Amid the escalating climate emergency and widespread environmental degradation, now widely recognized as urgent human rights concerns by the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea, the International Court of Justice, and the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, the work of environmental human rights defenders (EHRDs) has never been more vital. Environmental and climate defenders¹ are at the forefront of the battle against climate change and the protection of ecosystems, the environment, indigenous lands, human rights, and life itself. EHRDs use strategic litigation, advocacy, public mobilization, and community resistance to raise awareness about environmental decline, defend indigenous territories, and demand government action. 

However, EHRDs have faced significant retaliation, backlash, and threats to their human rights, lives, and physical integrity from both State and non-state actors. According to Global Witness, at least 146 environmental and land defenders were killed or forcibly disappeared in 2024 alone. In 2022, 177 were killed while defending their communities and territories. Between 2012 and 2023, at least 2,106 defenders lost their lives in connection with environmental and land protection efforts, most of them in Latin America. Behind each number is a story of impunity and silence. These numbers are likely underreported, as they only reflect cases documented by authorities or civil society. Beyond killings, defenders increasingly face enforced disappearances, criminalization², stigmatization, repressive laws, and strategic lawsuits aimed at silencing them.

Recent developments reflect a growing momentum in supporting and protecting their role. Over the past year, international courts, regional human rights tribunals, various United Nations mechanisms, and regional coalitions of States have underscored the crucial role of environmental human rights defenders and reaffirmed States’ obligations to protect them. This piece serves as an introduction to a series that explores these new developments, highlighting the key aspects of EHRDs’ work, the challenges they face, and how international human rights law can serve as a tool to advance the protection of their rights across regions.

Understanding the Legal Foundations

Who is an EHRD?

According to former UN Special Rapporteur on human rights defenders Michel Forst, environmental human rights defenders are “individuals and groups who, acting peacefully, seek to protect and promote human rights related to the environment, including water, air, land, flora, and fauna.”. They strive to safeguard the lives and integrity of those affected by pollution, environmental degradation, and the excessive or illegal extraction of natural resources. This category includes not only civil society organizations, journalists, and lawyers, but also Indigenous people and anyone who exposes and opposes environmental destruction. 

As we at RFK Human Rights have pointed out before, the term “environmental defender” is often a label given by others rather than a title people give themselves. Many individuals who defend the environment, their territories, Indigenous lands, or fight against climate change do not identify as defenders. Instead, they take on this role out of necessity or circumstance. This makes them more vulnerable, as those who stand up against environmental harm may not realize their rights as defenders are being violated. On the other hand, being recognized as an EHRD can serve as a form of protection, especially when acknowledged by high-level actors and human rights mechanisms, thereby legitimizing their work and helping shield them from criminalization. The title also enables individuals and groups to connect with others doing similar work locally and globally, increasing their influence and reinforcing their protection.

What Does the Right Entail?

The rights of environmental human rights defenders to expression, privacy, association, and peaceful assembly have been enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). UN Special Rapporteurs have consistently underlined the right of environmental human rights defenders to participate in the conduct of public affairs and decision-making, embedded in the ICCPR.

While a non-binding instrument, the UNGA Declaration on the Right and Responsibility of Individuals, Groups and Organs of Society to Promote and Protect Universally Recognized Rights and Fundamental Freedoms provides a framework for the exercise of the right to defend human rights. This right also includes the right of persons to be protected by the State from reprisals resulting from their exercise of it. In the context of environmental human rights defenders, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACtHR, “Inter-American Court”) in its recent Advisory Opinion on Climate Change referred to the right to defend human rights, noting that “unlawful restrictions or obstacles to the free and safe implementation” of activities related to the exercise of this right constitute violations. This right extends beyond defending the right to a safe and healthy environment or environmental protection itself: it encompasses all human rights affected by environmental degradation, increasingly accelerated by the climate crisis, as well as the political rights linked to civic space and participation.

Evolving Legal Standards

Developments by International Mechanisms

While the aforementioned rights have existed for a long time, international courts and human rights bodies are finally acknowledging what communities have long known: the right of EHRDs to defend the environment,  land, and territory is a human right. In her new report “Tipping Points: Human Rights Defenders, Climate Change and a Just Transition”, presented to the Third Committee of the UN General Assembly on October 16th, the Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights Defenders, Mary Lawlor, stressed the need to hold States to account for their routine disregard of their obligation to uphold the right of environmental human rights defenders to defend human rights. Significantly, the Special Rapporteur identified specific groups of defenders who face particular and often elevated risks; namely, women, Indigenous defenders, and journalists. 

Earlier this month, the UN Special Rapporteur on Environmental Defenders under the Aarhus Convention, Michel Forst, published Guidelines on the Right to Peaceful Environmental Protest and Civil Disobedience, drawing from the Aarhus Convention, international human rights treaties and standards, customary international law, and the jurisprudence of international and regional courts and tribunals. These guidelines aim to ensure that participants in peaceful environmental protests are not penalized or harassed for their involvement. These guidelines also include recommendations for States, as well as business enterprises and other private legal entities, which also have a responsibility to protect the right to peaceful assembly. 

Such initiatives underscore the growing recognition of the essential role of EHRDs and the urgent need to protect them from intimidation, criminalization, and violence. This renewed attention offers an opportunity to strengthen global mechanisms and to reaffirm that the work of EHRDs constitutes an exercise of a human right. 

