Protecting Myanmar’s environmental defenders in conflict: Human Rights Myanmar

Mizzima

Environmental defenders in Myanmar face criminalisation, violence, and displacement while protecting land, water, forests, and communities, according to NGO Human Rights Myanmar (HRM).

HRM has provided a submission to the UN’s review examining conflict-linked extraction, rare-earth supply chains, and collective protection, calling for accountability, safe participation, effective remedies, and sustained support for indigenous environmental governance and community-led stewardship nationwide, according to their press release 1 September.

The following are the main points in their report:

Introduction

This submission to the UN Special Rapporteur’s report on the right to a healthy environment documents the experiences of environmental human rights defenders (EHRDs) in Myanmar. EHRDs include indigenous peoples, local communities, journalists and civil society actors defending land, water, forests and livelihoods. They operate amid armed conflict, military rule and fragmented territorial control, where extractive projects frequently proceed without safe participation or effective remedy. The risks are both individual and collective because attacking one defender can silence a community, obstruct access to environmental information and weaken collective stewardship.