Who Will Protect The Water Protectors?

As a result of her direct action against the Dakota Access Pipeline, 43-year-old Water Protector Jessica Reznicek is serving eight years in prison. In 2016, she and 35-year-old Ruby Montoya spent months disabling pipeline construction machinery in multiple clandestine operations, using tactics that stalled construction for 6 months and injured no one. 

In February 2021, Reznicek turned herself in and pleaded guilty to one count of “Conspiracy to Damage an Energy Facility.” However, on June 30, 2021 the court suddenly added a domestic terrorist charge, which increased her 3 year prison sentence to 8 years. 

But how did a Water Protector, who injured zero people in an effort to protect the environment, still receive a charge as staggering as this? It stems from the controversial Bush-era Patriot Act and has endangered the constitutional rights of activists. 

Since 2016, 21 states have enacted laws that place heavier punishments for hindering “critical infrastructure.” Trespassing is now a felony offense in some states, and vaguely defined laws target environmentalists who take direct action.

A notable instance of this occurred during the largest mass arrest of the #NODAPL movement on October 27, 2016, in which 142 Indigenous leaders, allies, and journalists on theStanding Rock frontlines were arrested and slapped with felony charges and significant fines. Seven Native Americans faced federal charges. 

Environmental activists put their livelihoods at stake in order to defend the sanctity of the land—but who will protect the Water Protectors?

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Meanwhile In Latin America….

Just over the Rio Grande, Latin America is considered the most dangerous place in the world for environmental activists. However, representatives from all 33 Latin American and Caribbean countries gathered in Santiago, Chile from April 22-25, 2024 to continue developing the groundbreaking environmental treaty known as the Escazú Agreement. 

The 15 States Parties approved the Action Plan on Human Rights Defenders in Environmental Matters, working to more clearly integrate the rights of Indigenous people and women in the Agreement. Alice Piva, a Brazilian climate activist and youth ambassador believes environmental justice includes intergenerational justice.

“It is up to the younger generations to push [the Escazú Agreement] forward to achieve this vision of a Latin America with a strong environmental democracy,” she said in an interview with Carbon Brief. 

The Regional Agreement on Access to Information, Public Participation and Access to Justice in Environmental Matters in Latin America and the Caribbean, also known as the Escazú Agreement, is the first legally binding regional environmental treaty in Latin America, and the first in the world to contain specific provisions on human rights defenders of the environment.

The treaty was adopted in 2018 in Escazú, Costa Rica. To date, it has been signed by 24 countries and ratified in 16 countries in a move to protect the lives of environmental activists, hundreds of whom faced violence last year.

The Escazú Agreement establishes the “right of access to environmental information,” which allows activists to request and receive detailed information on extractive projects planned on their territory. The “right of access to environmental participation” integrates them into decision-making processes to create permits, policies, regulations, and grant or withhold consent. The “right of access to environmental justice” establishes the right of environmental activists to take parties who have violated the treaty to court.

Between 2024 to 2030, countries who are part of the agreement will enact the Action Plan through a series of steps. “Knowledge Creation” will provide education on activists’ situations and identify mechanisms to prevent and punish violations of their rights. The work of environmental defenders will be publicly acknowledged under “Recognition.” Governments will embrace “National Implementation” of the plan, creating institutions that provide free legal assistance to environmental defenders and train judges and prosecutors. 

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Environmental Activists Across The Americas Need Better Protection

The Escazú Agreement provides an exemplary framework for policies the United States can implement to protect the rights of environmentalists. Currently in the US, Indigenous tribes do not have a right to consent to extractive projects, only the right to consultation, which has resulted in the creation of environmentally devastating projects like the Dakota Access Pipeline on Standing Rock and Cheyenne River Sioux land, and the Thacker Pass Mine on Paiute and Shoshone land.

The Dakota Access Pipeline leaked five times in its first year of operation, and although they were minor spills, tribes still fear the environmental repercussions of spills that happen near or under Lake Oahe, which is the Standing Rock tribe’s only source of drinking water. Oil spills also alter ecosystems, contaminating soil and groundwater for up to 15 years. However, coalitions of Indigenous tribes, climate action groups, and other environmental activists rallied at the White House on Tuesday June 11, determined to continue advocating for its removal in order for the land to be fully returned to Indigenous stewardship.

As environmental activists refuse to back down, U.S. environmental defenders can look to Latin America as an example to create and implement policies like the Escazú Agreement. It is essential to codify the rights of environmental activists and equip them with the tools to protect the land for generations to come. 

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‍Read the Escazú Agreement and learn more about organizations, such as Lakota People’s Law Project working to protect Indigenous activists.