Friend,

In Colombia and around the globe, environmental activists, communities, and Indigenous Peoples strive to defend their environmental and human rights to land, water, livelihoods, and the right to live in a healthy environment while putting their lives and communities at risk. Colombia is the deadliest country for environmental defenders.

Today, Latin America remains the deadliest region in the world for frontline defenders. Colombia alone accounted for 40% of the targeted killings of defenders around the world in 2023.

Since 2012, CIEL has been working alongside Latin American partners and environmental defenders to ensure they have the right to engage in decisions affecting their lives while guaranteeing their safety and security to do this work. As the result of persistent advocacy, negotiations with States, and broad regional campaigns, the Escazú Agreement was created as the first legally binding regional environmental treaty that protects human rights defenders.

This month, Colombia’s Constitutional Court unanimously affirmed the constitutionality of the Escazú Agreement, thereby greenlighting Colombia’s adoption of the Agreement. To support this affirmation, CIEL submitted an amicus brief highlighting the alignment of the Escazú Agreement with the principles of sustainable development and the protection of the right to a healthy environment enshrined in the Colombian Constitution. As a result of this Court decision, the Agreement can now be implemented in the deadliest country for environmental defenders in the world.

This is a huge win for people who defend environmental and land rights.

This is only the beginning: now that the Escazú Agreement has been ratified, its implementation can begin in Colombia, as in other countries in Latin America. But to make this a reality in the entire region, more is needed to push for the remaining States to ratify it, most notably Brazil, Guatemala, and Peru, which are holdouts.

For example, many of the ecosystems and habitats in Latin America that are protected by environmental defenders — like the Amazon region, require collaboration from defenders in countries that aren’t yet part of the Escazú Agreement.

And States that have already ratified the Escazú Agreement need a roadmap for implementation. In a two-year consultation process, in which CIEL joined our regional and international partners to advocate for the first Regional Action Plan on Human Rights Defenders in Environmental Matters, which was adopted last month.

CIEL rallies for the Escazu Agreement alongside regional and international partners.

The Action Plan is a key step to making the Escazú Agreement protections a reality with the goal of preventing deaths and attacks against defenders.

Protecting our environmental defenders is crucial to safeguarding our right to a healthy environment and planet.

Defenders are not only speaking out to protect their lives, health, community, and country — they are speaking out on behalf of everyone everywhere who has the right to a healthy environment. Defenders are protecting critical ecosystems to sustain not only themselves but life for all of us, like the Amazon rainforest, which is a region of major significance in confronting the climate crisis.

With partners, we have emphasized the urgent need to protect defenders in the region, arguing that those who defend human rights and the planet are grounded in a close relationship with the land and deep knowledge of the territories and livelihoods linked to them.

Ratifying the Escazú Agreement is only the beginning. But ratification is not enough — we need effective implementation.

Friend, we need your support to continue our work on the Escazú Agreement to enable specific protection mechanisms for environmental defenders throughout Latin America.

Your support will help us grow and continue our collaborative work on Escazú implementation in Latin America. Our efforts to bolster the voices of frontline defenders demanding effective policies for their protection are possible when we strengthen our efforts together.

Thank you for your support to keep this crucial work moving forward. This win is a major step toward achieving protections for environmental defenders.

In solidarity,

Luisa Gómez Betancur
Senior Attorney
People, Land, and Resources
Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL)

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