Defending the Defenders

Last year was the deadliest year on record for human rights defenders, with 281 reported murders (Front Line Defenders).

Michel Forst, the UN Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders, denounces these “deliberate attacks to eliminate those who are trying to protect their land and their traditions.”

This week, The Politics of Death, an interactive multimedia exposé about land rights defenders, was launched thanks to an initiative of the Thomson Reuters Foundation and Front Line Defenders. The series of reports connects global development and big business with the intimidation, imprisonment, and physical violence against human and land rights defenders, and features displays in New York and London.

ELAW is working with Front Line Defenders to protect the digital and physical security of environmental human rights defenders in the ELAW network and the communities they represent.

To learn more about ELAW’s Defending Defenders program, contact:

Lori Maddox
Associate Director
lori@elaw.org

Learn more about our work and how you can support ELAW by visiting our website, Facebook, and Twitter