A/77/549 they are unable to protect their territories from economic development that will largely benefit transnational corporations and elites outside their communities. 101 53. In one submission it was noted how impoverished Afro-descendants in Brazil are disproportionately exposed to floods and landslides because of their economic marginalization and segregation into dangerous areas. Afro-Brazilians are the disproportionate victims of such disasters because of a sociopolitical structure in Brazil that places racialized peoples in living conditions of enhanced vulnerability, while public policymakers fail to address precarious living conditions. 102 C. Racially discriminatory civil and political persecution 54. Environmental racism results in routinized persecution of human rights defenders and environmental protectors who work to protect their communities from environmental harm. Around the world, these defenders frequently com e from Indigenous communities or other racially marginalized groups. As discussed previously, racial marginalization entails economic and political marginalization, and when marginalized groups make efforts to assert their rights in the face of exploitativ e Governments and transnational corporations, these groups are heavily persecuted. Often, there is limited accountability for human rights defenders from racially and ethnically marginalized groups. In documenting deaths and violence against environmental human rights defenders, the former Special Rapporteur on human rights defenders explained that “one of the systemic causes of conflicts around environmental rights is the imbalance of power between States, companies and environmental human rights defenders”. 103 A structural underpinning of this imbalance in power is systemic racism, which excludes racially marginalized peoples from full political decision-making and exposes activists and leaders to racialized violence. 55. According to one submission, in Brazil, Indigenous and Afro-Brazilian leaders have been targeted by both public and private actors for their advocacy against industrial projects near their lands. 104 Global Witness reports that Brazil has the fourth highest number of murdered environmentalists in the world. Traditional peoples, quilombola, riverine and Indigenous communities suffer constant pressure from various economic activities in their territories and have been threatened or cruelly assassinated. 105 In Pará, a region with heightened environmental conflicts, several cases of commissioned murders of environmental activists have been reported. In these incidents, all the victims were Black women who fought for a balanced way of life with forest conservation. Reported in another submission was the assassination of a South African environmental activist, also a Black woman, fighting against coal mining expansion. 106 Yet another submission highlighted murder, rape and torture of Ogoni community activists in Nigeria, where Shell has destroyed the lives and livelihoods of Indigenous Peoples. 107 56. In another submission, it is reported that, in India, Indigenous and Dalit leaders have also faced detention and criminalization owing to their advocacy against local environmental policies which impinge upon their cultural autonomy. 108 __________________ 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 22-24043 Submission from the Indigenous Environmental Network. Submission from the Coalition of Black Brazilians for Rights. See A/71/281. Submission from the Coalition of Black Brazilians for Rights. Monica Nunes, “Família de ambientalistas é assassinada no Pará: pai, mãe e filha tinham projeto de soltura de quelônios no Rio Xingu”, 11 January 2022. Submissions from D’sa and Bond. Submission from the Centre for Economic and Social Rights. Submission from Gupta. 17/24