Just Earth!
About Just Earth....
Just Earth! is Amnesty International USA's campaign on human rights and the environment. Defending human rights and protecting the environment is a universal responsibility. But protecting the environment and a community's way of life can also be a dangerous undertaking, as the tragic deaths of Brazilian Chico Mendes and Nigerian Ken Saro-Wiwa demonstrate--both were murdered for their activism. Just Earth's goal is to defend the rights of environmental activists and address pervasive patterns of human rights abuses that occur in the wake of environmental degradation.
 Chico Mendes, Brazilian land activist. Murdered in 1988 by timber and logging interests. |
 Ken Saro-Wiwa, Nigerian environmentalist, human rights activist, and writer. Executed in 1995 by the Nigerian government for organizing his fellow citizens against the oil industry. |
The Just Earth! Campaign represents a tremendous opportunity to generate grassroots activism on cutting edge human rights issues of our time and to work with powerful coalition partners. It offers a unique opportunity to address the root causes of human rights violations, to hold multinational corporations accountable for protecting and promoting human rights, and energize activists to action on behalf of those who give the earth a voice.
"Defending the Defenders of the Earth" was launched on December 10, 1999 as a two-year collaborative campaign with the Sierra Club. The goal of the campaign was to generate action on specific cases of individual defenders and communities-at-risk, while developing a long-term preventive strategy through US policy initiatives. Since its launch in 1999, the campaign, which blossomed into the Just Earth! Campaign, has helped secure the release of four environmental defenders in Mexico and Russia. Currently, the Just Earth! Campaign is expanding its environmental defender focus to include campaigns on broader economic, social and cultural rights issues with a special educational campaign on collective rights of Indigenous peoples in the Americas and environmental justice issues.
The Just Earth! Campaign and the environmental defenders' campaign are products
of an historical collaboration between the environmental and human rights movements.
Our potential to make a difference is enormous. Join Amnesty International USA
and its Just Earth! Campaign to provide direct support for environmental defenders
and hold corporations accountable. Contact the Business and Human Rights Program
Office at 212-807-8400 or email env@aiusa.org
for more information.