En defensa de los territorios, en defensa de nuestras vidas

The document highlights a global trend of violence against land defenders, particularly indigenous peoples, who face attacks from state and non-state actors to facilitate extractive projects. It provides case studies from Bangladesh, Indonesia, Malaysia, Palestine, Russia, Sri Lanka, and the Philippines to illustrate how infrastructure, energy, and agribusiness projects lead to land grabbing and environmental degradation. The report argues that the current economic system prioritizes corporate profit over human rights and recommends the establishment of a binding UN treaty on transnational corporations, the transformation of the ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights into a judicial body, and a transition to renewable energy and agroecology.

• Environmental and land defenders are increasingly at risk, with approximately 3,500 defenders murdered in the twenty years following the adoption of the UN Declaration on Human Rights Defenders. Indigenous peoples and peasants are nearly three times more likely to be attacked than defenders from other sectors.
• In 2018, Global Witness documented 164 murders of land defenders worldwide, averaging three per week. The mining sector was identified as the most dangerous, with state security forces involved in 40 deaths and private actors suspected in another 40.
• The report identifies a systemic imbalance where international trade and investment treaties provide binding protections for investors, while affected communities must rely on non-binding voluntary guidelines, leading to widespread impunity for corporate violations.
• China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is flagged as a major concern due to its scale, lack of environmental standards, and the risk of 'debt traps' in countries such as Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Maldives, Mongolia, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and Tajikistan.
• In Bangladesh, the 1320 MW Rampal coal power plant, located 14 km from the Sundarbans mangroves, threatens biodiversity and local livelihoods. The project has displaced 4,000 families, many through forced evictions without prior informed consent.
• In Indonesia, the Jakarta-Bandung high-speed rail project (KCJB) and the associated Transit-Oriented Development (TOD) Walini have led to land grabbing, unemployment, and the displacement of local residents, often through intimidation by local officials.
• Malaysia's coastal reclamation projects, including those in Johor, Melaka, Negeri Sembilan, Penang, and Perak, are destroying marine biodiversity, such as coral reefs and seagrasses, and depriving fishing communities of their ancestral livelihoods.
• Research in Hebron, Palestine, indicates high levels of nuclear radiation in soil, water, and plants, with uranium-238 levels in some soil samples exceeding natural levels by six times. This is linked to suspected Israeli nuclear waste dumping and the use of depleted uranium weapons.
• The Russian state company Rosatom is expanding its nuclear technology exports globally despite a history of accidents, such as the 1957 Kyshtym disaster. In Russia, the 'foreign agent' law is used to silence environmental NGOs and activists who criticize the nuclear industry.
• In Sri Lanka, land and resource conflicts are exacerbated by high public debt. Defenders against projects like the Marukanda mini-hydroelectric plant and the Colombo Port City face police intimidation, criminalization, and in some cases, death.
• In the Philippines, the expansion of the coffee industry has led to the seizure of ancestral lands from the Tboli Monobo people. In December 2017, the military killed Datu Victor Danyan and seven other members of the TAMASCO community during an operation they claimed was against rebels.
• The report recommends that the ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights (AICHR) be transformed into a judicial body with the power to intervene and execute rulings on human rights violations, as its current design is limited by principles of non-intervention and consensus.

APA

Hall, R., de Vera, R., Langam, T., & Cossar-Gilbert, S. (2019). En defensa de los territorios, en defensa de nuestras vidas. Friends of the Earth International. https://www.foei.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/Proteger-los-derechos-humanos-y-el-medioambiente-en-Asia-Pacifico-mediante-un-cambio-de-sistema-Amigos-de-la-Tierra.pdf

Chicago

Hall, Ronnie, Romel de Vera, Theiva Langam, and Sam Cossar-Gilbert. En defensa de los territorios, en defensa de nuestras vidas. Friends of the Earth International, 2019. https://www.foei.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/Proteger-los-derechos-humanos-y-el-medioambiente-en-Asia-Pacifico-mediante-un-cambio-de-sistema-Amigos-de-la-Tierra.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Hall |first1=Ronnie |last2=de Vera |first2=Romel |last3=Langam |first3=Theiva |last4=Cossar-Gilbert |first4=Sam |title=En defensa de los territorios, en defensa de nuestras vidas |publisher=Friends of the Earth International |date=November 2019 |url=https://www.foei.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/Proteger-los-derechos-humanos-y-el-medioambiente-en-Asia-Pacifico-mediante-un-cambio-de-sistema-Amigos-de-la-Tierra.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{hall2019defensa, author = {Hall, Ronnie and de Vera, Romel and Langam, Theiva and Cossar-Gilbert, Sam}, title = {{En defensa de los territorios, en defensa de nuestras vidas}}, institution = {Friends of the Earth International}, year = {2019}, month = nov, url = {https://www.foei.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/Proteger-los-derechos-humanos-y-el-medioambiente-en-Asia-Pacifico-mediante-un-cambio-de-sistema-Amigos-de-la-Tierra.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }