Belem, 10 November 2025: As states converge in Belem for the UNFCCC COP30 and with 16 Days of Activism against gender-based violence around the corner, Natural Justice’s new report on the situation of African Women Environmental Human Rights Defenders (WEHRDs) shows the steep cost women pay for their activism to safeguard our climate and the environment. Gender based and sexual violence are used to silence their voices, punish their resistance and discredit their leadership.
This year’s COP30 negotiations on the Gender Action Plan present opportunities for states to explicitly address WEHRDs’ realities, enhance their participation and ensure a just, inclusive, and effective climate response.
“The message from women defenders in Africa is clear: ‘hands off our bodies and lands!’ At this COP30 we want states to agree on a progressive, transformative, and funded Gender Action Plan that formally recognises and supports the leadership and protection of WEHRDs. Climate justice, environmental democracy and women’s liberation are impossible without protecting those who defend these struggles.” – Katherine Robinson, Natural Justice (NJ), Head of Policy Advocacy.
WEHRDs in Africa play a vital role in protecting the climate, ecosystems, and the rights of their communities. Yet their work comes at a steep cost. From rural villages to conflict-affected regions, women face disproportionate risks, including gender-based violence, criminalization, intimidation, and exclusion from decision-making processes.
From Kenya to the DRC, Uganda to South Africa, and Nigeria to Tanzania women activists are confronting not only corporate and state repression but also deeply rooted patriarchal norms. They endure smear campaigns, sexual violence, online abuse, and repression for daring to challenge power. Evidence suggests that women activists also face heightened risks of intimate partner and family violence when their work challenges gender expectations.
“Across Kenya and East Africa, Women Environmental and Human Rights Defenders are fighting at the frontlines of climate and environmental justice, often at immense personal risk. From the forests of Kenya to the mines of DRC, their resistance is reshaping our collective future. As the world gathers at COP30, we must ensure that African women defending our environment are not left to fight alone.” – Elizabeth Kariuki, NJ’s Nairobi Hub Director.
Perpetrators: sectors and industries
Where a sector could be identified, around half of the killings in Africa since 2012 were linked to poaching with land and mining representing approximately a fifth of killings each. Where a sector could be identified, most non-lethal attacks were linked to the fossil fuel industry (oil and gas), mining and energy sectors. In Kenya, WEHRDs interviewed for this research spoke of conservation and carbon credits as industries linked to land violations and environmental degradation.
WEHRDs interviewed for this research cited corporations as the main perpetrators of threats and attacks against them, due to their ability to influence the government – and in turn the police and media. Secondary victimisation after being targeted for their work as an environmental defender facing economic and personal consequences for their activism, and an inability to pursue justice. Women without money at the time of arrest are often coerced into sex by police officers in exchange for their release. Repressed civic space and laws restricting peaceful protest in countries like Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda, are major contributions to impunity and WEHRDs’ rights being violated.
“Our report tells stories of resilient and defiant women speaking truth to power and demanding accountability from governments, their security forces and corporations. But they need binding legislation behind them to safeguard their rights and secure justice. It is high time African governments adopt a regional convention to protect defenders on the continent.” – Tawonga Chihana, Lead of NJ’s African Environmental Defenders Initiative.
Gender and intersections
On top of these attacks, women bear a disproportionate level of unpaid care work and eco-violence: they are often the first to notice and experience polluted water, contaminated land, and the impacts of environmental damage on their own health and that of their families. Climate change, biodiversity loss and ecological destruction increase their workload, affecting their ability to provide food and clean water.
WEHRDs do not experience violence in the same way. Race, class, caste, age, disability and sexuality shape who is most at risk, while women’s experiences of environmental harm are often made worse by racism, discrimination and poverty. In global power hierarchies, Black and Indigenous women defenders remain the most invisible.
“Violence and threats to life against environmental defenders are underreported everywhere. The gap is especially outrageous in Africa and particularly if defenders are women. Invisibilisation is a weapon that cannot continue. Our report argues that data and evidence is critical for prevention, protection, justice and an end to impunity.” – Linda Sansico, NJ’s Head of Research.
Gender-responsive funding and protection
Many women defenders highlight that existing protection mechanisms often overlook gender-specific needs. Our key recommendations to states at COP30, African governments and funders call for gender-responsive funding and protection frameworks for WEHRDs; stronger data collection; access to justice, legal support; and recognition of women defenders as agents of change – not passive victims.
Our analysis underscores not only the urgent need for targeted support but also the resilience, leadership, and transformative potential of women defenders in shaping Africa’s environmental and human rights landscape.
“Our report not only reminds states of their obligations to protect the rights of defenders but reminds funders and aid agencies that they too have a responsibility to address the scourge of violence and repression against African women environmental defenders. Our research shows that strengthening women-led organisations through long-term, flexible funding and support is one of the most effective forms of protection. This is not about charity; this is about gender and climate justice.” – NJ’s Executive Director, Farida Aliwa.
Natural Justice at COP30
Natural Justice is in Belem supporting the participation of women defenders from Africa. We will be monitoring the UNFCCC negotiations pushing states to adopt ambitious, just and human rights centred goals that prioritise a fast, fair and funded phase out of fossil fuels.
Our focus will be on 1) advocating for human rights-based climate action, and progressive human rights language across all negotiating items, including language on women environmental defenders in the Gender Action Plan; 2) tracking the Just Transition Work Programme and the adoption of an ambitious, equitable, funded, human rights centred Belem Action Mechanism. NJ will also be supporting the People’s Summit this week, calling for pan-African solidarity for climate justice and reparations. The Summit will culminate into the Global Day of Action on the 15 November.
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For media queries please contact:
- Katherine Robinson +27 76 227 6517 / katherine@naturaljustice.org
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