In September 2025, the United Nations Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances (UNWEIGD) released its Report on Enforced Disappearance in the Context of the Defense of Land, Natural Resources and the Environment, describing the situation as a “truly global crisis.” EHRDs face heightened risks due to overlapping vulnerabilities, the remoteness of the areas where they work, the powerful economic interests they confront, and their frequent belonging to Indigenous or other marginalized communities (para. 2). They are often targeted for opposing land grabs, extractive industries, and large-scale development projects. Many of these disappearances involve collusion among State agents, corporate actors, and organized criminal groups seeking to protect investments and profits, while others occur with the State’s acquiescence. Where national legal frameworks exist, they are rarely enforced, leaving defenders exposed to impunity, criminalization, and stigmatization.

Although the level of risk varies across countries and regions, these patterns are shaped by common factors: weak institutions, corruption, organized crime, armed conflict, the presence of non-state armed groups, significant foreign investment, abundant natural resources, and large-scale energy projects. The enforced disappearance of EHRDs is deliberate and directly linked to their work, used to create fear and deter public participation. The Working Group has also noted that these threats are unfolding in the broader context of a shrinking civic space worldwide, where participation and dissent are increasingly met with repression.

Regional Human Rights Systems 

Regional human rights courts and commissions have also begun to set clear standards to protect those who defend the environment. In the Inter-American Human Rights System, the Inter-American Commission (IACHR) and the Inter-American Court have consistently emphasized the importance of protecting human rights defenders, including those working on environmental issues.

The Inter-American System recognizes an autonomous right to defend human rights, including environmental rights. In its Advisory Opinion No. 32 on climate emergency and human rights, the Inter-American Court stressed the need to “strengthen the democratic rule of law as a framework for protecting all human rights against threats from the climate emergency.” It noted that democratic governance is “vital to ensuring the legitimacy of state decisions and the effectiveness of public action” and highlighted the “fundamental role” of EHRDs in strengthening democracy and the rule of law. The Inter-American Court urged States to collect data on violence against defenders, address its structural causes, prevent further intimidation, and adopt measures that recognize and protect the right to defend environmental human rights.

In 2025, the IACHR’s Third Report on the Situation of Human Rights Defenders in the Americas dedicated a section to environmental, land, and territorial defenders. It highlighted the leadership of women, often at the forefront of environmental struggles, as well as campesino, community, Indigenous, and Afro-descendant leaders. Building on previous reports, particularly those on Central America, the Commission reaffirmed the right to defend the environment and the crucial role of these defenders in the Americas.

While other regional human rights systems have made progress, their developments have been less robust overall. In its ground-breaking case Verein Klimaseniorinnen Schweiz & Ors v. Switzerland, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) ruled that Switzerland had violated, among others, the right to private and family life under the European Convention of Human Rights by failing to mitigate the impact of climate change on the lives of its citizens. In its judgment, the ECtHR referred to reports by Special Rapporteurs, Independent Experts, and the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe, all of which highlight States’ obligation to provide strong protection for EHRDs. Moreover, in Ludes v. France, the ECtHR set a high threshold for the State to meet to justify the criminal prosecution of EHRDs, based on their significant role recognized in a variety of international legal instruments.

Regarding the African Human Rights System, on May 2, 2025, the Pan African Lawyers Union (PALU), together with a coalition of civil society organizations, submitted a request to the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights seeking an advisory opinion on States’ obligations regarding climate change. Among other issues, the applicants asked the Court to clarify States’ positive obligations to protect vulnerable populations, including EHRDs. It’s yet to be seen whether the Court will adopt an expansive, protective interpretation of EHRDs’ rights. 

Asia is another region where recent developments regarding EHRDs have occurred. Namely, on October 26, 2025, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) adopted a declaration on the right to a safe, clean, healthy, and sustainable environment. The declaration acknowledges the need to provide persons working to promote and protect this right with sufficient protection, and commits to promoting and fostering meaningful public participation and access to justice in relation to this right. UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Türk welcomed this move, highlighting that “environmental stewardship and integrity are inseparable from human rights”. However, despite such efforts, EHRDs in Asia continue to face legal obstacles, threats, and violence in their fight for justice.  

Looking Ahead 

There is a growing recognition of the rights of EHRDs within international and regional human rights law, a shift that reflects a broader understanding of the climate and environmental crisis as, above all, a human rights crisis. This momentum also draws attention to the human rights implications of defending human rights. It is significant that various international and regional bodies have acknowledged the dangers EHRDs face and have begun to translate these concerns into legal standards.

Yet, protection requires more than recognition. It demands political will, adequate resources, and accountability. It also calls for analyses that account for the profound differences among defenders across regions, as well as an intersectional perspective that recognizes how gender, race, class, indigeneity, and geography shape both risk and resilience. This piece opens a series exploring how these challenges and legal responses unfold across different regions. The next one will focus on Latin America, where EHRDs remain both a source of innovation and a target of extreme danger.

At RFK Human Rights, we work alongside EHRDs to advance the protection of their rights. To learn more about this work, visit the Civic Space Case Tracker, which maps leading cases litigated by local organizations and lawyers in Asia, Africa, and the Americas.

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Endnotes

1.  While climate defenders focus specifically on addressing the causes and consequences of the climate crisis, and environmental defenders work more broadly to protect ecosystems, natural resources, and the human rights linked to them, this piece uses the term environmental human rights defenders (EHRDs) broadly to refer to all individuals and groups engaged in defending the environment, including those protecting their land and territory. 

2.  EHRDs have faced a broad range of criminal charges for peacefully participating in assemblies and demonstrations in defense of the environment, including trespassing, unlawful assembly, public disorder, incitement to violence, criminal conspiracy, damage to property, sedition, terrorism, international terrorism, organized crime, and even cybercrime. See more here.