Navigating a Global Crossroads: Human Rights Defenders & Business - with Hannah Matthews

Writer & researcher Hannah Matthews joins the podcast to discuss her report for the Business and Human Rights Center on the statistics and trends emerging from the 2025 data on the links between business and human rights, in which Latin America emerges as a hotspot of abuses. 

The report in full is available here:

https://www.business-humanrights.org/en/from-us/briefings/hrds-2026/navigating-a-global-crossroads-human-rights-defenders-and-business-in-2025/

Transcript

Jon Bonfiglio 0:01

Hi everyone, welcome back to Latin America Correspondent, where today we're going to be discussing a report issued by the Business and Human Rights Centre, formerly the Business and Human Rights Resource Centre, but now simplified uh term down to Business and Human Rights Center entitled Navigating a Global Crossroads Human Rights Defenders and Business in 2025. The report was authored by Hannah Matthews and Kristen Dobson, and I'm delighted to say that I'm joined by uh one of the authors, Hannah Matthews, today. Hello, Hannah.

Hannah Matthews 0:29

Hi, Jon. Thanks so much for having me.

Jon Bonfiglio 0:32

No pleasure. Really great to have you on the uh on the on the podcast. Just a quick bit of bio about you, if if I may. You you coordinate uh the research behind the Business and Human Rights Centre's database of attacks against human rights defenders highlighting business-related risks and harms. And I'm sure we're going to come to that uh in a minute because I see that's a key point of what the Business and Human Rights Center and your work revolves around. Um you have uh master's degrees in human rights and international uh law, those sound a lot harder than literature to me, and agroecology and regenerative food systems, and uh uh you spent uh a long time in in Latin America as well working with defenders in Colombia, Mexico, and you are now recently back in an office environment in the UK. How is that for you?

Hannah Matthews 1:22

Yes, different, Jon. Yeah. No, it's it's all right. Luckily, I'm in um I'm in Devon, which which treats me very well.

Jon Bonfiglio 1:29

Oh, that's great, that's great. Yeah, so you're not uh I sort of had a a vision of you in a sort of a in a tower surrounded by other other individuals assiduously working on data emerging from Latin America.

Hannah Matthews 1:42

Please don't feel too sorry for me.

Jon Bonfiglio 1:44

I prefer the image that you've now created, uh you've now generated of you being in in Devon. Can we start with a bit of uh just context, please? Can you just tell us a bit a bit about your work specifically, just sort of scratch down into that and also um what the business and human rights centre do first off, please?

Hannah Matthews 2:01

Sure, thank you so much, Jon. It's really it's a real pleasure to be um to be on your podcast. Um thanks for having me. So, yeah, I am part of the Civic Freedoms and Human Rights Defenders team within the Business and Human Rights Centre, correct? Used to be Resource Centre, now just centre. Um we so we uh as an organization we look at the human rights uh performance of of companies um and an impact, yeah, their their impact on human rights uh in as broad a kind of sphere as possible, really. And so we look into yeah, their their impact, business impact on human rights, um, from kind of labor rights to uh impacts on the environment, um, to our team's work, which is impacts on civic freedoms, so freedom of expression, freedom of association, freedom of assembly. And then my specific work within that team is looking at um attacks against human rights defenders who are specifically calling out um uh harms and risks that are related to business, if that makes sense.

Jon Bonfiglio 3:06

Yeah, totally. So okay, so let's let's get down into um you know what is a human rights, how how do you define a human rights uh defender? What what does it look like and why is this relationship with business important?

Hannah Matthews 3:18

Sure. So really anyone, um, yeah, without willing to state the obvious, but anyone who defends human rights is a human rights defender. Um so these can be journalists, um, they can be lawyers, they can be community leaders or members, they can also be um environmentalists at a protest, for example. I mean, the definition is uh kind of intentionally, intentionally wide. As soon as you uh kind of take up that, yeah, that that defense, uh what's the word of it? Yeah, as soon as you start defending a human right, you become a human rights defender. And in the context of of business, um, yeah, what we're really talking about are people who are raising, who are talking about the problems that a lot of time that in lots of cases business cause, right? So this could be um environmental pollution, it could also be uh companies not um engaging in free prior and informed consent with indigenous peoples, it could be labor rights violations, so perhaps like whistleblowers, you know, within within a company, uh calling out human rights abuse within the company. So it's really a big, uh, a wide range of of roles and and different um, yeah, I guess different activities that these people are doing. And what what what um what they have to have in common to be included in our database is that they've received some sort of reprisal for that work. So that could be um, you know, it goes it goes all the way to lethal violence. So we have killings of human rights defenders um related to business, um, but also surveillance, uh judicial harassment, uh kind of yeah, beatings and violence, for example, in protests, um, arrests, detentions, like any, yeah, any kind of reprisal that they uh face for their for their work defending human rights, that is something that we're documenting in our in our research.

