Over 200 Environmental Activists Killed in the Last Year

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A report titled “Decade of Defiance” by Global Witness that tracked land and environmental activism worldwide over the last ten years recorded that 200 land and environmental defenders were killed in 2021—nearly four people a week.

Of these, a total of 14 people were killed in India.

Looking back at the past decade, the report states that a total of 1,733 land and environmental defenders were killed between 2012 and 2021—of which 79 were from India.

Breakdown of 2021

According to the report, Mexico was the country with the highest recorded number of killings—with defenders killed every month—totalling 54 killings in 2021, up from 30 the previous year. Over 40% of those killed were Indigenous people, and over a third of the total were forced disappearances, including at least eight members of the Yaqui community.

It (the report) also stated that Brazil and India both saw a rise in lethal attacks from 20 to 26, and from 4 to 14 respectively, during the year.

Names of martyrs

The 14 people who were killed in India while defending their land, human rights, and the environment, are Kawasi Waga, Daljeet Singh, Lavepreet Singh, Maynal Haque, Nakshatra Singh, Saddam Hussain, Sheikh Farid, Stan Swamy, T Shridhar, Uika Pandu, Ursa Bhima, Venkatesh S, and Vipin Agarwal. These lethal attacks continue to take place in the context of a wider range of threats against defenders who are being targeted by the government, businesses and other non-state actors with violence, intimidation, smear campaigns and criminalisation. This is happening across every region of the world and in almost every sector.

Recommendations for India

The report has listed numerous recommendations for the Indian government to implement so as to protect the freedom and lives of climate and environmental activists. These are:

•The government of Tamil Nadu should immediately publish the Justice Aruna Jagadeesan Commission of Enquiry report on the Thoothukudi massacre, together with its Action Taken Report [ATR], and table a discussion on the report’s proposed recommendations at the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly. This should include the suspension of all implicated officials, including the District Collector and police officers, and the initiation of criminal proceedings.

•The UN Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) should initiate Special Procedures to assess compliance by the National Human Rights Commission of India (NHRC) with international standards set out by the Paris Principles, given the lack of transparency, and that the complaint on the Thoothukudi massacre was closed within five months of brutal police killings of a total of 16 protestors and Global Witness further recorded 12 mass killings—including three in India and four in Mexico.

Around 1 in 10 of the defenders recorded killed in 2021 were women, nearly two-thirds of whom were Indigenous.

Colombia and the Philippines saw a drop in killings from 65 to 33 in 2021 and 19 from 30 in 2021 respectively—yet, overall, they remain two of the countries with the highest numbers of killings in the world since 2012.

The journey towards justice is a long one in India

The Global Witness report states that the Thoothukudi massacre in India was “emblematic of the pressing issues of security and reprisals faced by human rights defenders in India.”

In 2021, India reportedly recorded the highest number of attacks against human rights defenders – representing around 20% of attacks in the Asia-Pacific region.

“Many defenders, including Indigenous women seeking justice, are jailed and labelled as terrorists due to their human rights work,” read the report. “Laws in India are routinely used to target human rights defenders: for example, the Foreign Contributions (Regulation) Act 2010 has been used to block much-needed funds, freeze bank accounts, and subject NGOs to investigations, creating a chilling effect on civil society.”

“We need urgent action from foreign governments and other members of the international community to hold the Indian government accountable for its treatment of human rights defenders,” the report urged.

excessive violence over 200 others, as well as NHRC's refusal to reopen the matter despite a Madras High Court's ruling to consider the same.

The government of India – as well as other governments, UN Special Rapporteurs, INGOs, regional NGOs and human rights defenders’ within the global community– must stand with the people of Thoothukudi and ensure justice is achieved for the victims of the Thoothukudi massacre.

 

By Gaurav Sarkar