Environmental human rights defenders (EHRDs) in South-West Asia and North Africa (SWANA) or Middle East and North Africa (MENA) operate within a complex regional landscape. Unlike other regions, they do not yet have a robust regional environmental advocacy system. However, this does not mean that regional engagement is impossible. On the contrary, you can always create a strategy that seeks complementarity to address regional pitfalls, combining regional, sub-regional, and cross-regional mechanisms to promote environmental justice and protect EHRDs.
As we discussed previously, EHRDs can always participate in the UN International system, even when complementing it with regional mechanisms of access, because their bodies can play a pivotal role in highlighting human rights concerns and fostering reforms (see Chapter 2).
Additionally, one significant yet often underutilised pathway is the African human rights system, which is accessible to several countries in North Africa (except Morocco). As explained in the African Commission module of this course, the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights (ACHPR) oversees the implementation of the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights, including rights connected to natural resources and the environment (see Section 3.5 for more information).
In practice, even where regional systems are not yet widely used, they can still serve as valuable spaces for advocacy. By engaging with them, you can help expand their relevance to environmental issues, strengthen regional jurisprudence on environmental rights, and generate momentum for more robust protections for environmental human rights defenders across the region.