Jon Bonfiglio 5:08

Do they come to you or is there I mean, I'm guessing it's the answer to this is both, but um, I'm guessing there's a lot of groundwork that you need to do as well. And it's a vast landscape that you operate in.

Hannah Matthews 5:18

Yeah, it's an interesting point. I mean, we always talk about our data as really just being the absolute tip of the iceberg because we rely solely on publicly available information. So we we cover the whole globe, so yeah, it is a huge, um, yeah, huge kind of amount of um huge scale that we're that we're covering. Um, and you know, this this year we've cut we've collected nearly 800 attacks, but we know that that is nothing in comparison to what's really happening. A lot of um attacks uh are never reported, let alone kind of make it into the media. And we yeah, we rely on on publicly available information. And mainly, yeah, I mean it's it's a capacity reason, and also we uh yeah, to kind of to verify the information, we we seek different sources of information to kind of triangulate and make sure, yeah, to verify as best we can.

Jon Bonfiglio 6:07

Okay, and then just sort of, I guess generally, sort of as a hypothetical, um, how do companies relate themselves to to these attacks? What's that what's the relationship that we're looking at here in terms of the point of responsibility of these companies?

Hannah Matthews 6:22

Sure, so um companies can be directly involved in attacks, which is which is um where they are literally perpetrating the attack. So, for example, uh yeah, kind of key example of that, a slap lawsuit. So strategic litigation against political participation. So often we see a company suing an environmentalist or um yeah, taking up a lawsuit against uh an organization, Greenpeace, for example. Um so that's the kind of yeah, where you can see companies being directly involved. But actually, our data um in in the cases where we could actually identify the perpetrator, 86% of that, of them are state actors. So it's like the police, it's the local, it's local authorities who are actually kind of perpetrating the attack itself. However, where companies can still be involved in attacks or kind of be related to attacks, um, even though they aren't the direct perpetrator, they can they can kind of create the conditions for these attacks to take place, right? Like they can um they can exacerbate existing tensions within communities, um, they can also call the authorities to come and uh suppress protests, for example. And so, yeah, and in most of these cases, we're talking about an indirect link to the attack or um from the from the company, but they still have a responsibility there, and and yeah, that's kind of detailed in the in the in the UN guiding principles.

Jon Bonfiglio 7:47

Yeah, of course, it's it's sort of implicit in in company behaviour that there's going to be a sort of a social effect in a in an immediate hinterland, and then I guess that goes right the way through to the other end of the scale, uh, which is of course when companies um either you know directly engage in or strategize against um um individuals or organizations around them that are causing them difficulty. Um, Latin America is a hot spot, I think it's fair to say in your report. It has been for a long time. There's a lot of flashing red in uh in in the region. Can you maybe just break down that landscape for us a little bit in terms of how it appears uh in your research in the report? Uh maybe, you know, you're thinking about sort of countries, topics, themes in particular. What's um and maybe if you can just sort of contextualize uh is what we're seeing now just an extension of what's happened in the past, or are we seeing some new trends in the region as well?

