ILC.

There has never been a more critical time to protect land and environmental rights and the people who put their lives on the line to defend them.

More and more ordinary people are finding themselves on the frontline of the battle to defend their land and territories from corporate or state abuse and unsustainable exploitation. Many violations are invisible, and the situation is set to become worse as competition for access to natural resources and land grabs intensify against a backdrop of extreme global inequality.

ILC members and their partners face threats, criminalisation, violence, and killings for defending the rights of local communities, peasants, pastoralists, and Indigenous Peoples to their land and environment.