A concerning trend over recent years has been the selection of host countries for the Conference of the Parties (COP) climate summits where civic space is under severe threat. If HRDs are not safe to protest and raise concerns, these summits risk silencing voices and solutions crucial to advancing climate justice, the just transition and corporate responsibility for climate impacts.

In December 2024, COP29 will be hosted by Azerbaijan, a country rated as “closed” (scoring 16/100) by Civicus with respect to civic space. In 2022, the Human Rights and Business award went to Oil Workers’ Rights Protection Organisation (OWRPO) in Azerbaijan, which defends the rights of oil and gas industry workers and seeks public monitoring of large-scale oil and gas projects in a particularly challenging context. Over the past decade, the UN Working Group on Business and Human Rights, Amnesty International and many other human rights organisations have expressed serious concern about restrictions on HRDs working on business and human rights issues and persecution and harassment of civil society.

In 2023, we recorded 13 cases of attacks against HRDs in Azerbaijan, including eight related to Anglo Asian Mining PLC’s Gedabeck Mine, which produces copper and zinc – two key transition minerals. The Resource Centre invited Anglo Asian Mining to respond; it did not.

COP30 will be held in Brazil, the most dangerous country in 2022 and 2023 for HRDs speaking out against corporate harm. During its first year, the administration led by Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has made important progress in the protection of the Amazon, women’s rights and other rights. However, former President Bolsonaro's legacy of polarisation, anti-environmental and anti-Indigenous stance, which led to a surge in deforestation and attacks on Indigenous Peoples doubling during his rule, is a tough challenge for the new government to overcome. A positive sign from 2023 was the establishment of the Ministry for Indigenous Peoples, led by Sonia Guajajara, who set up a crisis cabinet to monitor land conflicts in the south of Bahia.

However, the Lula administration’s commitments to protect biodiversity and reduce deforestation will only succeed if the rights of Indigenous and environmental defenders in Brazil are protected and their leadership is respected.

Throughout 2023, we registered attacks against the Pataxó and Pataxó Hã-hã-hãe Indigenous communities in the south of Bahia. Individuals affiliated with organised crime, landowners and rancher (often supported by the police or armed forces) have encroached upon the Pataxó Hã-hã-hãe Indigenous community’s land to use it for agribusiness projects. Large-scale landowners from the Agro-industrial sector, who are known for dismantling land occupations without judicial backing in the region, have formed a group called Zero Invasion, which is currently under investigation for acting as a rural militia in perpetrating attacks. In January 2024, spiritual leader Maria Fátima Muniz de Andrade, known as “Nega Pataxó”, was murdered during one of their attempts at an illegal land takeover.

On 30 May 2023, six pick-up trucks and a lorry arrived in an area recently retaken by the Pataxó people in the Indigenous territory of Barra Velha and opened fire on the community. One man was shot in the back. The Barra Velha Indigenous territory is made up of several villages of the Pataxó people and has suffered intense conflicts since the early 2000s. It was in this same territory that Indigenous defenders, Samuel Cristiano do Amor Divino and Nawy Brito de Jesus, were murdered in January 2023. 

“Indigenous Peoples are vital actors in climate solutions. Responses to the climate crisis should be based on partnership with Indigenous Peoples as stewards of nature and protectors of our biodiversity. We must stop the criminalisation of Indigenous Peoples and respect their collective and individual rights.” - Joan Carling, Indigenous Peoples Rights International (IPRI)

In 2023, over a fifth of attacks (22%) were against Indigenous defenders, who are protecting over 80% of the world’s remaining biodiversity, although they comprise approximately 6% of the global population. Over three-quarters (78%) of these attacks took place in Latin America.

Since January 2015, we have documented more than 1,000 attacks against Indigenous defenders globally, 93% of whom were raising concerns about harms to their lands and territories, our climate and/or the environment. As documented in our 2022 briefing with IPRI, some projects enacted with the aim of mitigating climate change and achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) – including renewable energy projects, transition mineral mining, and conservation initiatives –  are threatening the rights and safety of Indigenous Peoples, including their collective rights to land, territories and resources, food, water, FPIC, cultural traditions and customs and their right to defend rights.