Hannah Matthews 8:48

Yeah, really um, really important, important question, John. I think, yeah, so so this year uh 42% of the attacks that we registered were took place in Latin America and the Caribbean, and then the second highest region is Asia and the Pacific, and this year it was 30%, so like a considerable amount more in Latin America this year. Um the consistent kind of uh countries that come up uh as as the most dangerous are Brazil, uh Mexico, Honduras. Um this year we had a few new countries that we were surprised to see in kind of our our um yeah, our most dangerous 10 countries, which were Panama, um Ecuador, and Argentina. So yeah, as you're right, like there's a lot of kind of flashing red in the region, um, and unfortunately, kind of similar trends happening in yeah, in in in in countries which uh previously things have been a lot kind of open a lot more open, right, in terms of civic space. Um and yeah, I mean it there's there's there's there's a lot of nuance, as you obviously know. You know, there's there's a lot of different sectors involved in in general, but I can say I'm not sure this the statistic for Latin America, but globally this year, like 75% of the cases that we um that we tracked were against environmental and land defenders. So uh most of these attacks tend to be related to sectors that are on the land, right? So these are extractive sectors. Uh mining consistently coming comes out as as yeah, as really one of the most dangerous sectors related to attacks, and yeah, that is definitely the case in in Latin America. I think maybe something that we wanted to pull out of this year's analysis is that um the yeah, that so a lot of a lot of transition minerals, a lot of minerals that are needed for a green transition. Um, yeah, that we've we've cut, I think there were 42 attacks related to um to transition mineral mining. And we pull out a couple of um examples in the region. Uh so yeah, our report talks about a case in in Ecuador, which is um related to, I think it's a copper and gold mine. Um so yeah, transition minerals are really quite key in the region. Um, and then I think uh you can have a look at in the report, but we uh that there's a there's a really high percentage of um of attacks that are against indigenous peoples, despite indigenous peoples making up such a small percent, small kind of yeah, percent of percentage of the global population or or country populations uh across this region, right? Like, I mean, yeah, I know that there's countries like Guatemala where the population or the percentage of Indigenous peoples is higher. But for example, I'm just having a look in in our report. Like in in Mexico, for example, uh we've we've said that there's the 18% of um of the population is indigenous. However, uh 41% of the attacks that we that we tracked in the country were against Indigenous peoples, right? So there's a real um, yeah, it it kind of just just shows that the Indigenous peoples are particularly affected, and I think Latin America is is kind of a hotspot for that, definitely.

Jon Bonfiglio 11:56

Yeah, and attacks on Indigenous people, whether it be related to business affairs or or anything else, is a real stain on um, I mean, global history, but of course it's very marked in in Latin America as well, and it um hasn't seemed to have sort of um improved in any in any meaningful way. Of course, these are these are people who have um some degree of autonomy who are outside of a sort of standard governance space, but oftentimes as well, they they have values which uh are in um direct opposition, let's say, to perhaps sort of the standard development narrative, which doesn't tend to respect them um and uh strong arms them at best. Um without putting you on the spot, just about these these specific countries that you drew up, it's it's interesting to me that Brazil and Mexico, I mean Honduras is a particular case, which maybe we'll come to briefly in a moment, but it's interesting, it's interesting to me that uh Brazil and Mexico are you know consistently feature in these in these spaces, and they're both you know huge countries as as well. Are there some sort of unifying factors that you can see in terms of why these two countries continually appear uh in in in in your reports?

Hannah Matthews 13:14

Yeah, I've just I'm just having a look to see um to see what else I can bring out from the two countries. I mean, um I'm just saying, so yeah, that the sector connected to the highest number of attacks in Mexico is mining, and then the sector connected to the highest number of attacks in Brazil is agribusiness. And I'd say that I mean, both both contexts, I mean, yeah, they're huge countries and they're huge kind of global producers, right? And there's a lot of land uh conflict, I think, in in yeah, in in both countries. And I'd say that those are kind of root causes of and then you know, colonial legacy, and so yeah, the kind of root cause for conflict uh uh that may be similar in both in both contexts. Um, and then yeah, you could kind of de delve in deeper to the perpetrators of the attacks, right? And and whether there's kind of organized crime involved. Um, yeah, I think I think there are there are definitely some some similar trends uh without wishing to kind of put Brazil and Mexico totally into the same bucket because I know that they've got a lot of yeah, a lot of real differences in terms of context, but um, but yeah, I think some on there's definitely some underlying trends that they that they share.

