In late August, the Forest Defenders Conference brought together 50 human and environmental rights activists from 10 countries, most in Southeast Asia, to develop strategies for protecting earth rights defenders. The conference was organized by EarthRights International, Not1More, and Cambodian Youth Network. Here, Fran Lambrick of Not1More welcomes the group to the first workshop of the conference.
Participants play a game to get to know one another. The Forest Defenders Conference provided chances for earth rights defenders to build relationships and strengthen networks of solidarity.
A group of earth rights defenders from Indonesia speak about the threats they face and the strategies they use. Welcoming participants from the Philippines, Indonesia, and elsewhere, the Forest Defenders Conference gave activists from the Mekong region a chance to broaden their networks and exchange ideas with earth rights defenders who work in other contexts.
Paul Sein Twa from the Karen Environmental and Social Action Network talks with Tom Weerachat from International Accountability Project. The Forest Defenders Conference also helped activists who are engaged in a broad range of issues to focus specifically on strategies to protect and support earth rights defenders.
Selen Çatalyürekli from Turkey speaks on a panel at the Forest Defenders Conference with Claudelice Silva dos Santos from Brazil. Selen is a videographer who works to support communities such as those in Turkey’s Artvin-Cerattepe area who face negative impacts from copper and gold mining. Silva dos Santos, whose sister and brother-in-law were killed as a result of their fight against illegal logging, also joined last year’s Forest Defenders Conference, organized by Not1More and held in Oxford, United Kingdom.
The conference provided spaces to discuss common issues facing earth rights defenders across the region, such as violence, repression, and criminalization. Beverly Longid, at right, of the Philippines, has been placed on a list of terrorists by her government’s Department of Justice, along with many other indigenous peoples’ rights activists in her country.
Debbie Stothard, Secretary General of the International Federation for Human Rights, leads a session at the Forest Defenders Conference to draft an Environmental Defenders Declaration for South East Asia. Soon after the conference, when arriving in Vietnam to attend the World Economic Forum, Stothard was detained and deported by the Vietnamese Government, supposedly because she posed a threat to national security.
Phil Robertson, Deputy Asia Director of Human Rights Watch, gave the closing speech at the Forest Defenders Conference.
Khaing Myo Htun, an earth rights defender and EarthRights School alumnus, joined the Forest Defenders Conference having recently been released from prison. He spent 19 months in jail for unlawful charges of defamation and incitement. Khaing Myo Htun has dedicated his life to fighting for human rights, justice, and accountability in Myanmar and EarthRights International worked with a group of local lawyers in Sittwe to defend him in court.
EarthRights International Co-Founder and Executive Director Ka Hsaw Wa speaks with Eméline Pluchon of UN Environment. The Forest Defenders Conference helped donor organizations and other supporters to connect directly with and learn from at risk earth rights defenders working on the ground.
Workshops for the Forest Defenders Conference, as well as a night of celebration and solidarity, were held at the Mitharsuu Center for Leadership and Justice: the home of EarthRights International in Chiang Mai, Thailand.
