Save Ralph’s campaign goes viral and more environmental news
These are the most important environmental news of the week.
These were the most relevant environmental news of this week. Photo: YT-The Human Society of the United States
LatinAmerican Post | Vanesa López Romero
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Leer en español: La campaña de Save Ralph se vuelve viral y más noticias de medio ambiente
Indigenous defenders of the Amazon declare a state of emergency for murders
Recently, the Coordinator of Indigenous Organizations of the Amazon Basin (COICA) called on different international and environmental organizations to denounce the systematic murder of the defenders of this tropical forest . The victims are spread in all the countries of which the Amazon is part, it is estimated that, in 2020, there were 202 defenders killed between Colombia, Peru, Bolivia and Brazil . This means that there was a 67% increase in murders compared to 2019 .
#DerechosHumanos | Pueblos indígenas se declaran en estado de emergencia https://t.co/GfVlQNEANv pic.twitter.com/U1f3CsbeQt
— Colombia Informa (@Col_Informa) August 13, 2019
In a press release, COICA stated that "The trend does not seem to stop since only in the first quarter of 2021 there have been at least 16 murders of indigenous sisters and brothers (Colombia and Peru) , who defended the rights of indigenous peoples and mother nature ". All this led COICA to declare itself in a state of emergency, in order to put in the sight of large organizations and civil society the danger that this implies, not only for indigenous communities, but also for the Amazon rainforest.
UN resolution links human rights and the environment
Recently, the United Nations Human Rights Council adopted a resolution that seeks that human rights have a focus on restoring natural spaces . This is not new considering that the HRC adopted its first resolution in 2011, the year since, according to Arnold Kreilhuber, the Acting Director of the Law Division of the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP), seen very important advances that are revealed in the new resolution.
Also read: Study affirms that 64% of agricultural land is under threat of contamination
Likewise, Kreilhuber stated for the UNEP news page that "The resolution is a strong vote of confidence in UNEP's work on environmental rights. It incorporates the work of UNEP, in particular in the implementation of the call to action for Human Rights of the United Nations Secretary General It will help advance our partnership with the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and other key partners around the environmental rights ".
Más de 155 estados han reconocido el derecho a un medio ambiente saludable en acuerdos internacionales o en sus constituciones, leyes o políticas nacionales.
Conoce nueva resolución de la ONU sobre un enfoque de derechos humanos #PorLaNaturaleza: https://t.co/ClyVNmPbmn pic.twitter.com/oexjECfshE
— Programa ONU Medio Ambiente (@unep_espanol) April 9, 2021
Save Ralph campaign goes viral
At the beginning of the week, a campaign carried out by the Human Society International (HSI) went viral in which, from a short film of a humanized rabbit, the abuse suffered by animals that are subjected to product testing by the beauty industry. Ralph, the protagonist of this story, is presented to us as a rabbit resigned to having all kinds of tests performed on him and, apparently, he has lost all kinds of hope because he feels obliged to be a "guinea pig", such as his parents and his parents' parents were.
To date, the video has been viewed on YouTube more than 400,000 times and has been shared throughout the world, opening the way to a question that was more than necessary to ask: why do we continue to allow tests to be carried out on animals when there are alternatives that are more responsible and respectful of animal life?
