Photos have the power to change minds, influence decisions, and remind people of our shared humanity. Visual storytelling is essential to the advancement of human rights. As the storytellers at EarthRights, we strive to ensure that our photos tell accurate, ethical stories of our partners, clients, and colleagues. Here are some of our favorites from this year.

U’wa elder, Berito Kuwaru’wa, blessing the Inter-American Court of Human Rights prior to the U’wa Nation’s trial against the State of Colombia. (Photo by: Jorge Sánchez)

Climate activists march to the Federal Reserve in the New York financial district, blocking the entrance with barriers that read “Stop funding fossil fuels.” (Photo by: Cayla Nimmo)

From left, Chief of the Yawanawá people in Brazil Tashka Yawanawá and Mukaro Borrero of the Taino Tribe stand with fellow Indigenous spiritual leaders for a multi-faith invocation before the March to End Fossil Fuels begins in New York City. September 2023. (Photo by: Cayla Nimmo)e

Indigenous women from across the Amazon and Andes region come together for EarthRights’ first meeting of the Women’s Network to discuss the criminalization of defenders. (Photo by: Jimena Celis)

On the fourth anniversary of the anti-coal movement in Omkoi, Chiang Mai, Thailand, communities of Omkoi Poe Karen came together to prevent the coal mine from being built. (Photo by: Chalefun Ditphudee)

Pornchita Fahpratanprai, the Omkoi youth representative, reads a joint statement with representatives from across Thailand at the COP28 People event in Bangkok, Thailand. (Photo by: Chalefun Ditphudee)

Women from Madre de Dios, Amazon region of Peru. (Photo by: FENAMAD)

Ko Htet Aung Shine performs a song at a vigil in solidarity with the people of Myanmar fighting the military coup. Several speakers called on President Biden to sanction the oil and gas industry, which financed the military junta. Ten months later, Biden placed sanctions on Myanmar’s oil and gas industry, a huge win for the people of Myanmar (Photo by: Cayla Nimmo)

EarthRights School students visited and learned from a fishing community located very close to an LNG storage tank on the shore of the Gulf of Thailand in Rayong Province. (Photo by: Chalefun Ditphudee)

Students of the Ecole du Fleuve Congo (Congo River School) from left, Baudouin Ngoy Washington, Marie Kafutshi Muzala, and Jean Kahilu Mbelenge interview a community member who lives next to a mine during a field trip to Kolwezi, the mining capital of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. (Photo by: Cayla Nimmo)