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'A revolution where you can’t dance is not my revolution,' Ecuadorian environmentalist Nathalia Bonilla told ISHR, arguing for an ‘environmentalism for the people'.

From 24-26 November, the 14th Forum on Business and Human Rights took place in Geneva. ISHR participated in various activities together with human rights defenders working on corporate accountability.

As the genocide in Gaza exposes deep corporate complicity, experts and human rights defenders convened in Geneva to discuss urgent paths toward accountability. This discussion unpacked how businesses, investors, and States must act now to end profiteering from atrocity crimes.

'When we feel the impact of the loss and damages of the environment that we belong to, that's the only source of our strength for doing our subsistance farming and produce food for the family,' says Cressida Kuala.

At the 11th Session of the Open-ended intergovernmental working group on transnational corporations, ISHR urged all States to include and protect language that explicitly safeguards human rights defenders, impacted communities and the environment.

As the world faces a convergence of interlinked crises, this event will highlight the critical role of human rights defenders in seeking solutions and explore practices of safe and meaningful engagement while also identifying the challenges faced in different business contexts.

'I would like to see mining projects, small scale mining for example and hydro power projects or water works that are led by the community and are not proposed by big companies and foreign entities that enter our ancestral lands,' says Casselle Ton in an interview with ISHR.

As part of the NGO Forum ahead of the 85th Ordinary Session of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights, the African Centre for Democracy and Human Rights Studies convened a panel on the issue of 'AI and Human Rights in Africa: Navigating the Future of Governance and Development'.

Relatives of the Chilean Indigenous environmental defender Julia Chuñil must be granted immediate protections by the Chilean State, the Committee to Support Implementation and Compliance of the Escazú Agreement ruled, in response to a request supported by ISHR. This marks the first time the regional treaty urges a signatory State to take protective action.

Indigenous women human rights defenders (WHRDs) and women safeguarding land and community rights from across the globe gathered in Geneva from 22 to 26 September to take part in the Women Human Rights Advocacy Week (WHRD-AW) 2025.