Port of Spain, October 11, 2023: The Caribbean Natural Resources Institute (CANARI) supports calls by the Elected Representatives of the Public of the Escazú Agreement for Governments of Latin America and the Caribbean to develop an ambitious plan to urgently address the serious threats faced by environmental defenders in the region. This call was made at the Second Forum on Human Rights Defenders in Environmental Matters in Latin America and the Caribbean, held in Panama 27-28 September 2023 and attended by over 400 participants from across the region.
Executive Director of CANARI, Nicole Leotaud, is serving as one of the six Elected Representatives of the Public of the Escazú Agreement. She emphasised that, “Caribbean Governments must urgently address the growing threats to environmental defenders in our region who face harassment, intimidation, discrimination and marginalisation. We need to put strong protections in place before the problem escalates to what we are seeing in Latin America, which is the most dangerous region in the world for people trying to defend their rights to a clean and healthy environment. We cannot be complacent and ignore the increasing threats faced by environmental defenders in Jamaica, Guyana, Belize, Trinidad and Tobago, Grenada, Antigua and Barbuda, Suriname and elsewhere.”
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Photo caption: Caribbean reps et all at the Forum in Panama developing recommendations for the Action Plan. Credit CANARI