The reason why we started looking into this particular issue in more detail was because a friend and colleague of Global Witness, Chut Wutty, who was a prominent forest activist in Cambodia, was killed whilst investigating illegal logging in Cambodia. His case has not seen resolution yet, his family haven't seen justice for what happened to him. Cambodia's government has continued to engage in secretive deals with large foreign companies, in particular rubber companies.
Land rights defenders face growing danger: Global Witness
ABC Radio Australia | 16 April 2014
The transparency lobby group Global Witness says between 2012
and 2013, at least 908 people were killed in 35 countries globally,
protecting land rights and the environment.
Brazil is the most dangerous for land rights defenders, and in South east Asia, the worst was the Philippines, with 67 killings in a one-year period.
Presenter: Sen Lam
Speaker: Oliver Courtney, senior campaigner for Global Witness in London
COURTNEY: Our report looks at killings of land and environmental activists between 2002 and 2013, and it identifies the killings of these people are going up. We believe this is due to pressure on natural resources increasing as demand soars across the world. We think it's going unnoticed and unpunished because governments are failing to monitor threats to environment and land activists, and failing to prosecute those responsible for the crimes.
LAM: So are there particular regions where this problem is very bad?
COURTNEY: Well we think it's a global problem but it does appear to be particularly acute in Asia-Pacific and in Latin America. Brazil is by some distance the worst affected country, nearly half of the killings that we've been able to document. And I should say that the number of killings that we've been able to substantiate we think is only the tip of the iceberg because information is so hard to come by.
As far as Asia-Pacific is concerned, the Philippines emerges as the worst affected country in our particular region, with 67 killings over the period that we looked at, particularly related to the mining sector where there's been a number of killings - 42 is the count that we've been able to prove, related to opposition to mining in the region.
LAM: And is the problem in the Philippines compounded by cronyism, that close relationship between government and landed families and big business interests?
COURTNEY: Well certainly the Philippine government has been very keen to open for business in the mining sector in particular in recent years, but there's very little transparency in what's going on, whether or not the people who've lived on the land for generations were consulted, and whether or not the social and environmental costs were taken into account before some of these deals went through.
There's very little information over who is actually behind these killings. In the vast majority of cases the perpetrator has not been convicted. There have been some convictions in the Philippines but there've also been strong suggestions that behind the actual person who pulled the trigger, there are networks of political or business elites, and that's very hard to prove.
But we are concerned about the high incidence of conflicts related to mining, and obviously the fact that ordinary people and particularly indigenous people are getting killed as a result, is deeply, deeply worrying.
LAM: And what about the Pacific region, are land grabs prevalent in these island states as well, and if they are, are they accompanied by violence often?
COURTNEY: Well that's something we've been able to investigate less thoroughly in the course of this research. But in our experience investigating land grabs and illegal logging right the way across the Pacific and Asia Pacific, this is a problem which affects much of the region and indeed its people.
We see time and again, small powerful elites selling off land, forests and other resources which belong to the country as a whole, and particularly to the people that live in them, in secretive deals with large companies. And often the benefits are lost to the people who live on the land, they then lose their land and are often forcibly evicted.
The reason why we started looking into this particular issue in more detail was because a friend and colleague of Global Witness, Chut Wutty, who was a prominent forest activist in Cambodia, was killed whilst investigating illegal logging in Cambodia. His case has not seen resolution yet, his family haven't seen justice for what happened to him. Cambodia's government has continued to engage in secretive deals with large foreign companies, in particular rubber companies.
LAM: So it's not just local communities that might be in danger, but also people who are investigating or perhaps looking into the land grabs, that might be endangered too?
COURTNEY: Very much Sen. It's a mixed picture, it's a combination of ordinary people who find themselves on the frontline of an increasingly fierce battle for resources. It's also people who actively choose to investigate what's going on and they raise their heads above the parapet, and often they pay a very dear price.
Just after Chut Wutty was killed another journalist who was investigating logging nearby, was found in a car with an axe in his head. Not long after that, a 14 year old girl was shot and killed by military police during a forced eviction. So there really is a very broad mix of people who are involved here. But the bottom line is that secretive deals between companies and corrupt governments are increasing the pressure on the people who live on the land and these are increasingly desperate people who aren't seeing the benefits of these deals but they are facing some very dire consequences.
LAM: Did most of the violence stem from localised disputes that perhaps got out of hand, or is there evidence that there's state sanctioned violence, or violence that's sanctioned by huge companies involved?
COURTNEY: There is some evidence that state forces or authorities are involved. We've been able to definitively pinpoint just around 50, we think the number is higher because often where operations of companies are concerned and governments are trying to encourage foreign investment, we do find that often the involvement of military police or state forces is high.
And our advice to companies would be our strong recommendation to companies would be that the onus is on them to make sure that they aren't involved with this kind of violence. And that means several things but it certainly means not operating in areas known to be militarised or where the local authorities have a reputation for human rights abuses, which we do see in the Philippines. And also carrying out checks on their supply chain to make sure that their purchasing policies aren't sponsoring this kind of violence.
There are some shifts in consensus about carrying out checks on supply chains to make sure that companies aren't sponsoring land grabs. We've seen movement from companies like Coca Cola and Pepsi on that, and that's very encouraging.
