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Founded in 1993, Global Witness’s goal is a more sustainable, just, and equal planet. It aims for forests and biodiversity to thrive, fossil fuels to stay in the ground, and corporations to prioritize the interests of people and the planet. It works to hold companies and governments to account for their destruction of the environment, their disregard for the planet, and their failure to protect human rights.
GW seeks to “a better world – where corruption is challenged and accountability prevails”. It is campaigning to end environmental and human rights abuses driven by the exploitation of natural resources and corruption in the global political and economic system. GW carries out hard-hitting investigations, exposes the facts, pushes for change and works with partners around the world in the fight for justice.
The Global Witness (GW) Defender’s campaign advocates and supports the rights of land and environmental defenders. The central premise of our work is to expose the relationship between governments, corporations, investors and the human rights abuses that emerge through their scramble for natural resources. Primarily, this has taken shape through documentation of killings of land and environmental defenders globally and through country-specific investigations, which includes, but is not limited to the following countries: Peru, Honduras, and the Philippines. By drawing attention to corruption, unethical practices and human rights abuses against land and environment defenders, our research becomes a tool to enable civil society organizations to apply pressure to development banks.
Across the board, development banks lack adequate due diligence to address risks for defenders and human rights risks in general. Most importantly, development institutions have yet to develop effective protocols for ensuring communities are afforded a say in the projects that impact them. Targeting investors plays an informed part of our campaign strategy. After sustained civil society campaigning in Honduras, the Dutch and Finnish development banks – FMO and Finn-fund – eventually withdrew their investment in the project in July 2017. The FMO has since reviewed its human rights policies and is developing an “early warning system for risk of oppression or violence towards human and environmental rights defenders and those opposing projects FMO invests in.”