Washington, DC—The Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL) stands in solidarity with protestors around the world who are demanding an end to institutionalized racism, racialized police violence, and the ongoing dehumanization of people of color. CIEL condemns the violence that militarized police and security forces have used–and continue to use–against protestors, journalists, bystanders, and medical personnel. Justice–including environmental justice–is not possible without the collective defense of the inherent value and dignity of all people, and an end to white supremacy, racism, and colonialism in the United States and everywhere it manifests.
Abuse of power and systemic racism are a deadly combination, particularly for people of color and Indigenous Peoples, who are disproportionately criminalized and targeted by weaponized policing around the world–destroying lives, families, and communities, denying people their basic humanity and dignity, and violating their rights. George Floyd. Breonna Taylor. Eric Garner. Michael Brown. Berta Cáceres. Óscar Cazorla. Emyra Waiãpi. The list of Black, Brown, and Indigenous people murdered under cover of authority is too long, and it’s growing in the US and worldwide.
Deploying state power to intimidate and silence the public rather than protect it violates fundamental principles of domestic and international law, beginning with the rights to life, peaceable assembly, and a free press. Such assaults have less to do with public order than with the exertion of political and economic control over people demanding change. All this while governments seek to limit the freedom of the press to accurately report on events as they occur.
The murders last week and the violent repression of protests this weekend are the latest chapters in the long and painful history of policing and race in the United States. From the slave patrols and border patrols of the 19th century, to the suppression of labor and civil rights activists of the 20th century, to the stop and frisk and broken windows policing of the 21st century, police power has been deployed to maintain white supremacy, and enforce racial and economic hierarchies. We must confront and overcome this legacy.
It is not a coincidence that COVID-19 is disproportionately killing the same communities of color most targeted by weaponized over-policing. In the parts of the US with the highest infection and death rates from COVID, the economic and health impacts of the pandemic are compounded by decades of environmental racism and by government leadership that protects corporate profits over the urgent needs of the people.
CIEL joins the call for the dismantling of institutionalized racism and oppression that endanger and devalue the lives and rights of Black, brown, and Indigenous Peoples across the world. Taking our lead from the communities most affected, marginalized, and targeted, we will work to confront and end that oppression, and transform the systems that enable it, as an essential step toward building a just and sustainable world.
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For press inquiries, please contact Cate Bonacini cbonacini (at) ciel.org