Killed for speaking up: UN sounds alarm over attacks on environmental defenders

Key points

• His appeal came in remarks to the first-ever European Forum on Environmental Human Rights Defenders held in Strasbourg, France, where he warned that the continent is warming twice as fast as the global average, with increasing floods, shrinking glaciers and heatwaves.
• “Extreme weather kills thousands of Europeans every summer,” he said.
• “Across the continent, 95 per cent of urban residents breathe unsafe air, and more than 80 per cent of habitats are in poor or bad condition.” Activists under threat Türk praised defenders of the environment who speak up, mobilise and take concrete action to protect the planet, communities and democracy.
• “The environmental justice movement is a powerful human rights alliance uniting science, law, ethics, philosophy, and art – an alliance that cannot be defeated in a fair contest,” he said.
• “That is why some of its opponents resort to brutal and dishonest measures.