But the fact is we can see this as a very stark human problem when more and more people are dying as a result of their efforts to protect their land and environment from corporate or state abuse. So there's clearly a very long way to go and it needs to be monitored and acted upon very, very urgently.
Brazil is the most dangerous for land rights defenders, and in South east Asia, the worst was the Philippines, with 67 killings in a one-year period.
Presenter: Sen Lam
Speaker: Oliver Courtney, senior campaigner for Global Witness in London
COURTNEY: Our report looks at killings of land and environmental activists between 2002 and 2013, and it identifies the killings of these people are going up. We believe this is due to pressure on natural resources increasing as demand soars across the world. We think it's going unnoticed and unpunished because governments are failing to monitor threats to environment and land activists, and failing to prosecute those responsible for the crimes.
LAM: So are there particular regions where this problem is very bad?
COURTNEY: Well we think it's a global problem but it does appear to be particularly acute in Asia-Pacific and in Latin America. Brazil is by some distance the worst affected country, nearly half of the killings that we've been able to document. And I should say that the number of killings that we've been able to substantiate we think is only the tip of the iceberg because information is so hard to come by.
As far as Asia-Pacific is concerned, the Philippines emerges as the worst affected country in our particular region, with 67 killings over the period that we looked at, particularly related to the mining sector where there's been a number of killings - 42 is the count that we've been able to prove, related to opposition to mining in the region.
LAM: And is the problem in the Philippines compounded by cronyism, that close relationship between government and landed families and big business interests?
COURTNEY: Well certainly the Philippine government has been very keen to open for business in the mining sector in particular in recent years, but there's very little transparency in what's going on, whether or not the people who've lived on the land for generations were consulted, and whether or not the social and environmental costs were taken into account before some of these deals went through.
There's very little information over who is actually behind these killings. In the vast majority of cases the perpetrator has not been convicted. There have been some convictions in the Philippines but there've also been strong suggestions that behind the actual person who pulled the trigger, there are networks of political or business elites, and that's very hard to prove.
But we are concerned about the high incidence of conflicts related to mining, and obviously the fact that ordinary people and particularly indigenous people are getting killed as a result, is deeply, deeply worrying.
LAM: And what about the Pacific region, are land grabs prevalent in these island states as well, and if they are, are they accompanied by violence often?
COURTNEY: Well that's something we've been able to investigate less thoroughly in the course of this research. But in our experience investigating land grabs and illegal logging right the way across the Pacific and Asia Pacific, this is a problem which affects much of the region and indeed its people.
We see time and again, small powerful elites selling off land, forests and other resources which belong to the country as a whole, and particularly to the people that live in them, in secretive deals with large companies. And often the benefits are lost to the people who live on the land, they then lose their land and are often forcibly evicted.
The reason why we started looking into this particular issue in more detail was because a friend and colleague of Global Witness, Chut Wutty, who was a prominent forest activist in Cambodia, was killed whilst investigating illegal logging in Cambodia. His case has not seen resolution yet, his family haven't seen justice for what happened to him. Cambodia's government has continued to engage in secretive deals with large foreign companies, in particular rubber companies.
LAM: So it's not just local communities that might be in danger, but also people who are investigating or perhaps looking into the land grabs, that might be endangered too?
COURTNEY: Very much Sen. It's a mixed picture, it's a combination of ordinary people who find themselves on the frontline of an increasingly fierce battle for resources. It's also people who actively choose to investigate what's going on and they raise their heads above the parapet, and often they pay a very dear price.
Just after Chut Wutty was killed another journalist who was investigating logging nearby, was found in a car with an axe in his head. Not long after that, a 14 year old girl was shot and killed by military police during a forced eviction. So there really is a very broad mix of people who are involved here. But the bottom line is that secretive deals between companies and corrupt governments are increasing the pressure on the people who live on the land and these are increasingly desperate people who aren't seeing the benefits of these deals but they are facing some very dire consequences.
LAM: Did most of the violence stem from localised disputes that perhaps got out of hand, or is there evidence that there's state sanctioned violence, or violence that's sanctioned by huge companies involved?
COURTNEY: There is some evidence that state forces or authorities are involved. We've been able to definitively pinpoint just around 50, we think the number is higher because often where operations of companies are concerned and governments are trying to encourage foreign investment, we do find that often the involvement of military police or state forces is high.
And our advice to companies would be our strong recommendation to companies would be that the onus is on them to make sure that they aren't involved with this kind of violence. And that means several things but it certainly means not operating in areas known to be militarised or where the local authorities have a reputation for human rights abuses, which we do see in the Philippines. And also carrying out checks on their supply chain to make sure that their purchasing policies aren't sponsoring this kind of violence.
There are some shifts in consensus about carrying out checks on supply chains to make sure that companies aren't sponsoring land grabs. We've seen movement from companies like Coca Cola and Pepsi on that, and that's very encouraging.
But the fact is we can see this as a very stark human problem when more and more people are dying as a result of their efforts to protect their land and environment from corporate or state abuse. So there's clearly a very long way to go and it needs to be monitored and acted upon very, very urgently.
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