Drawing upon thousands of years of expertise in environmental stewardship, Indigenous Peoples are vital leaders in the fight to protect our planet. They are also among the first groups to experience the direct consequences of climate change, despite having contributed very little to its causes. Businesses must respect the rights of Indigenous Peoples to self-determination and to exercise FPIC as defined by them, which includes the right to say no. States must enact and implement laws protecting the specific rights of Indigenous and Afro-descendant peoples.

Some Indigenous and rural communities, progressive companies and investors, with the support of governments, are already demonstrating it is not only possible, but advantageous, to build renewable energy projects that deliver shared prosperity and recognise Indigenous leadership. These designs hold the promise of the ‘Triple Win’: where communities and workers gain decent livelihoods, long-term revenue streams, environmental protection and control over the projects within their communities. Meanwhile, investors and companies gain stable and conducive investment environments – and our planet gains rapid transition action towards re-establishing a stable climate. Indigenous communities are often leading the way in these models – especially in countries where their land rights are more safeguarded.

For example, Neqotkuk First Nation in eastern Canada owns a 51% share in the Wocawson Energy Project with Natural Forces (49%), a renewable energy company that has grown its business by partnering with Indigenous communities on solar and wind projects. The project generated over US$400,000 for the community in the first year, set to double in the next. The revenue has been spent in part on community infrastructure, especially housing, to reduce over-crowding. Increased commitment to supporting human-rights based co-ownership/equity models is needed from companies, investors and governments, as it represents an opportunity to reimagine the energy sector based on justice and equity.

The Just Energy Transition Partnership funding model (JET-P) – announced at COP26 in Glasgow – provides multi-billion-dollar funding to support heavily coal-dependent emerging economies to transition to cleaner energy sources. The first three partnerships were with South Africa, Indonesia and Vietnam.

Financing to support a full transition from coal to renewable energies is vital to mitigating the climate crisis. It is also essential for this transition to be rights-respecting and for these governments to ensure the rights of HRDs are protected. Indonesia is one of the most dangerous countries for HRDs raising concerns about business-related harms, particularly related to palm oil and mining projects. As one example, the O’Hongana Manyawa Indigenous Peoples are struggling to defend their customary territories from nickel mining on Halmahera Island in North Maluku province of Indonesia. Nickel mining activities of PT Weda Bay Nickel have affected huge areas of rainforest in Halmahera, home to O’Hongana Manyawa clans, some of whom remain in voluntary isolation. Mining in their lands is illegal under international law as Indigenous Peoples in voluntary isolation and initial contact cannot give FPIC. A recent report by Climate Rights International (CRI), based on interviews with people living near nickel mining and smelting operations, describes serious threats to their land rights, rights to practice their traditional ways of life, right to access clean water, and right to health due to the mining and smelting activities. In addition, community members who refused to sell their land or raised concerns about harms related to the project reported experiencing intimidation, threats and retaliation by police and company representatives. CRI reached out to companies mentioned in the report; some responses can be found in Appendix 1. The Resource Centre contacted companies that did not respond to CRI; only POSCO submitted a response.

In December 2022 the Vietnamese Government entered into a $15.5 billion Just Energy Transition Partnership (JETP) with the UK, US and other G7 countries. Yet, in recent years, the Vietnamese Government has ramped up the targeting and criminalisation of people raising environmental concerns. Given the significant restrictions on civic space in Vietnam, it is difficult to access public information about the scale of attacks. However, since 2021, the Government has weaponised ambiguous laws to detain and imprison six climate leaders and experts and target environmental organisations, forcing many to close. The individuals detained and imprisoned include Ms. Nguy Thi Khanh, who served 16 months behind bars after working to reduce the Government’s coal expansion plans and researching solar solutions; prominent environmental lawyer, Mr. Dang Dinh Bach, who is serving a five-year sentence after dedicating his life to protecting communities from harmful pollution, phasing out plastic waste and supporting the transition to clean energy; Obama Foundation Scholar Ms. Hoang Thi Minh Hong, who is serving three years in prison after founding and leading the environmental group CHANGE Vietnam, which was dedicated to clean energy and wildlife conservation solutions. Most recently, in September 2023, Ms. Ngo Thi To Nhien Executive Director of Vietnam Initiative for Energy Transition Social Enterprise (VIETse), was arrested on charges of “appropriation of information or documents” and is currently in pre-trial detention.

For the JET-Ps to be successful, civil society must be able to monitor human rights and environmental risks associated with business projects and freely engage in realising a just energy transition.