The emerging development in Europe is likely to be an added boost to environmental activism in Nigeria, where the renowned Ogoni leader, Ken Saro-Wiwa, and others died fighting for environmental justice.
Since the execution of The Ogoni Nine by the Abacha military dictatorship, Environmental Rights Action (ERA), under the leadership of Nnimmo Bassey, made a safe environment, a human rights affair. Though still in the Governing Board of ERA, Bassey has since moved to galvanise the Health of Mother Earth Foundation (HOMEF).
However, a 46-strong group of countries across the wider European region has agreed to establish a new legally binding mechanism that will protect environmental defenders, the UN Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) said.
This development is coming as President Muhammadu Buhari is considering state pardon for Saro-Wiwa and eight of his other Ogoni kinsmen/environmental rights activists who opposed the operating practices of the Anglo-Dutch oil and gas major, Shell, were executed by hanging by the military dictatorship of General Sani Abacha, 26 years ago.
Among The Ogoni Nine are Saturday Dobee, Nordu Eawo, Daniel Gbooko, Paul Levera, Felix Nuate, Baribor Bera, Barinem Kiobel, and John Kpuine. They were executed on November 10 1995.
Buhari gave the hint when he had an audience with some leaders and people of Ogoni at the State House, according to a statement by his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina. According to Buhari, despite the gravity of the circumstances, the Federal Government will consider the request to grant them a pardon and bring closure to the case.
“Furthermore, we are committed to ensuring clemency and national integration as part of this administration’s bid to lay the foundation for genuine reconciliation and bring closure to the issues of Ogoni.
“The unfortunate incidents of the early 1990s leading to the loss of lives of distinguished sons of Ogoni land and the collateral judicial processes are indelible in our memories. Despite the grievous circumstances, the Federal Government will consider the request for the grant of pardon to finally close the Ogoni saga’’, Buhari said.
He is also urging the Ogoni leaders to sensitise indigenes on the value of protecting national assets like pipelines and other oil installations, saying willful damages usually create more havoc on their environment and hamper development in the area, noting that his administration is committed to cleaning up of Ogoni land so that indigenes can regain their lives, return to farms and reactivate economic activities.
“You will need to educate the people of Ogoni land and the region more, that when pipelines are broken, the damage is more to the immediate environment and the people. The majority of farmers and fishermen struggle because the fishes now move to the deep sea’,’ he said, observing that bad industry practices coupled with security challenges had resulted in massive spills with attendant environmental degradation of Ogoni, leading to agitations and strife.
While Buhari promised that his administration will bring to a close all pending issues on sons of Ogoni, United Nations Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, welcoming the rapid response mechanism as “an important contribution to help advance my Call to Action for Human Rights”, adding, “I remain deeply concerned by the targeting of environmental activists.”
The agreement will delegate setting up the new mechanism to the United Nations, or another international body.
As the first-ever internationally-agreed tool to safeguard environmental defenders, it marks an important step in upholding the universal right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment – as recognised by the Human Rights Council earlier this month.
“Twenty years ago, the Aarhus Convention entered into force, bridging the gap between human and environmental rights.
Today, as the devastating effects of climate change continue to ravage the world, the Convention’s core purpose – of allowing people to protect their wellbeing and that of future generations – has never been more critical”, spelt out the UN chief.
The agreement to establish the mechanism was adopted on Thursday by the Meeting of the Parties to the Convention on Access to Information, Public Participation in Decision-Making and Access to Justice in Environmental Matters, known as the Aarhus Convention.
“This landmark decision is a clear signal to environmental defenders that they will not be left unprotected”, said UNECE chief, Olga Algayerova.
“It demonstrates a new level of commitment to upholding the public’s rights under the Aarhus Convention, as well as Parties’ willingness to respond effectively to grave and real-time challenges seen in the Convention’s implementation on the ground”.
Vital Defence
Whether it is groups protesting the construction of a dangerous dam or individuals speaking out against harmful agricultural practices in their local community, these activists are vital to environmental preservation across the globe, said the UNECE.
The Aarhus Convention ensures that those exercising their rights in conformity with the provisions of the Convention shall not be penalized, persecuted or harassed in any way for their involvement.
As such, the mechanism will establish a Special Rapporteur – or independent rights expert – who will quickly respond to alleged violations and take measures to protect those experiencing or under imminent threat of penalization, persecution, or harassment for seeking to exercise their rights under the Convention.
As time is of the essence to buttress the safety of environmental defenders, any member of the public, secretariat or Party to the Aarhus Convention, will be able to submit a confidential complaint to the Special Rapporteur, even before other legal remedies have been exhausted.
Although it is crucial for environmental defenders to confidently exercise their rights, cases have been reported in which instead, they face being fired, heavy fines, criminalization, detention, violence, and even death.
Moreover, incidents of harassment and violence against environmental defenders are far from uncommon.
A report to the Human Rights Council by Mary Lawlor, Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders, found that one-in-two human rights defenders who were killed in 2019 had been working with communities around issues of land, environment, impacts of business activities, poverty and rights of indigenous peoples, Afrodescendants and other minorities.
Since January 2017, among the Parties to the Aarhus Convention, incidents of presecution, penalisation and harassment of environmental defenders have been reported in 16 countries.
In contrast to current existing initiatives, which mainly rely on applying political pressure through the media, the Aarhus Convention’s rapid response mechanism will be built on a binding legal framework, giving it much greater powers to act.
