Criminalization of indigenous and community land defenders

Key Related Visuals

Overview

Key Messages and Data Points

Regional Messaging and Data Points

Country-level Messaging and Data Points

Key Related Visuals

Graphic: Stages of criminalization

Video clips: Indigenous leaders speak out about criminalization

Quote graphics on criminalization cases

Website: Criminalization of Indigenous Peoples and communities

Overview

Indigenous Peoples and local communities manage many of the world’s great forests and biodiversity hotspots—lands that are prime targets for environmentally destructive agriculture, mining, logging, and other large-scale projects. When communities stand up to defend their homes and protect the planet, they are often met with attacks. These attacks can include violence, killings, and threats—as well as legal persecution, and other tactics to criminalize land defenders or tarnish their reputations. At the root of this legal and physical violence is insecure land rights and entrenched racism toward Indigenous Peoples and rural communities.

UN Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Victoria Tauli-Corpuz, who herself was falsely accused of being a “terrorist” by the Philippines government in retaliation for speaking out on behalf of displaced indigenous communities, called this assault on human rights a “global crisis.” This violence often follows the same patterns, beginning with smear campaigns and hate speech to paint communities as “obstacles to development,” or even as terrorists and criminals. Arrest warrants on trumped-up charges often follow, typically targeting indigenous leaders as governments and companies leverage justice systems to legitimize false accusations. When physical violence follows, there is widespread impunity for perpetrators.

Key Messages and Data Points

The expansion of development projects onto the lands of Indigenous Peoples and local communities without their consent is driving a global crisis of violence and criminalization against environmental defenders. The documentation of hundreds of murders and cases of “criminalization” reveals a systemic attack on communities.

In 2018, at least 321 individuals in 27 countries were killed in retribution for their human rights work. Of those killed, more than three-quarters (77%) were defending land, environmental, and Indigenous Peoples’ rights. [Source: Front Line Defenders 2019]
At least 49% of those killed in 2018 had previously received a specific direct threat, and in an additional 43% of killings, there had been general threats made to defenders in the area. [Source: Front Line Defenders 2018]
By another calculation, 164 land and environmental defenders were killed in 2018, with half of these taking place in Latin America. Mining & Extractives was the deadliest sector, with 43 defenders killed for protesting the harmful effects of mineral extraction. [Source: Global Witness 2020 (Enemies of the State)]
Criminalization and aggressive civil cases are increasingly being used to curtail environmental activism and the defense of land across the world, “including in ‘developed’ countries like the US. [Source: Global Witness 2020 (Enemies of the State)]

Despite their crucial role in forest protection, Indigenous Peoples and local communities are also harassed, criminalized, evicted, and killed in the name of conservation. They lose their homes and livelihoods when their traditional territories are labeled “protected areas” without their Free, Prior, and Informed Consent.

Indigenous Peoples’ lands intersect with around 40% of all protected areas and more than 65% of the most remote and least inhabited lands on Earth. [Source: (Garnett, Stephen T. et. al (Nature Sustainability)]
“Fortress” approaches to conservation—those grounded in a historical concept of protected areas as pristine, untouched lands—are perpetuating a system of abuse and human rights violations against the Indigenous Peoples and local communities who have traditionally inhabited and protected these lands. [Source: Tauli-Corpuz, Victoria, Janis Alcorn, and Augusta Molnar 2018 (Cornered by Protected Areas)]
The idea that conservation requires emptying the land of its customary inhabitants fails to acknowledge that Indigenous Peoples and local communities are the most effective and efficient guardians of the forest. Their lands store at least 22% (218 gigatons) of the total carbon found in tropical and subtropical forests (including both above- and belowground sources). [Source: RRI 2017 (Global carbon baseline)]
Indigenous and local communities achieve at least equal conservation outcomes with less than a quarter of the budget of protected areas. [Source: Tauli-Corpuz, Victoria, Janis Alcorn, and Augusta Molnar 2018 (Cornered by Protected Areas)]

Criminalization against land rights defenders often follows a similar pattern:

Smear campaigns: Fueled by hate speech based on racism and discrimination, smear tactics and defamation campaigns on social media portray Indigenous Peoples as members of criminal gangs, guerrillas, terrorists, and threats against national security.
Criminal charges: Indigenous leaders and their communities are often accused of vague charges—such as “perturbation of public order,” “usurpation,” “trespassing,” “conspiracy,” “coercion,” and “instigation of crime.” “States of emergency” are used to suspend judicial guarantees and suppress peaceful protests.
Arrest warrants: Warrants are repeatedly issued despite poor evidence and uncorroborated testimony. At times, accusations fail to name people, leaving an entire community accused of a criminal act. Many times, warrants are left pending, unexecuted, leaving the indigenous person affected under a perpetual threat of arrest.
Illegal shortcuts: The prosecution of indigenous individuals often includes pre-trial detention that can last up to several years, as procedural guarantees are frequently flouted. Indigenous Peoples seldom have the means to seek legal counsel or even an interpreter. If acquitted, indigenous individuals are rarely awarded remedies.
Mass criminalization: Indigenous organizations have been subject to illegal surveillance and confiscations while laws imposing registration requirements and funding controls weaken their mobilization and restrict their support. Civil society organizations and lawyers who assist indigenous communities have been physically attacked and even killed.

Regional Messaging and Data Points

Latin America

Latin America has consistently been the deadliest region for land and environment defenders since Global Witness began publishing data on killings in 2012, and accounts for more than half of total recorded killings across the world in 2018. [Source: Global Witness 2019 (Enemies of the State)]

Africa

Of 19 land and environment defenders reported killed in 2017, 17 were “defending protected areas against poachers and illegal miners.” [Source: Global Witness 2019 (Enemies of the State)]

Asia

The Philippines had the largest number of deaths in 2018; 30 were killed, and “15 of these killings were linked to agribusiness.” [Source: Global Witness 2019 (Enemies of the State)]

Country-level Messaging and Data Points

Colombia

Colombia is among the three worst countries for environmental defenders every year. It was the second worst in 2018 with at least 24 land rights and environmental defenders murdered. [Source: Global Witness 2020 (Enemies of the State)]
At least 123 human rights leaders or members of marginalized communities were killed in Colombia in 2018. The majority of these murders “targeted Afro-Colombian and indigenous rights activists, in addition to rural farmers and landowners.” [Source: Washington Office on Latin America 2019]

Brazil

Brazil was the fourth deadliest country for land and environmental defenders in 2018, with 20 murders reported. For the first time, Brazil has slipped from first place in the Global Witness ranking. This is in line with an overall drop in homicide rates in 2018. [Source: Global Witness 2020 (Enemies of the State)]
Violence against Indigenous Peoples, local communities, and Quilombola (Afro-Brazilian) communities has persisted with little impunity for those responsible. In 2016, 196 incidents of violence against rural communities were reported in the state of Maranhão, which was also the state with the highest number of murdered Indigenous Peoples. [Source: They Should Have Known Better 2018)]

DRC

In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, 8 land and environmental defenders were reported killed in 2018, out of 14 total reported killings in Africa (this low number may be due to a shortage of evidence from the region). [Source: Global Witness 2020 (Enemies of the State)]

Kenya

Two land and environment defenders were reported killed in Kenya in 2018. One was a member of the indigenous Sengwer community and was killed during a forced eviction by Embobut Forest Service guards. [Source: Global Witness 2020 (Enemies of the State)]

India

In 2018, 13 people were killed in the largest massacre documented that year by Global Witness, related to a protest of a copper mine in Tamil Nadu. [Source: Global Witness 2020 (Enemies of the State)]
A 2017 BBC report found that authorities in India’s Kaziranga National Park were responsible for 106 extrajudicial killings—including of elderly people and children—across 20 years. [Source: Cornered by Protected Areas 2018]
In India, around 2 million households, or 10 about million people in indigenous and tribal communities, currently face the threat of eviction from their traditional forests, following a contentious Supreme Court order that is currently on hold until July 2019. [Source: Arun Agrawal 2019]

Indonesia

In Indonesia, at least 262 members of indigenous communities in 13 provinces have been victims of criminalization and violence in recent years. [Source: AMAN 2018]
In 2016, AMAN, the largest Indigenous Peoples’ organization in Indonesia, reported that 271 indigenous leaders and activists in the country had criminal convictions, including nine who were still in prison. [Source: AMAN 2016]

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