UN rights council urged to probe attacks vs Filipino environmental defenders

In this file photo, Dumagats protest the planned construction of a dam along the Agos River. They fear that the dam project will displace their communities and destroy their ancestral domain. MANILA, Philippines — An environmental group called on the United Nations Human Rights Council Monday to investigate the worsening attacks against environmental defenders in the Philippines. Kalikasan People’s Network for the Environment asked UNHRC member states to launch a probe into the “human rights atrocities affecting more than 19,000 environmental defenders” under the administration of President Rodrigo Duterte. “The UNHRC must somehow probe attacks [that] undermine the work of these defenders in protecting more than six million hectares of critical landscapes across the Philippines,” Clemente Bautista, Kalikasan PNE international network coordinator, said. The 45th session of the UN Human Rights Council starts Monday in Geneva. It will run until October 6. The Philippines was named the deadliest country in Asia for environmental and land activists in 2019 and the second most dangerous nation in the world behind Colombia, according to international watchdog Global Witness. At least 43 deaths were recorded last year, most of whom were farmers, indigenous leaders and government workers tasked with protecting the environment. Nearly […]

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