Greater political will from governments is needed to defend those who defend rights, UN Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights Defenders (HRDs), Mary Lawlor, told governments last week: “Put in place practices, procedures, and laws to protect human rights defenders, and ensure that those who are attacking them face accountability. It’s as simple as that. It just needs political will and determination.”
The Special Rapporteur reminded governments of their obligations and that protecting HRDs isn’t rocket science. Her new report, Tipping Points: Human Rights Defenders, Climate Change and a Just Transition, presented to the UN General Assembly, shows how governments are prosecuting, intimidating, and silencing those defending human rights in the face of the climate crisis.
HRDs working on climate and a just transition have achieved significant progress, but receive little to no protection from states. A report earlier this year documented 6,400 attacks on human-rights defenders between 2015 and 2024—three out of four against climate, land, and environmental defenders. “This situation is not new,” Lawlor says, “but it has never been more pressing.”
Lawlor’s report details how states and companies use laws, force, and SLAPPs (strategic lawsuits against public participation) to obstruct environmental defenders. In Uganda, at least 129 people were arrested for protesting the East African Crude Oil Pipeline operated by Total Energies. In the United States, the report cites the $660 million damages ruling against Greenpeace in the Dakota Access Pipeline protests as a major example of SLAPPs. Addressing the Assembly, Lawlor urged governments to “follow the example of the EU and bring in legislation to combat [SLAPPs].” Indonesia has also developed legislation to protect environmental defenders from such lawsuits.
Lawlor called out states for their targeting of climate HRDs. Germany is prosecuting members of Letzte Generation, a group of climate change activists, as part of a “criminal organization.” In Azerbaijan, activist Anar Mammadi, who was arrested in 2024, remains in prison and is denied adequate healthcare. In Vietnam, the report highlights the case of environmental lawyer Dang Dinh Bach, imprisoned on fabricated tax-evasion charges. Bach, who received Human Rights First’s Roger N. Baldwin Medal of Liberty last year, is one of several environmental defenders jailed for peaceful advocacy.
Lawlor said the European Union continues to parade itself as a strong defender of human rights defenders because of the EU Guidelines, yet there is a “shocking lack of implementation” by its member states. She criticized France, noting that while it supports defenders abroad, “when it comes to their own borders, the issue is concerning.” French climate organizations have been dissolved by their government baselessly and have been accused of eco-terrorism.
In the United Kingdom, she pointed to the Public Order Act, introduced “specifically to criminalize peaceful tactics used by climate defenders,” with recent government threats to make it even more restrictive. The law has already been used to imprison activists, including Stephen Gingell, sentenced to six months in December 2023 for joining a 30-minute Just Stop Oil march in London.
She told the delegate from China, “You shouldn’t be locking up environment defenders—they can help you,” adding that her repeated requests to conduct an official visit to China have been turned down.
Lawlor urged Chile and Costa Rica to demonstrate their commitment to the issue by ratifying the Escazú Agreement, a binding regional treaty protecting environmental defenders.
Lawlor’s report also draws attention to women human rights defenders, who face both the general risks of activism and gender-specific retaliation rooted in broader societal discrimination.
The report sets out concrete solutions. States should provide a safe and enabling environment for defenders, cease stigmatization, and reform laws restricting peaceful assembly. Governments should recognize in national law the right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment, and require companies in high-risk sectors—energy, mining, agribusiness—to conduct human-rights and environmental due diligence with real liability for retaliation. Lawlor also urges training for prosecutors and judges, legislation against SLAPPs, and strong access-to-information laws to ensure transparency on environmental impacts. Earlier this month, the Special Rapporteur on Environmental Defenders released guidelines for states to ensure that peaceful environmental activism is respected and protestors do not face retaliation.
“It is states that are stopping human rights defenders from pursuing their goals,” Lawlor said in her last address to the Assembly before her time in the mandate ends next year.
Governments know exactly what must be done. They are simply choosing not to do it.
