July 16, 2026 | written by Liz Umlas

Teaching has long been an important part of my life, and in my courses on business and human rights I often incorporate documentaries to allow graduate students, as well as mid-career professionals, an opportunity to see and hear from workers and members of communities whose human rights have been violated by corporations. These films help me convey to my students the importance of human rights advocacy and activism and the myriad ways in which the human spirit prevails even in situations of extreme power imbalance.   

I’m currently teaching a three-week course in Oxford University’s master’s program in international human rights law, and each year I organize a film screening. This year I chose Oxfam America’s documentary, Hold the Line. It follows human rights and environmental defenders in Colombia, South Africa and the U.S., and their efforts to speak out and fight back against corporate and state abuse of their fundamental rights, including clean air and water, health and security of person.  

The film’s stunning images offer jarring contrasts, alternating between the beauty of lush forests, streams and coastline and heartbreaking footage of environmental destruction in the communities profiled. The narrative unfolds through interviews of human rights and environmental defenders in each of the three countries, who recount their struggles to protect their communities against environmental destruction by polluters, including oil, gas and mining companies.   

The documentary, though released over two years ago, is especially timely, as the situation of human rights and environmental defenders is dire. In a May 2026 report, the Business and Human Rights Centre (BHRC) found the following:  

• In 2025 there were 790 recorded attacks against human rights defenders in 80 countries, more than BHRC has recorded in any single year since 2020;  

• 30% of attacks were against Indigenous defenders, though Indigenous people comprise only six percent of the global population;  

• 75% of the attacks were against climate, land and/or environmental defenders;  

• 53 defenders who raised their voices against business-related harms were killed in 2025;  

• The mining, fossil fuel and agribusiness industries account for the highest number of attacks but BHRC’s report raises concerns about almost every corporate sector in every region of the world; 

• Where perpetrators of attacks were identified, 86% were state actors but even in those cases, the attacks can be tied to companies: for example, where they encourage authorities to crack down on peaceful protests or spread misinformation that leads to the criminalization of defenders. 

The report found that the most common type of attack (52%), was judicial harassment, including criminalization and Strategic Lawsuits against Public Participation (SLAPP). SLAPPs are a common tactic in which corporations bring frivolous and heavy-handed legal actions – in this case, against human rights defenders – with the explicit aim of silencing dissent by crushing those defending their rights and sending a message to other defenders that they, too, could be targeted.  

In one egregious example, Energy Transfer Partners, which built the infamous Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) in the U.S., filed a SLAPP suit against the NGO Greenpeace for its role in civil society protests against DAPL, which threatens the water supply and cultural sites of the Standing Rock Sioux tribe. Last year, a North Dakota jury found Greenpeace liable for over $660 million, an award later halved to $345 million. (1)

At our film screening of Hold the Line last week, we were fortunate to have a hybrid panel of remarkable speakers: Andrew Bogrand: policy lead, natural resource justice, Oxfam America and a co-director of the film; Carolyn Peters: President of Concerned Citizens of Mossville (Louisiana) and one of the human rights and environmental defenders featured in the film; Thandeka Kathi, an environmental and human rights attorney and head of the Pollution & Climate Change Program at the Centre for Environmental Rights in Cape Town, South Africa (also a graduate of the Oxford MA program and my former student!); and John Knox, professor of international law at Wake Forest University Law School in North Carolina and the UN’s first Special Rapporteur on Human Rights and Environmental Issues, as well as my fellow tutor at Oxford.  

Andrew shared with the audience why Oxfam had made Hold the Line, which was to give direct voice to human rights and environmental defenders who risk their lives to protect their communities, something the film does exceedingly well. Carolyn underscored the sheer scale of challenges she and her neighbors experience on a constant, from deadly emissions to water contamination coming from the 14 chemical plants surrounding her town. Thandeka spoke of her work aiding communities living in “sacrifice zones”, where extractive projects seriously harm the environment and human health, and the environmental racism experienced by black South Africans in the Highveld region, which is dense with coal-fired power plants and coal mines. She drew parallels between the South African communities and Carolyn’s experience in Mossville, where any benefits coming from corporate activity flow elsewhere, not to the local populations. And John helped frame the issue in human rights and environmental terms, noting that the convergence of money and high-value extractive operations, marginalized populations and weak rule of law opens a wide berth for corporations to attack or otherwise take advantage of human rights defenders.  

Despite the bleak and difficult themes at hand, the event was ultimately uplifting, as both the film and the panel discussion shone a light on human rights defenders’ refusal to back down in the face of daily threats. We learned that Concerned Citizens of Mossville, through advocacy and enlisting the authorities of a neighboring town, managed to keep a borrow pit from being dug right in Carolyn’s backyard. Thandeka noted that her organization had successfully represented two South African NGOs, groundWork and the Vukani Environmental Movement, in the Deadly Air Case. The South Africa High Court ruled in favor of the NGOs, which had asked the court to acknowledge that poor air quality in the coal region of Highveld Priority Area was a violation of the right to a healthy environment. 

In Croatan Institute’s work with land stewards, we accompany environmental defenders as well. For example, our team provides technical assistance and advice to smallholder farmers and foresters who are not just transitioning their own land to regenerative practices but are also often working to support their own communities to protect the land against non-sustainable, extractive practices. North Carolina, the birthplace of the environmental justice movement, has a long history of fighting back against environmental racism and pollution, and the land stewards we work with are upholding healthy ecosystems and food systems through the agricultural and forestry practices they are establishing across the state.  

This work is more important than ever, given corporations’ seemingly unfettered power and the retreat of many governments from regulation and enforcement. One can’t help but be inspired by human rights defenders’ resilience and their outlook. On this note, the last word at the screening belonged to Carolyn, who roused the audience with her statement that, in this true story of David and Goliath, “we will win.”

Footnotes:

(1) Greenpeace has filed for a new trial and Greenpeace International has filed a countersuit in the Netherlands against Energy Transfer Partners.