Against the criminalization of young climate activists

The 2023 Delegates' Conference of terre des hommes adopted a strategic goal to support young environmental activists who are persecuted and murdered worldwide. With this accompanying resolution, we aim to raise awareness of their plight and protect them from criminalization and violence.

In 2021, according to the organization Global Witness, 200 activists campaigning for land or environmental rights were killed. The actual number is significantly higher, as many more cases of murder and persecution of environmental activists go unreported. terre des hommes partner organizations in Asia, Africa, Europe, and Latin America report on these cases, among others

In Nepal, environmental activist Dilip Mahato campaigned against the illegal extraction of raw materials from the river in his community. On January 10, 2020, he was brutally murdered by factory workers during his protest at the local crushing plant; his body was subsequently run over by a dump truck.

In Zimbabwe , as part of a project supported terre des hommes Headman Chiyadzwa and the members of the environmental youth club he organized were arrested for protesting at the gate of a mine and denouncing climate and environmental destruction.

In Chile and Argentina, indigenous Mapuche people are systematically criminalized for defending their ancestral homeland against mining companies and the exploitation of fossil fuels. They are within their rights, however, as the Latin American states have ratified the Escazú Convention, which guarantees the right to access information about the environment and to participate in environmental policy decisions. Above all, it obligates states to prevent attacks on environmental activists and to investigate violent assaults.

Climate movements and activists are regularly criminalized in Germany Charlie Kiehne and Samuel Bosch , who are involved in environmental campaigns. They established and occupied the climate camp in the Altdorf Forest in southern Germany. In addition to raising awareness about climate change, they use civil disobedience and nonviolent resistance as a means of protest. A penal order was issued against them for occupying a protected forest. Because they refused to face prosecution, they are wanted nationwide on arrest warrants.

In 2022, the UN Human Rights Council, in its Resolution 48/13, unequivocally recognized the human right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment for all people. Environmental activists are human rights defenders. On the 25th anniversary of the UN Declaration on Human Rights Defenders, the delegates of terre des hommes call on states to protect environmental defenders instead of criminalizing, persecuting, torturing, and killing them.

The fight against the climate crisis means defending life – the life of humans and nature.