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Threats

Financial

Authoritarian governments, in particular, have used their influence over the financial system to shut down the work of earth rights defenders.

Examples include:

  • Stripping civil society organizations of their nonprofit and legal status
  • Closing or freezing bank accounts
  • Criminalizing foreign sources of funding
Democracy faced its most serious crisis in decades in 2017 as its basic tenets—including guarantees of free and fair elections, the rights of minorities, freedom of the press, and the rule of law—came under attack around the world (Freedom House).
61
Countries imprisoned people for exercising their human rights in 2016 (Amnesty USA).
372 +
Companies worldwide have adopted human rights policies. Yet the threats against earth rights defenders continues to rise (Business & Human Rights Resource Center).

Related Resouces

Strategies in Action

Case: Sahu v. Union Carbide

In Bhopal, India, people continue to suffer from water contamination. And no one is taking responsibility. In 1984, the world’s worst industrial disaster – a toxic gas leak at a

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

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