Government must Protect; Companies should Respect
When done sustainably, foreign investment and business can be a driving force for equality and prosperity. Done poorly, however, business can derail development, entrench discrimination, degrade natural resources and exploit vulnerable groups.
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by Paloma Muñoz, Advisor at DIHR
When done sustainably, foreign investment and business can be a driving force for equality and prosperity. Done poorly, however, business can derail development, entrench discrimination, degrade natural resources and exploit vulnerable groups. The latter outcome is increasingly evident in Latin America, where economic development in many countries comes at a high human cost, with private sector activities negatively impacting the full spectrum of human rights of individuals and communities, resulting in widespread protests and violence. For indigenous communities, especially, these challenges have been existential: the number of indigenous peoples on the brink of extinction due to the expansion of business activities into their territories is alarming and shows no sign of slowing down.
Increasingly, some businesses worldwide are also contributing to fatal violence, as recently noted by the international NGO Global Witness, which reported that 711 people have been killed in the past ten years globally while defending land and forest rights from business operations. In 2011, an alarming 106 killings were reported, while the number has almost doubled over the past three years. Furthermore, there is a worrying lack of information on such killings in many countries, and no international monitoring exists, suggesting that these numbers are likely to be a serious underestimation of the extent of the problem.
Human rights defenders have been killed in attacks and clashes resulting from protests, investigating or recording grievances against mining activities, logging operations, agri-business, tree plantations, hydropower dams, urban development and poaching.
Three of the four countries with the highest rates of business-related violence are in Latin America: Brazil, Colombia and Peru. In 2011, the Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Defenders noted “Defenders working on land and environmental issues in connection with extractive industries and construction and development projects in the Americas… face the highest risk of death as result of their human rights activities.”
The main causes for the killings in Latin America include: land ownership that is concentrated in the hands of a few people who have strong business and government connections; major foreign or local projects, including mining, hydropower and agribusiness which are developed on contested land and forested areas; large populations of poor citizens who depend on land or forests for their livelihoods; and social movements and strong rights awareness in these countries resulting in a greater likelihood of murders being reported. Compounding this problem in the region is the widespread impunity for business-related killings.
From a governance point of view, the question is: what should decision-makers in the region do about this troubling trend? Beyond addressing the issue of impunity, governments must seek to prevent abuses before these occur, including by tackling the root causes for the grievances advocated by human rights defenders across the region.
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When done sustainably, foreign investment and business can be a driving force for equality and prosperity. Done poorly, however, business can derail development, entrench discrimination, degrade natural resources and exploit vulnerable groups. The latter outcome is increasingly evident in Latin America, where economic development in many countries comes at a high human cost, with private sector activities negatively impacting the full spectrum of human rights of individuals and communities, resulting in widespread protests and violence. For indigenous communities, especially, these challenges have been existential: the number of indigenous peoples on the brink of extinction due to the expansion of business activities into their territories is alarming and shows no sign of slowing down.
Increasingly, some businesses worldwide are also contributing to fatal violence, as recently noted by the international NGO Global Witness, which reported that 711 people have been killed in the past ten years globally while defending land and forest rights from business operations. In 2011, an alarming 106 killings were reported, while the number has almost doubled over the past three years. Furthermore, there is a worrying lack of information on such killings in many countries, and no international monitoring exists, suggesting that these numbers are likely to be a serious underestimation of the extent of the problem.
Human rights defenders have been killed in attacks and clashes resulting from protests, investigating or recording grievances against mining activities, logging operations, agri-business, tree plantations, hydropower dams, urban development and poaching.
Three of the four countries with the highest rates of business-related violence are in Latin America: Brazil, Colombia and Peru. In 2011, the Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Defenders noted “Defenders working on land and environmental issues in connection with extractive industries and construction and development projects in the Americas… face the highest risk of death as result of their human rights activities.”
The main causes for the killings in Latin America include: land ownership that is concentrated in the hands of a few people who have strong business and government connections; major foreign or local projects, including mining, hydropower and agribusiness which are developed on contested land and forested areas; large populations of poor citizens who depend on land or forests for their livelihoods; and social movements and strong rights awareness in these countries resulting in a greater likelihood of murders being reported. Compounding this problem in the region is the widespread impunity for business-related killings.
From a governance point of view, the question is: what should decision-makers in the region do about this troubling trend? Beyond addressing the issue of impunity, governments must seek to prevent abuses before these occur, including by tackling the root causes for the grievances advocated by human rights defenders across the region.
read the whole article