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	Experts urge all Governments to protect environmental rights defenders by UN Office for Human Rights (OHCHR)   June 2016   Speaking ahead of World Environment Day, three United Nations human rights experts call on every Government to protect environmental and land rights defenders.   The UN Special Rapporteur on human rights and the environment, John Knox; the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders, Michel Forst, and the UN Special Rapporteur on the rights of indigenous people, Victoria Tauli Corpuz, stress that protecting environmental rights defenders is crucial to protect the environment and the human rights that depend on it.   “Being an environmentalist can be a dangerous, even deadly undertaking. Berta Cáceres, the Goldman Prize winner who was assassinated in Honduras in March 2016, was only one of dozens of environmentalists to be killed in recent months.   Every week, on average, two environmental and land rights activists are killed and the numbers are getting worse, according to civil society figures. The situation is particularly grave in Latin America and Southeast Asia, but it affects every region of the world. It is truly a global crisis.   On this World Environment Day, we want to underscore that environmental human rights defenders should be lauded as heroes for putting themselves at risk to protect the rights and well-being of others. Instead, they are often targeted as if they were enemies of the State.   The brave women and men who work to protect the environment are routinely harassed, threatened, unlawfully detained, and even murdered, merely for opposing powerful business and governmental interests bent on exploiting and destroying the natural environment on which we all depend.   The enjoyment of a vast range of human rights, including rights to life, health, food, water, and housing, depend on a healthy and sustainable environment. Those who work to protect the environment are not only environmentalists – they are also human rights defenders.   In March 2016, the Human Rights Council adopted a landmark Resolution (res 31/ 32) which requires States to ensure the rights and safety of human rights defenders working towards the realization of economic, social and cultural rights.   That was a good initial step, but Governments must do far more. They have obligations under human rights law to protect environmentalists’ rights of expression and association by responding rapidly and effectively to threats, promptly investigating acts of harassment and violence from all parties including business and non-State actors, protecting the lives of those at risk, and bringing those responsible to justice.   States must also adopt and implement mechanisms that allow defenders to communicate their grievances, claim responsibilities, and obtain effective redress for violations, without fear of intimidation.   They must take additional steps to safeguard the rights of members of marginalized and vulnerable communities, especially indigenous peoples, whose cultures, identities and livelihoods often depend on the environment and whose lives are particularly susceptible to environmental harm, placing them on the frontlines of conflict.   Currently, States are failing to meet these obligations. Of the nearly 1000 reported murders over the last decade, fewer than 10 have resulted in convictions. The real culprits are rarely held accountable for their crimes.   In the last year, the international community has reached consensus on the new sustainable development goals as a roadmap to a more sustainable, prosperous and equitable future. But those goals cannot be met if those on the front line of protecting sustainable development are not protected.   It is ironic that environmental rights defenders are often branded as ‘anti-development’, when by working to make development truly sustainable, they are actually more pro-development than the corporations and governments that oppose them.   Supporting environmental human rights defenders is crucial to protect our environment and the human rights that depend on it, and Governments should never forget that.” http://bit.ly/1Uzvokr http://www.ohchr.org/EN/Issues/SRHRDefenders/Pages/SRHRDefendersIndex.aspx   * See Global Witness report On Dangerous Ground highlighting 2015 was the worst year on record for killings of land and environmental defenders – people struggling to protect their land, forests and rivers, via the link below. Visit the related web page
	UN urges the Philippines to stop unlawful killings of people suspected of drug-related offences by UN News, AFP, agencies Philippines   June 2016 (AFP)   The Philippines president Rodrigo Duterte has urged the public to join his anti-crime crackdown, offering people huge bounties for killing drug offenders.   His announcement came as other officials began paying bounties for slain suspected criminals. Mr Duterte won the presidential election last month, running on a platform of a ruthless anti-crime campaign.   After previously saying he would unleash the military and police on criminals, Mr Duterte said the public could go after them as well.   "If they are there in your neighbourhood, feel free to call us, the police, or do it yourself if you have the gun. You have my support," he told his followers.   He stressed that drug addicts could not be rehabilitated and warned: "If you are involved in drugs, I will kill you. You son of a whore, I will really kill you."   Mr Duterte reiterated that his anti-crime campaign would be "a bloody war", as he offered money for slain drug dealers. Others have followed his lead with the elected mayor of the central city of Cebu, Tomas Osmena, admitting he paid more than $US3,000 ($4,000) to police officers for killing drug traffickers.   * Article 10 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states: Everyone is entitled in full equality to a fair and public hearing by an independent and impartial tribunal, in the determination of his rights and obligations and of any criminal charge against him. Article 11: Everyone charged with a penal offence has the right to be presumed innocent until proved guilty according to law in a public trial at which he or she has had all the guarantees necessary for his defence.   “Allegations of drug-trafficking offences should be judged in a court of law, not by gunmen on the streets,” said two United Nations human rights experts, while urging the Government of the Philippines to put an end to the current wave of extrajudicial executions and killings in the context of an intensified anti-crime and anti-drug campaign targeting drug dealers and users.   “We call on the Philippines authorities to adopt with immediate effect the necessary measures to protect all persons from targeted killings and extrajudicial executions,” said the new UN Special Rapporteur on summary executions, Agnes Callamard.   “Claims to fight illicit drug trade do not absolve the Government from its international legal obligations and do not shield State actors or others from responsibility for illegal killings,” Ms. Callamard stressed. “The State has a legally binding obligation to ensure the right to life and security of every person in the country, whether suspected of criminal offences or not.   The UN Special Rapporteur on the right to health, Dainius Puras, noted that “responses to the illicit drug trade must be carried out in full compliance with national and international obligations and should respect the human rights of each person.”   During his election campaign and first days in office, Mr. Duterte repeatedly urged law enforcement agencies and the public to kill people suspected of trafficking drugs who don’t surrender, as well as people who use drugs. The President was also reported as promising impunity for such killings and bounties for those who turn in drug dealers ‘dead or alive’.   “Directives of this nature are irresponsible in the extreme and amount to incitement to violence and killing, a crime under international law. It is effectively a license to kill,” the UN expert on summary executions warned. “Intentional lethal use of force is only allowed when strictly unavoidable in order to protect life and should not be used for common policing objectives,” she said.   “Incentives to violence such as bounties or the promise of impunity also seriously contravene the rule of law and must end,” the experts said. “All allegations of killings and extrajudicial executions must be promptly and thoroughly investigated. Perpetrators and instigators must be sanctioned without exception.”   http://bit.ly/2bA9YU5 http://bit.ly/2dHgZC1 http://www.hrw.org/news/2017/09/09/philippines-abusive-drug-war-targets-children http://bit.ly/2h22WdX http://www.hrw.org/asia/philippines http://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2017/09/philippines-killings-of-children-continue-unabated/ http://www.amnesty.org/en/countries/asia-and-the-pacific/philippines/   June 2016   UN experts urge Philippines president-elect to stop instigating deadly violence   Two United Nations independent experts on summary executions, and on freedom of expression today urged Philippines president-elect Rodrigo Duterte to stop instigating deadly violence immediately. The experts strongly condemned Mr. Duterte’s recent statements suggesting that journalists are not exempt for assassination.   Speaking at a press conference, Mr. Duterte reportedly stated that most journalists killed in the country have done something wrong. ‘You won’t be killed if you don’t do anything wrong,’ the President-elect said, suggesting that victims were partly to blame for their fate.   “A message of this nature amounts to incitement to violence and killing, in a nation already ranked as the second-deadliest country for journalists,” said the UN Special Rapporteur on summary executions, Cristof Heyns. “These comments are irresponsible in the extreme, and unbecoming of any leader, let alone someone who is to assume the position of the leader of a country that calls itself democratic.”   For the UN Special Rapporteur on freedom opinion and expression, David Kaye, “justifying the killing of journalists on the basis of how they conduct their professional activities can be understood as a permissive signal to potential killers that the murder of journalists is acceptable in certain circumstances and would not be punished.”   “This position is even more disturbing when one considers that Philippines is still struggling to ensure accountability to notorious cases of violence against journalists, such as the Maguindanao massacre,” the human rights expert added.   Mr. Duterte is further reported to have questioned the legal guarantees to journalists who are perceived to have made defamatory comments. ‘That can’t be just freedom of speech. The constitution can no longer help you if you disrespect a person,’ the President-elect stated.   “Such provocative messages indicate to any person who is displeased by the work of a journalist or an activist, for example, that they can attack or kill them without fear of sanction,” Mr. Kaye stressed.   “Talk of ‘dead or alive’ has no role to play in any state that claims to uphold human rights in law enforcement,” Special Rapporteur Heyns stressed, while recalling the limits imposed by international instruments on the conduct of law enforcement forces.   “Intentional lethal use of force may only be made when strictly unavoidable in order to protect life and not for common policing objectives,” he said. “The President-elect fools no one when he says he is not calling on people to be killed.” http://bit.ly/1PzH87R   Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice. (United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime)   Crime prevention and criminal justice strategies must take a human rights approach and be based on the rules of law, together with the UN standards and norms in crime prevention and criminal justice.   The Charter of the United Nations includes an obligation to promote universal respect and observance for human rights. Resolution 51/12 of the Commission on Narcotic Drugs reaffirmed the importance of countering the world drug problem in a multilateral setting with full respect for all human rights and fundamental freedoms.   http://bit.ly/1BbLi9n http://www.ohchr.org/EN/ProfessionalInterest/Pages/ArbitraryAndSummaryExecutions.aspx http://www.ohchr.org/EN/ProfessionalInterest/Pages/UseOfForceAndFirearms.aspx http://bit.ly/1bNeudO   * Philippines Commission on Human Rights: http://bit.ly/2vHZpKo Visit the related web page
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