UN Special Rapporteur on environmental defenders under the Aarhus Convention on reprisals against environmental activists

1. States must address the root causes of environmental mobilization. They should implement the Paris Agreement fully, respect their commitment to take the necessary measures to limit global warming to 1.5°C, reduce deaths and illnesses from air pollution, and restore 30 percent of all degraded ecosystems by 2030. They should apply a human rights-based approach to the energy transition and respect their binding obligations under the Aarhus Convention to ensure access to information, public participation, and access to justice in environmental matters. States should also promote these principles in international fora related to the environment, such as at their Conferences of the Parties (COPs), and ensure the safe participation of environmental defenders in these fora.  
2. States must take immediate action to counter-narratives that portray environmental defenders and their movements as criminals. Political figures, and especially members of parliament and of governments, must refrain from such discourse. They must by no means liken environmental defenders to criminals. States should also publicly acknowledge the important role played by environmental defenders and promote the protection of their freedoms of expression, peaceful assembly, and association. They must refrain from conveying the idea that peaceful civil disobedience, and any resulting disruption it causes, is a violent or criminal activity, and hence refrain from putting environmental movements that resort to peaceful civil disobedience in the same category as criminal organizations.
3. States must not use the increase of environmental civil disobedience as a pretext to restrict the civic space and the exercise of fundamental freedoms. States have an obligation to facilitate the exercise of the freedoms of expression, peaceful assembly and association and to create a safe and enabling environment for them. They should assess the conformity with international human rights standards of any legislation proposed and/or implemented to respond to civil disobedience, refrain from adopting any new laws and policies that impede or obstruct the exercise of freedoms of expression, peaceful assembly and association or that restrict and criminalize peaceful protest, and revise existing laws and policies that do so, in accordance with international human rights standards and obligations. States should also ensure that their authorities at all levels are trained to take the necessary measures, in accordance with international human rights standards, to facilitate peaceful protest, including peaceful civil disobedience, and that they do not take measures to unduly restrict or ban peaceful protests.
4. States must comply with their international obligations related to freedom of expression, peaceful assembly and association in their response to environmental protest and civil disobedience and immediately cease the use of measures designed for counterterrorism and organized crime against environmental defenders. States should ensure that peaceful protest and civil disobedience have the same safeguards as other forms of assembly, and that any restrictions imposed are kept to the minimum, are strictly controlled and are in compliance with international human rights standards. This includes preventing and repealing measures and practices that may have a chilling effect on environmental activism and protests, such as indiscriminate or abusive identity checks, and the arrest, detention and prosecution of peaceful protesters and journalists. States must also ban law enforcement techniques that involve inflicting pain on protesters, strictly control the use of force in protests, promptly investigate and punish any excessive use of force by law enforcement, and ensure that any charges brought against protesters are strictly proportionate to the protester’s own actions. States should also put in place training for the police and other law enforcement authorities on the facilitation and supervision of peaceful assemblies and learn from other States’ good practices.
5. States must ensure that the courts’ approach to disruptive protest, including any sentences imposed, does not contribute to the restriction of the civic space. States should ensure that any bail conditions imposed on environmental protesters, including those who have participated in peaceful civil disobedience, are kept to a minimum, are humane and do not interfere with their fundamental freedoms. Courts should refrain from the use of preventive and pre-trial detention for environmental protesters, including those who have engaged in peaceful civil disobedience. States should prevent the use of laws on counterterrorism and organized crime, including such laws’ surveillance measures, against environmental defenders and movements. Courts should not impose limitations on environmental protesters’ right to a defense, including to explain their motivation for engaging in protest, and should take into account these motivations in their decisions. Courts should ensure that their decisions on protest cases, including any sanctions imposed, are consistent and protect the exercise of freedoms of expression, peaceful assembly and association. They should also learn from other jurisdictions’ good practices in handling environmental protest cases.  

The guiding principles are noted in the Report 2025. 

Guiding Principle 1: States must address the root causes of environmental protests 

Guiding Principle 2: States must take immediate action to counter narratives that portray environmental defenders as criminals

Guiding Principle 3: States must not use the increase of environmental civil disobedience as a pretext to restrict the civic space and the exercise of fundamental freedoms  

Guiding Principle 4: States must comply with their international obligations related to fundamental freedoms in their law enforcement response to environmental protest and civil disobedience and refrain from using unnecessary or disproportionate force or measures against environmental defenders. 

Guiding Principle 5: States must ensure that the courts’ approach to peaceful environmental protest, including any sanctions imposed, does not contribute to the restriction of the civic space.