Jon Bonfiglio 14:18

Yeah, for sure. And and I think some of it, um, or at least an aspect of it must just be size. I mean, we know that um you know Latin American countries have limited um scope and sort of governmental range, if you like. So the further away you get from a from a pole, the harder, harder it is to sort of to sort of um control or legislate, or not even legislate, because that you know that's pretty straightforward, but actually just to sort of um impose laws and uh and the like. And yeah, there's a lot of country and a lot of really remote country in both of these spaces well. Um just coming to Honduras. I mean Honduras said is uh uh you might be able to speak to this better than me, but it's got a sort of a long-standing history of voracious business and impunity relating to business, which sort of allies to government as well. Is that um something that that um we see in other parts of the uh of the region as well, or or would you say that Honduras is a very unique uh example in and of its own right?

Hannah Matthews 15:21

It's interesting. I yeah, I don't know really. I mean, I think Honduras is a particularly yeah violent example, right? And and I can't remember now the statistics of land ownership in Honduras, but I remember seeing some yeah, really kind of stark uh some stark statistics showing how uh how land is is is divided, right? And and and who owns it and is yeah, in the hands of very few, basically. And um, yeah, and I think a lot of uh other countries have have really exploited Honduras. And yeah, I mean there's there's a lot there's a lot of reasons why Honduras is its own case study. However, I wouldn't say, yeah, I'd say that a lot of those trends are very similar in other parts of of the region, right? I mean, Guatemala shares some similar trends um in terms of and in terms of uh in terms of sectors. I'm thinking uh renewables, for example. I know across the across across the across kind of Central America, renew big renewable projects have have really taken off, you know, in recent years, and and a lot of the time they are you know they're kind of copying the patterns of uh oil and gas in the past or of mining companies and not engaging with indigenous communities, not um engaging properly in free informed, uh prior and informed consent processes, etc. So yeah, I think there's there's yeah, as I say, differences, but also a lot of similarities across the region.

Jon Bonfiglio 16:48

And just and just coming to these new countries, these sort of surprising uh countries that have bubbled up, Panama, Ecuador, and and and Argentina. Can you just speak to a little bit um uh to those as well? Of course, Ecuador has a very particular sort of um sort of drugs and violence context which has emerged in the last few years. Argentina is currently under the administration of Javier Millet um as well, who has a very different sort of political stance to the sort of standard operating procedure there. Uh yeah, maybe you can just sort of scratch down into those a little bit and and sort of um, you know, do we know why it is that they've they've emerged? What's behind those statistics?

Hannah Matthews 17:23

Sure. So I think they are um, yeah, there are there are definitely some some underlying trends that we can talk about in the three contexts. Um, specifically in Ecuador and Argentina, there's definitely been a marked increase of authoritarian tactics. Um, I think both countries, if I'm correct, have gone down in their kind of civic space uh ratings. Actually, I think Ecuador, maybe I'm just having a look. We we look, we um uh use Civicus Monitor, um who's an ally, uh a partner of ours, and they that yeah, they they uh rate the civic space and how open or closed it is. And so Ecuador is obstructed, and I'm sure Argentina went down, yeah. In so from last year it was it was narrowed and now it's obstructed. So this means like both contexts, yeah, civic space is being repressed, which is you know, in the form of militarized police, um, for example, uh yeah, kind of different tactics to to squash protest. So both of yeah, in in both contexts, and I'm sure, and I think yeah, Panama also. Um different things though. I think with with Panama, there was uh a couple of years ago the uh the case of Cobre de Panama and the shutting of a huge um mine, right? A huge um copper mine, and then uh yeah, and and and huge protests that were sparked because of that. Um and I think I think I'm right in saying that in all three contexts, environmental defenders or defenders who are kind of calling out um issues around the extractive extractive industries are looked at with particular um suspicion, you know? And so yeah, in Ecuador this has meant like the freezing of uh of accounts of a lot of environmental defenders. Um, and in in Panama it's meant like the specific targeting of defenders who are linked to these these protests against the Cobre de Panama mine, for example. Um, yeah, so I think I think there's some there's some similar tendencies, um, but overall, and I think actually the three are probably quite a good illustration of what we're seeing in general on a global level, right? Which is like a um yeah, an increased suspicion of of those like taking direct action to uh in in support of um or in yeah, in support of climate justice, um and and yeah, increasingly, increasingly authoritarian tactics used uh against protest.

