Application Deadline: April 22. 2021
Latin America is the deadliest region to be an environmental defender, according to the Global Witness report. From 2012 onwards, the region has led the data for murdered land defenders. Recent data shows that more than one in 10 defenders killed in 2019 were women.
Women environmental defenders face specific threats, including campaigns focused on their private lives and sexual violence. They are also particularly vulnerable to the negative effects of climate change, as this accentuates gender inequality and discrimination.
The Escazú Agreement , the world’s first treaty on the protection of the human rights of environmental defenders, will enter into force on April 22, 2021, after obtaining the necessary minimum of 11 signatures. The three pillars that the Agreement addresses (Access to Information, Public Participation and Access to Justice in Environmental Matters in Latin America and the Caribbean) have multiple dimensions in each country. And its visibility in the press can help build momentum for the agreement’s implementation and propel other key countries in the region to ratification.
Together with FES Transformación, we want to make climate justice visible for women environmental defenders in the public debate, as a key aspect for climate action in Latin America.
The opportunity
The “Defenders of the Territory” project aims to gather 12 journalistic profiles of women environmental defenders from Latin America.
For this, we are looking for journalists from Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, Mexico, the Dominican Republic, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Venezuela, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay and Uruguay, who write powerful defense stories of the territory and its communities in the media of their own countries. This opportunity is aimed at journalists between 18 and 35 years old.
This project will run between April and September 2021 and does not require exclusive dedication. If you are selected to participate, you will receive a payment of 350 euros for the completion of the article.
The project also includes a series of training sessions on key aspects of reporting, along with editorial support that aims to provide you with all the necessary tools to carry out quality work, which helps to make the situation of environmental defenders visible and of which you can be proud.
How to Apply
The deadline to apply is Thursday, April 22. To do so, you must go to our application website (at this link) , create your account, click on ‘Competition’ and answer the two questions that will be presented to you. There, the space will be displayed to enter a link with your article proposal, using this specific format . Please make a copy of the application document, fill it in with the details of the story you want to tell and share it as a free access link.
* Important: We will not accept proposals that do not respect the established format.
We will select 12 journalists in total for this project, respecting regional and gender representation in the final selection.
This opportunity is not closed to any specific format, so you can present your proposal as a written article, video, photo report, podcast, etc.
Official Website: Climate Tracker Escazú Agreement
