The Geneva Roadmap: supporting environmental human rights defenders

The new report "Conservation NGOs at risk - The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and shrinking environmental civic spaces" is available!

Based on a global survey with the NGO members of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, the report by Senior Researcher Peter Bille Larsen reveals the growing number of risks and threats faced when doing conservation.

Ranging from attacks against individuals to questions of permit renewal, restrictions or finance restrictions, NGOs are facing growing hardships. The report describes global trends and patterns underlining this a key set of challenges for the global Conservation community. Many local conservation NGOs are struggling to survive undermining hopes to achieve global biodiversity targets in the making.

The “environmental human rights defender crisis: the Geneva Roadmap” short film features personal testimonies by defenders and portrays an international effort to bridge responses by the defender networks, the environmental and human rights communities together with academia around the Geneva Roadmap around four key action goals. Building on a dialogue co-organized by the The Environmental Governance and Territorial Development Hub/Institute (GEDT) , University of Geneva with support from the Geneva Science Policy Interface, the Boninchi Foundation and international partners, the Roadmap seeks to stimulate dialogue to make the world a safer place for environmental human rights defenders.

For further information: Peter Larsen

The Environmental Human Rights Defenders Crisis:

Towards a Geneva Road Map

February 25 and 26, 2020 (Palais Eynard, Geneva)

February 27, 2020 (Palais des Nations, Geneva)

As public attention grows to the changing conditions of environmental civil society and defenders, an increasing number of research, civil society and multilateral initiatives are emerging to better understand and respond. This event seeks to bring together a number of such initiatives to take stock of the situation, review existing support initiatives and debate possible responses modalities informing a Geneva Road Map. This Road Map aims to inform both human rights and conservation policy processes and seeks to kick-off more systematic collaboration in the long-term.

As a follow-up to the HRC Resolution 40/11 the Geneva Road Map will seek to ensure the effective implementation of the right to act for the protection of the environment and to promote free and safe spaces for information and discussion on environmental matters. It aims to provide a collective platform in which initiatives and commitments of States, civil society, research and academia or private actors could be supportive of each other.

The launch of this Road Map will include a 2-day technical workshop and dialogue co-organized with academic partners (The University of Geneva in in collaboration with the University of Sussex, the University of British Columbia, Geneva Academy of International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights, Earthjustice, the Geneva Environmental Network, the Geneva Science Policy Interface and Special Rapporteurs). The sequence of events is planned for Geneva in conjunction with events at the Human Rights Council and the World Conservation Congress held in Marseille, June, 2020.