Jon Bonfiglio 19:46

I think that brings us nicely to business as well, because of course, you know, business is interested in in a bottom line, but um what what is sort of the the business responsibility here? What why should business you know what's in it for business in terms of caring about protecting defenders, if you like?

Hannah Matthews 20:03

Sure, so yeah, I think this is often something that we find a bit difficult to spell out. Um and I think in general, our argument is that thriving civic space is beneficial for everyone, right? Like it's beneficial for individuals, uh communities, society as a whole, but also it's beneficial for business because in a thriving, in a yeah, in thriving civil civil society, uh there's discussion, there's debate, there's, you know, like there's uh yeah, that there's there's there's kind of the the type of society that you need for business to also thrive. And then we also say that you know, human rights defenders are the are kind of your early warning signs or signals as as business, right? Like if we listen to people who are talking about. Right, yeah, yeah, yeah, right, right, exactly. The canary in the coal mine. Um, but yeah, if we listen to those who are bring who are calling out risks before a company um before an operation even starts, but also issues that are coming up during the operations, then you know, if these people are listened to, then hopefully uh issues can be solved, right? And they can be solved before becoming litigations and problems down the line, right? And so, yeah, the idea is that if these if human rights defenders are engaged with before, during, after, always in in in in kind of uh business operations, then yeah, it's more likely that your business is going to be successful. Um, and and more than that, right? Like, I mean, yeah, I know you can't always appeal to to the sort of larger moral argument with with companies and and with investors, but it's kind of like what are the what's this what's the world that we want to live in, right? Like what do we yeah, what do we hope for in general from economies and from business? Or we hope that they yeah, that they can support thriving societies, right? And and they need thriving societies to also operate. And so it's kind of making that like holistic uh argument that actually this is beneficial. for for everyone, including business.

Jon Bonfiglio 22:02

Yeah, it's almost an ideological argument, I um uh I think, um, which which often business um doesn't necessarily really either is interested in engaged in in engaging in or is sort of um it sort of see sees itself as existing outside of but it seems to me that the the argument is entirely logical that of course business needs sort of a flourishing ecosystem in which both from a position of resources and human resources but also from a position of from market in order to uh to to thrive out of interest Hannah just to just to finish up um how I mean how does business react to to your report if if if at all I'm guessing there's a wide range of responses.

Hannah Matthews 22:44

Yeah exactly there is a wide range I mean we we we contact each company and we invite them to respond to each kind of case of um each allegation right so you can yeah throughout our report every time there's a a case study um or an allegation against the company there'll also be um the company's response or non-response to that in some cases you know it's complete denial that this is happening in other cases um there's an acceptance that it's happening but obviously kind of told from uh the company's perspective and actually in some cases you know we had um I think a really interesting response from uh I can't remember the name of the bank but it's a development bank Dutch development bank I think um who financed DESA which was behind the um the killing of Berta Caceres in Honduras right and they the response because we we actually um so uh Berta Caceres was killed 10 years ago and so we brought we um spoke about the resilience of of Corbin the organisation uh Bertha's organisation and her family and and how they've um you know fought for 10 years now for justice in this case um anyway and and how and how bit by bit you know people are being arrested and and and charged that are linked to the case and yeah there's bits of if you can call it justice um coming out but just to say that yeah the Dutch Development Bank responded to us saying you know we really deeply regret our financing of the Dessa projects um and since uh this has happened we've made considerable changes to our governance structure etc so that I mean that's what you hope for right is there that these kinds of reports um and and this data really gets to business and they can actually change the way they're acting unfortunately that isn't always the case but um but yeah I'm I'm I know that there are a lot of business actors and especially people within companies who are really trying to do the right thing and and that's who we're really appealing to with with our reports and recommendations.

Jon Bonfiglio 24:38

Yeah of course that it's information that they didn't necessarily already have and that they take it on seriously and actually amend behaviour as a uh as a result of it as you say but the the Berta Caceres killing was one of the most I mean there's a long list of infamous killings in Latin America of uh land and human rights and indigenous defenders but Berta Caceres in uh Honduras was one of the most egregious that we've seen in in a long time and of course directly linked to the to government and and business as well Hannah that was um fascinating I really appreciate your your time and your work and um yeah hopefully we can talk again somewhere down the line.

Hannah Matthews 25:17

That'd be great Jon thanks so much take care.