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Virtual Engagement Session: Protecting Environmental Rights with Legal Support to Frontline Defenders
Background
Across the globe, Indigenous communities and other frontline environmental rights defenders are fighting to protect land rights, ensure climate justice, and prevent abuses that undermine the universal right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment – often at the hands of corrupt entities seeking capital gains.
Our client Women’s Earth and Climate Action Network (WECAN) International is at the forefront of global efforts to engage and support women in policy and advocacy work to address the climate crisis. At WECAN’s request, the Vance Center, with pro bono legal support from firms including Baker McKenzie, has created toolkits, manuals, and workshops focused on international environmental and human rights law.
These resources help the women leaders across WECAN’s network better understand their rights and engage in environmental rights defense and advocacy on key issues like the Escazú Agreement, a landmark regional treaty on environmental matters in Latin America and the Caribbean.
Our Speakers
- Nathalya Desterro, Program Advisor, Environment Program, Vance Center
- Osprey Orielle Lake, Founder and Executive Director, WECAN International
- Camila Jiménez, Associate, Baker McKenzie (Bogotá, Colombia)
Key Takeaways
Legal support is crucial in safeguarding the lives and well-being of land defenders. It provides them with mechanisms to report abuses, seek justice, and ensure their safety as they work to protect their territories and essential resources that we all share. Pro bono or low-cost legal assistance helps overcome common barriers such as lack of knowledge about how to navigate legal systems, language differences, and financial and time constraints.
Lawyers can play a critical role as climate activists in their own countries. They can advocate for stronger protections for environmental defenders and rights, explain gaps in current laws and legislation, and clarify international and regional standards to guide national and local efforts. Co-counseling with the Vance Center offers lawyers the opportunity to apply their unique knowledge and expertise to this work.
The successful implementation of the Escazú Agreement depends on accessibility. As Osprey noted, access can translate into accountability. Specifically, access to legal services enables land defenders to hold their governments accountable for fulfilling their commitments and monitoring the agreement’s implementation.
The legal resources developed by the Vance Center, WECAN International, and Baker McKenzie have been essential in supporting communities confronting environmental injustice, navigating corporate pressure, and responding to adverse legal rulings and policies. While we are still far from resolving these injustices, these collective actions are helping improve conditions on the ground and amplify long-running efforts of environmental defenders.
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About Our Work
The Vance Center’s Environment Program advances environmental rights and advocates for climate justice across the globe. Our work supports the rights of Indigenous Peoples and local communities in Latin America, sub-Saharan Africa, Southeast Asia, and beyond.
We coordinate large multi-jurisdictional comparative law projects with global civil society and UN Special Rapporteurs, take on strategic litigation before international tribunals, and prioritize work with small local and grassroots organizations.
More about our Environment Program
Supporting the Vance Center helps us reach more clients in need of our pro bono legal services to aid their fight for climate justice through projects like this one.