The statement was delivered during an interactive dialogue with the UN Special Rapporteur in the field of cultural rights, Alexandra Xanthaki, responding to her latest report. Humanists International welcomed the report’s conclusion that there is no inherent trade-off between nature conservation and cultural rights, noting that protecting the natural world can be achieved while respecting universal human rights.
In its intervention, the organization highlighted the massive, yet under-scrutinized, scale of religious land ownership. Citing the United Nations Environment Programme, the statement noted that faith-based organizations currently own 8% of the world’s habitable land and 5% of commercial forests. This concentration grants these groups outsized influence over the climate and cultural landscapes, producing effects that are felt globally.
While acknowledging that some groups espouse good practices, Humanists International stressed that others consistently fall short. The statement detailed how the expansion of religious missions and agricultural enclaves in the Amazon and Southeast Asia led to the systematic erasure of indigenous lands. Specifically, the organization pointed to Colombia, where Mennonite communities cleared vast forests, directly threatening the ancestral territories of local tribes.
The organization’s environmental advocacy is grounded in the 2019 Reykjavik Declaration on the Climate Change Crisis. Unanimously adopted by the global humanist movement, the policy commits Humanists International to demanding urgent climate action and sustainable land-use, framing environmental protection not merely as a political preference, but as a fundamental human rights imperative.
Concluding the address, Humanists International asked the Special Rapporteur a critical question: how can the international community work to ensure that private landholders, particularly religious organizations, formally acknowledge their duty to conserve land as a strict prerequisite for fulfilling cultural rights?
Featured Photo by Irina Iriser on Unsplash.
Together we can do even more to promote humanist values and defend human rights. Join Humanists International as a Member Organization or become an individual supporter in your own right.