Join us on Thursday October 24 at 7 pm (CET time) for a webinar that will link the protection needs of environmental defenders and the upcoming United Nations COP16 Biodiversity, COP29 Climate and Binding Treaty talks.
This one-hour webinar with simultaneous translation will feature Cali, Colombia-based Berenice Celeita of the Association for Social Research and Action (Nomadesc), Washington, DC-based Javier Garate of Global Witness, and Geneva-based Yannick Wild of Peace Brigades International-Switzerland.
The webinar will take place during the COP16 Biodiversity conference (from October 21 to November 1) in Cali, Colombia. At COP16, with the them of Peace with Nature, there will be efforts to strengthen Target 22 of the Global Biodiversity Framework that notes the need for “the full protection of environmental human rights defenders.”
It will also take place prior to the COP29 Climate conference (from November 11 to 22) in Azerbaijan. Notably, this COP process has failed to include in any of its final texts language about defenders despite the killings of at least 1,390 land and environmental defenders since the COP21 conference in 2015.
And it will take place before the negotiations on the Binding Treaty on business and human rights (now rescheduled to December 16 to 20) in Geneva. A recent draft of the Binding Treaty calls on State Parties to “adopt appropriate legislative, regulatory, and other measures” to “protect the safety of human rights defenders”.
Should we expect more from these UN conferences? Are they credible processes? What are the impediments to stronger language and implementation? What do think will happen at the COP16, COP29 and Binding Treaty talks? What can the international community do to strengthen protections?
To register for this webinar, click here.