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在一个坐落在哥伦比亚起伏的山丘之间的丰富多彩的小镇中，伊莎贝尔·祖利塔（Isabel Zuleta）对100人的人群讲话。警察站在他们身后，穿着军队的疲劳，听着祖勒塔谈论社区的水权，他们担心他们依靠他们依靠的钓鱼和其他需求的高加索河，以及洪水they’re grappling with from the hydroelectricHidroituango大坝。Many fear that government officials are ignoring their关注并要求赔偿。

Although this rally and many other demonstrations Zuleta has held have ended peacefully, her work is not without conflict. As leader ofMovimiento Rios Vivos, a group dedicated to protecting Colombia’s rivers, she regularly holds public forums to voice communities’ concerns about dams and mines, lobbies the government to release information about projects’ effects on rivers, and leads non-violent protests. She’s received numerous death threats in response to her advocacy. OtherMovimiento Rios Vivos成员面临涂片运动，骚扰和监视。Two activists in the group were murdereda few years ago.

针对环境捍卫者的暴力行为不仅猖ramp哥伦比亚, which is among the three countries with the highest number of defender killings, but around the world.在2017年，几乎four environmental defenders were killed each week保护他们的土地，野生动植物和自然资源。拉丁美洲是最危险的地区，超过2016年后卫死亡的60％发生在其偏远村庄或深处的雨林中。对防守者的威胁也在加勒比海地区崛起。

The Cauca river, Colombia. Photo by corazon de melon/Wikimedia Commons
The Cauca river, Colombia. Photo by corazon de melon/Wikimedia Commons

LAC P10：具有法律约束力的协议，以改善环境民主并保护捍卫者

但是，本周进行协议的协议可能会有所帮助。

从2018年2月28日至2018年3月4日在哥斯达黎加，国家和civil society groupsare negotiating the Regional Agreement on Access to Information, Public Participation and Access to Justice in Environmental Matters in Latin America and the Caribbean, also known asLAC P10。如果通过作为具有法律约束力的协议，它将要求政府制定新的标准以实现原则10，称为环境民主原则Rio Declaration on Environment and Development。These legally binding provisions would improve people’s access to environmental information (such as water pollution data or mining concessions details), strengthen their ability to participate in environmental decision-making, and help them hold powerful interests to account for harming communities and the environment.

LAC P10 also includes requirements for governments to protect people seeking to participate in decision-making processes about infrastructure, thereby reducing the risks environmental defenders face. Thesenew ground-breaking provisionsinclude:

  • 为在环境问题上促进和捍卫人权的人和组织保证安全的环境，以便他们不受威胁，限制和不安全感；
  • 采取措施认识，保护和促进环境捍卫者的所有权利；和
  • 采取措施预防，调查和惩罚对环境捍卫者的攻击，威胁或恐吓。

哥伦比亚’s rolling hills. Photo by Alejandra Lopez Rodriguez/Flickr
哥伦比亚’s rolling hills. Photo by Alejandra Lopez Rodriguez/Flickr

Since智利发起了LAC P10谈判超过六年前，超过20个国家加入了该过程。本周，他们将敲定条款，并一劳永逸地决定该协议是否具有法律约束力。

当前的文本草案提出，至少八个国家必须批准该协议以生效。至关重要的是，以前表明对具有法律约束力协议的利益的政府尽快签署了该条约，以鼓励其他国家认可该条约。拉丁美洲和加勒比海的民间社会组织是请愿包括巴西和阿根廷在内的地区领导人支持该协议。如果谈判不足，LAC P10在法律上不会具有约束力，那么这只是各国可能会或可能不会实施的自愿指导。

该协议对于巴西，危地马拉，墨西哥，洪都拉斯，秘鲁和哥伦比亚尤为重要，这是近年来环境和土地捍卫者最危险的地方。

另一个渴望保护环境的人太多了。现在是各国向捍卫捍卫者迈出一步的时候了。