At least 212 people were killed in 2019 while defending their land from being taken over by industry, Global Witness said on Wednesday, the deadliest year since the advocacy group began compiling data in 2012.
More than half of the killings were in Colombia and the Philippines and indigenous people made up 40 percent of the victims, the Britain-based group said in a report. It was a significant rise on 2018, when 164 killings were recorded.
The threat from mining and large-scale agriculture caused the most number of deaths, with these sectors also responsible for worsening climate change impacts, Global Witness said.
“Insecure land tenure, irresponsible business practices and government policies that prioritize extractive economies at the cost of human rights are putting people, and their land, at risk,” said Rachel Cox, a campaigner at Global Witness.
“Land and environmental defenders play a vital role in protecting climate-critical forests and ecosystems. When they take a stand against the theft of their land, or the destruction of forests, they are increasingly being killed,” she said.
Latin America accounted for more than two-thirds of all victims in 2019, with Colombia the deadliest country of all, with 64 killings.
The coronavirus pandemic has accelerated the “downward spiral of the human rights situation,” and a new anti-terrorism bill could be used to target activists, dozens of United Nations experts said.
“Days after the act was signed, the harassment of human rights defenders has visibly worsened,” said Cristina Palabay, secretary general of Philippine human rights advocacy group Karapatan.
“While rural communities, including indigenous peoples, grapple with the impact of COVID-19, they are constantly hounded by military operations that benefit mining corporations encroaching on their ancestral land,” she said.
Two of the country’s biggest agribusiness brands earlier in 2020 said they would review their processes to better protect land rights. But attacks against activists during coronavirus lockdowns signaled more violence worldwide, Cox said, noting a more worrying time.
