Authorities increasingly respond to climate protests and acts of civil disobedience by repressing those that speak up for the environment. To ensure environmental defenders’ rights are protected, the United Nations (UN) Special Rapporteur on Environmental Defenders is preparing new guidelines on the right to peaceful environmental protest and civil disobedience for governments, but also media outlets and national human rights institutions on the concrete steps they can take. The document aims to respond to situations as in Italy, which proposed a security law to criminalise peaceful human roadblocks, or the UK and Slovakia, which excessively punish environmental protesters.
ECNL provided legal expertise in the drafting process and supported the Rapporteur to convene activists, academics, journalists and human rights experts, whose perspectives helped shape the document. The guidelines have been published in 2025; they will be a powerful advocacy tool and offer robust arguments in strategic litigation in national and international courts.
Thanks to these actions:
- Legal protections for environmental defenders have been strengthened.
- Strategic litigation arguments have advanced in national and international courts.