Attacks against defenders shining the spotlight on negative impacts of business-related activities

The attacks include frivolous lawsuits, arbitrary arrests and detentions to death threats, beatings and even killings. The Business and Human Rights Resource Centre (BHRRC) reports the following:

• 2,000 attacks on human rights defenders between 2015 and 201
• 572 attacks in 2019 alone, up from 492 in 2018
• Attacks on women (in particular, indigenous women and affected rural communities’ leaders and members) have increased every year for the past five years, with 137 attacks recorded in 2019
• These attacks include restrictions on worker organising and violence against labour rights defenders
• These attacks took place, primarily, in Latin America, followed by Asia and the Pacific region, and Eastern Europe and Russia

The companies that should be the most concerned are those from mining, agribusiness, waste disposal, renewable energy, construction, extractive (oil, gas, coal), and logging and lumber. A number of companies have taken a specific position on human rights defenders (including adidas, FIFA, Chevron, M&S, Barrick Gold, Unilever, the RSPO) and organisations have provided a number of expectations of companies when it comes to playing a role to protect human rights defenders.

“Governments do not realise that sometimes the vision of development needs to go beyond economic benefit, beyond the capitalist view, but it has to be a holistic view that is actually respectful of minorities… There are many companies that recognise that it is important to join the struggles on women’s rights, LGBTI, with indigenous people — but it is necessary that they get involved more genuinely, because they have a level of power and access with government, that for civil society is much harder to reach“                      

Joshi Adriana Leban Montenegro (Nicaraguan human rights defender), Business and Human Rights Defenders & Business: January 2020 Snapshot (BHRRC, January 2020)