Green Advocates International has launched "Standing Together for Environmental Defenders" (STAND), an initiative to protect Grassroots Environmental Defenders (GEDs) in Liberia, Brazil, Guatemala, Mexico, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Kenya.
Launched in five countries with five other groups, STAND will provide civil society organizations facing the risks that Grassroots Environmental Defenders face with partnerships, financial support, and training.
In a release, Green Advocates said, the Initiative will work to increase the resources that are available and improve GEDs' comprehension of and proficiency with the current mechanisms for obtaining environmental information, taking part in environmental enforcement and decision-making processes, gaining access to justice, and utilizing platforms and coalitions for advocacy.
The initiative is led by The World Resources Institute (WRI) and the Alliance for Indigenous, Land and Environmental Defenders, (ALLIED), a global network of civil society, donors, and defenders that drives multi-stakeholder action and systemic change for the recognition, support, and protection of GEDs.
"Today, Green Advocates International (Liberia) joins five other organizations in five countries around the world in launching a new global initiative to protect Grassroots Environmental Defenders (GEDs) from rampant threats, security risks, violence, and weak governance, with funding from the US State Department."
According to Green Advocates, in Liberia GEDs have been forcefully uprooted from their ancestral lands and livelihoods, causing many to scramble for survival. "Sadly, the Government of Liberia appears to only be keen on protecting investors, but care less about the sufferings and violations citizens face daily."
The statement added that the recent protest in Kinjor, Grand Cape Mount County, in which three grassroots defenders were killed, is exemplary of the dissatisfaction in communities affected by the operations of multinational concession companies across the country.
Grassroots defenders, and indigenous communities in Grand Cape Mount County, Bea Mountain, Mano Oil Palm, MNG Gold in Bong, MOPP in Maryland, ArcelorMittal in Nimba, LAC and EPO in Grand Bassa, Golden Veroleum in Sinoe and Salala Rubber Corporation and Firestone Liberia rubber company in Margibi Counties, faced harsh treatment by concession companies, says Green Advocates.
"They are exposed to harsh conditions and brutality perpetrated by these foreign companies with the support of state security."
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GEDs have been formally recognized by the United Nations (UN) Human Rights Council, the European Union, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights, and numerous international and regional legally binding multilateral agreements.
"However, their rights and role are yet to be adequately recognized by States and private sector actors, and they also face stigmatization and smear campaigns designed to reduce community support, particularly in countries heavily reliant on natural resource extraction and large-scale infrastructure."
The statement added that defenders' social, cultural, environmental, land and indigenous rights continue to face high risks due to their work in Liberia.
"Liberia is home to diverse indigenous communities with deep connections to their ancestral lands. However, these lands are often threatened by logging, mining, and agricultural expansion, while GEDs are subjects of repression and marginalization in their own country."Green Advocates International Green Advocate Internationalworks with local communities to promote lands rights, good goverance, and climate change. it has supported the work of Grassroots and Environmental Human Rights Defenders focusing on the current climate crisis and the environmental and social impacts related to the operations of multinational corporations and how these collectively have escalated the already existing precarious situation GEDs are faced with, including the systemic violence, intimidation, arrest, imprisonment among others.
