Across Latin America, in these times of increasing environmental crisis, courageous defenders are mobilizing to defend land, Indigenous territory and the environment. They risk their lives and freedom to do so, amidst increasing death threats, assassinations and misuse of the justice system to lock...

The climate crisis is becoming ever more urgent. It is nothing less than a global emergency and the greatest human rights challenge of our time. Indeed, climate change threatens the rights of hundreds of millions of people to water, food and health. The risks to people and nature are greater with...

Perhaps the greatest cross border priority we all face is protecting the environment on which our human rights and shared future depends.  Environment defenders in Latin America risk their very lives to respond to this challenge with hope and enormous courage. Indeed, Latin America is the...

  “We want to raise awareness about the importance of our land, water, trees and all the animals that live there … We are threatened and persecuted for protecting something that benefits all humanity…But we won’t give up.”  These are the words that Jani Silva, a courageous woman...

Since March 14, some 9,000 activists and supporters of Amnesty Canada sent email messages to Export Development Canada’s CEO and Canada’s International Trade Minister demanding remedy for the harm caused by a disastrous big dam project that Canada helped finance in Colombia. This action was...

Indigenous rights defender Berta Cáceres inspired many in her home country of Honduras, and around the world, as she courageously led efforts to stop construction of the Agua Zarca dam on a river not only sacred to the Lenca People, but vital to their survival. Berta was gunned down by...

It’s an all too familiar story. The damming of a river made possible with millions of dollars of public money from Canada. It’s the story of life-changing impacts on the local ecology and on communities who rely on the river for their survival. It’s also the story of their courageous struggle...

March 2 marks four years since iconic Lenca Indigenous water defender Berta Cáceres was gunned down in Honduras. Bringing to justice everyone responsible for the killing of Berta is vitally important to end the impunity that fuels more killings of forest and water defenders. Front Line Defenders...

Defenders of land, Indigenous territory and the environment put their lives on the line in Ecuador. Throughout 2018, Amnesty International documented a series of attacks and threats perpetrated against women earth defenders of Mujeres Amazónicas, a collective seeking to protect the Amazon region...

Their own environmental assessment concluded that flooding the Peace River Valley would have severe, permanent and irreversible harm to First Nations. The federal government and the Province of British Columbia approved the Site C dam anyway. First Nations have been forced to go to court just to...

Since 2018, the US government has conducted an unlawful and discriminatory campaign of intimidation, threats, harassment, and criminal investigations against people who defend the human rights of migrants, refugees and asylum seekers on the US–Mexico border, Amnesty International said in a new...

People who speak out to defend land, water and forests in Latin America are seeking to protect the human rights and well-being of their communities. Yet, they face unprecedented attacks and killings in return. Indigenous people and racial minorities experience the greatest danger, while women...