Elena Sorokina Today, Earth Day, Crude Accountability and Ecoforum of NGOs, Kazakhstan announce our forthcoming report on the persecution of environmental defenders, which will be published in September 2017. In the report we document the most egregious cases of harassment against environmental activists, providing case studies from countries in the former Soviet region and the United States. The report includes cases of persecution of environmentalists over the past fifteen years, and calls on states and international organizations to ensure their urgent protection.
Environmentalists are heroes who defend our shared home, the Earth. A healthy environment is the basis for ensuring the protection of all other rights and freedoms. Unfortunately, states, corporations, and government authorities are increasingly attacking environmental defenders, who take on polluters, demanding the protection of human health and the environment. Environmentalists and their families are threatened, beaten, imprisoned, and even assassinated for their work.
“Everyone has the right, individually and in association with others, to promote and to strive for the protection and realization of human rights and fundamental freedoms at the national and international levels.” Article 1 of the UN Declaration on human rights defenders.
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Crude Accountability is an environmental and human rights nonprofit organization that works with communities in the Caspian and Black Sea regions who are impacted by oil and gas development and the accompanying threats to their environment and health. Based in Alexandria, Virginia, Crude Accountability also collaborates with environmental organizations in the United States working on similar issues.
Ecoforum of NGOs Kazakhstan is a national network of environmental nongovernmental organizations established in 1997. Ecoforum provides a platform for free exchange of information and ideas among environmental activists, implements joint public campaigns by environmental nongovernmental organizations, and amplifies the voices of environmental organizations and activists within and beyond Kazakhstan.
For more information:
Email: info@nullcrudeaccountability.org ecoforumkz@nullgmail.com
crudeaccountability.org www.env.kz