Álvarez has spoken out about cases with links to UK companies, including the disappearance and murder of Eustacio Alcalá Díaz in April 2023 after he halted concessions held by ArcelorMittal and Ternium, and the disappearance of Ricardo Lagunes Gasca and Antonio Díaz Valencia in January 2023 after opposing Ternium’s operations.
Both ArcelorMittal and Ternium have UK-linked corporate structures or operations. The Business and Human Rights Centre has recorded six attacks on defenders who have opposed Ternium’s operations, and the UN Working Group on Enforced Disappearances has requested cooperation in the matter from businesses.
Ternium said in a statement issued at the time of the disappearances that it was actively collaborating with the Mexican authorities in the case. It denied any involvement, either directly or through its subsidiary Las Encinas.
“We have publicly denied and rejected any speculation that Ternium or Las Encinas had any involvement or connection with the disappearance of Messrs. Díaz Valencia and Lagunes Gasca, or that Ternium and Las Encinas tolerate any unlawful behaviour or that Messrs. Díaz Valencia and Lagunes Gasca had any conflict with the companies,” the company said.
Arcelor Mittal did not respond to a request for information by The Ecologist.
Ancestral
According to Álvarez, militarisation in the area is increasing, with plans to deploy thousands more armed troops to the state. Indigenous peoples are disproportionately affected, she said. Cases are often not reported, and even when they are, authorities do nothing, she added.
“In Mexico, we not only face the threat of being killed or disappeared, but as Indigenous people, we’re attacked in many other ways – criminalised, harassed, and forcibly displaced,” she said.
Álvarez has faced intimidation by some Mexican police officers, who have followed her on foot and in cars. After Diaz was killed, a policeman showed her a message on his phone stating that if she travelled to the town he was from, she would be killed.
Separately, in West Papua, indigenous Miyah woman defender Lia Yewen and her community have been protecting their tens of thousands of hectares of their ancestral lands designated for palm oil, mining and industrial agriculture under Indonesia’s National Strategic Projects.
West Papua is home to the world’s third-largest rainforest, spanning 786,000 square kilometres across the entire island, after the Amazon and Congo rainforests.
Diligence
Extractive projects in the region frequently involve military operations, displacement and human rights abuses. Papuans resisting land grabs face harassment, surveillance, criminalisation and even death.
Links to UK defence cooperation and investment were highlighted in research published in September by the Centre for Climate Crime and Climate Justice at Queen Mary University of London.
Yewen said her community was defending forests that are vital to global biodiversity. “The UK cannot claim to support climate action while enabling the destruction of one of the world’s most important ecosystems,” she said.
The Corporate Justice Coalition (CJC) includes many NGOs working on human rights, global poverty, trade, tax, workers’ rights and the environment. This includes PBI, Amnesty International and Flora and Fauna International, as well as the law firms Client Earth and Leigh Day.
The coalition has been calling for mandatory human rights and environmental due diligence for UK-linked companies.
Radar
A PBI UK investigation published last year found links between UK companies or investors and environmental devastation and attacks on rights activists in Colombia, Honduras, Indonesia and Mexico.
In June, the Department for Business and Trade (DBT) announced a review of the UK’s approach to ensuring responsible business conduct in global supply chains as part of its new trade strategy.
This stated: “We recognise that concerns continue to be raised regarding the effectiveness of the UK’s regime in preventing human rights, labour rights, and environmental harms in supply chains. Within a fast-changing international landscape, we acknowledge reforms introduced by many of our trading partners.”
As part of the review, it has commissioned an assessment of the implementation of the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs) by the UK government and businesses, including the state duty to protect, the business responsibility to respect, and access to remedy.
Challis said that the Labour government’s focus on growth had caused human rights to ‘fall off the radar’. Promises made last year on Human Rights Day to uphold the rights of defenders, for example.
Extract
Trade and violations of human rights and the environment go hand in hand, Challis added. “That’s why we’re really calling for stronger accountability mechanisms for UK companies through a UK Business, Human Rights and Environment Act, as well as proper implementation and monitoring of the UK’s guidance on supporting human rights defenders for diplomatic missions.”
A spokesperson for the CJC said that the government’s review of responsible business conduct offered a “real opportunity” for it to act. “However, to be effective, the process must be made more transparent and pro-actively address the concerns raised by human rights defenders being directly impacted by corporate activity.
“We urge the government to confirm when the methodology and outputs of this review will be made public, and to recognise that a failure to strengthen UK law risks the protection of people and the environment here in the UK and across the globe.”
Álvarez urged the UK government to use its influence over companies and policymakers to help end impunity for abuses. She said: “Companies extract our resources and leave us with violence and fear. Without justice, the violence will only grow.”
Toolkit
A spokesperson for the Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) said in a statement: “Human rights defenders play an essential role in promoting and protecting human rights, democracy and the rule of law, and the UK continues to help them in that vital work.”
The statement stated that embassies would continue to support citizens through trial monitoring, direct funding, and advocacy with third parties. The department also denied that it was removing mention of private actions or engaging with UK companies on human rights-related issues from the new guidance.
The department would be issuing new detailed guidance on the ‘full toolkit’ available to embassies to support defenders, including engaging with UK companies, it added.
This Author
Catherine Early is a freelance environmental journalist and chief reporter for The Ecologist. Find her on Bluesky @catearly.bsky.social.
