#occupy

How criminalisation is being used to silence #ClimateActivists across the world

Guardian investigation finds growing number of countries passing #AntiProtest laws as part of playbook of tactics to intimidate people peacefully raising the alarm

“Criminalisation is the most common tactic used against #HumanRights defenders, because it’s so easy and has such a big impact.”

Nina Lakhani, Damien Gayle and Matthew Taylor
Thu 12 Oct 2023 07.00 EDT

"As #wildfires and #ExtremeTmperatures rage across the planet, sea temperature records tumble and polar glaciers disappear, the scale and speed of the climate crisis is impossible to ignore. Scientific experts are unanimous that there needs to be an urgent clampdown on fossil fuel production, a major boost in renewable energy and support for communities to rapidly move towards a fairer, healthier and sustainable low-carbon future.

"Many governments, however, seem to have different priorities. According to climate experts, senior figures at the UN and grassroots advocates contacted by the Guardian, some political leaders and law enforcement agencies around the world are instead launching a fierce crackdown on people trying to peacefully raise the alarm.

"'These defenders are basically trying to #SaveThePlanet, and in doing so save #humanity,' said Mary Lawlor, the UN special rapporteur on #HumanRights defenders. 'These are people we should be protecting, but are seen by #governments and #corporations as a threat to be neutralised. In the end it’s about power and #economics.'

"#Climate and #EnvironmentalJustice groups report a significant increase in draconian, and often arbitrary, charges for peaceful protesters as part of what they claim is a playbook of tactics to vilify, discredit, intimidate and silence activists.

"The Guardian has also found striking similarities in the way governments from #Canada and the #US to #Guatemala and #Chile, from #India and #Tanzania to the #UK, #Europe and #Australia, are cracking down on activists trying to protect the planet.

"The legal contexts vary, but the charges – such as #subversion, illicit association, terrorism and tax evasion – are often vague and time-consuming to disprove, while a growing number of countries, including the US and UK, have passed controversial anti-protest laws ostensibly intended to protect national security or so-called critical infrastructure such as #FossilFuel #pipelines.

"The systematic criminalisation of environmental defenders is not new. Natural resources on #Indigenous land have long been exploited, driving big profits for some but also fuelling violence and inequality.

"Experts say the Marlin mine in Guatemala was one of the earliest documented cases of a transnational #corporation – and its state allies – weaponising the legal system against environmental defenders. Since then, the Inter American Commission on Human Rights has repeatedly condemned what it describes as the alarming rise in the misuse of criminal justice systems against environmental, land and other human rights defenders across #LatinAmerica.

"'Criminalising defenders encourages collective stigma and sends off an intimidating message,' the IACHR said last year.

"According to Lawlor, this criminalisation of environmental #protestors has since become a #global phenomenon, and is now the most common tactic used to silence and discredit defenders.

"'At its core it’s about maintaining the #PowerStructures in place. This is true regardless of whether it’s a #dictatorship, #democracy or a corrupt #NarcoState, and regardless of the state’s professed commitment to human rights, protecting the environment and combating #ClimateChange.' she said.

"'Smearing defenders as lawbreakers or anti-development distracts from the cause and changes the narrative … What’s clear is that states learn from each other.'

"#ClimateActivism is well and truly back. Paolo Gerbaudo, an academic at King’s College London who studies social movements, said that before the 2008 financial crash, the climate emergency felt like 'the challenge of our time'. But it 'largely slipped off the social and political agenda” as activists such as #Occupy turned their attention to opposing #austerity policies and pushing for global economic reforms.

"As scientific warnings grew ever more dire during the 2010s, there was a deepening feeling that traditional environmental campaigning was failing, and that politicians were not delivering – with potentially catastrophic consequences.

"It was into this context that more #DirectAction, and more #radical environmental protest groups emerged. Over the past five years, the UK has been not only at the forefront of these new forms of non-violent activism, but also novel means of silencing it."

Full article:
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/oct/12/how-criminalisation-is-being-used-to-silence-climate-activists-across-the-world

#ClimateJustice #ClimateActivism #AntiProtestLaws #BigOil #Corruption #Lobbyists