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Drivers

Extractive Industries

The extractive industries – oil, gas, and mining – is a risky business that has historically been fraught with human rights abuses. From the process of seizing land from local communities, to forcefully resettling people, to contaminating their water and soil with dangerous chemicals, natural resource extraction is a recipe for abuse. Earth rights defenders have long struggled for better respect for local communities’ rights from these industries.

2/3 +
Of the human rights defenders killed in 2017 were working on land, environmental, and indigenous rights issues, nearly always in the context of mega projects (Frontline Defenders).
25 %
Of all threats and attacks against human rights defenders in 2016 and 2017 were connected to companies headquartered in Canada, China, and the United States (UN Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights Defenders).
Various studies show that threats and attacks against human rights defenders are most frequently connected to the mining, oil and extractive industries.

Strategies in Action

Case: Campos-Alvarez v. Newmont Mining

Shooting Peaceful Mine Protesters in Peru. In Peru, police brutality against earth rights defenders is a systemic problem especially in the context of extractive industries. One emblematic example of police

Case: Norperuano Pipeline Contamination

A pipeline in the northernmost Peruvian Amazon has been spilling oil and contaminating communities for 50 years. The pipeline is operated by the Peruvian government, through its state-owned oil company

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Read our global strategy for earth rights defenders

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