Following a call for inputs, Manushya Foundation contributed to a joint submission 'Exposing the Human Rights Cost of “Green” Energy' developed and endorsed collectively by members of the Environment and ESCR and the Corporate Accountability Working Groups of ESCR-Net to inform the UN Special Rapporteur on Climate Change on the issue of human rights in the life cycle of renewable energy and critical minerals. 

 

In the global context of rising extraction of critical minerals and the development of large-scale energy projects, the submission highlights right violations associated with “green” projects and regulatory failures of states and international institutions and calls for a just transition centering the needs and rights of frontline communities. In this regard, Manushya highlighted the impacts of rare earth mining and hydropower dams projects on Indigenous Peoples and rural communities in Laos, including environmental and health contamination with heavy metals, displacement, land grabbing, lack of compensation and harassment of human rights defenders and called, among others, for the adoption of robust legislation with deterrent sanctions including mandatory human rights and environmental due diligence.