BRAZIL:
Trade union leader and environmentalist Chico Mendes was one of 1,681 rural workers and activists killed in the struggle over land in Brazil between January 1, 1964, and January 31, 1992. The Pastoral Land Commission reports only 26 of the murders have gone to trial. Only 15 ended in convictions.

KENYA:
Wangari Muta Maathai, a leading environmentalist and opposition politician in Kenya, is not only leading movements to protest the destruction of forests for floriculture, but is also organising the Green Belt Movement to plant trees and halt soil erosion. She filed a lawsuit, which was dismissed, to stop the construction of a 62-storey building in Nairobi. The police teargassed a peaceful hunger strike at the site, and in the process arrested Maathai, after clubbing her unconscious.

MALAYSIA:
The report castigates the Malaysian government's decision to allow states to exploit the country's rainforests at their own discretion and describes it as a political decision. Proponents of indigenous people's environmental rights have had to face repressive legislation that prohibit freedom of association and assembly and permit censorship and illegal detention under emergency laws.

MEXICO:
Following violent criticism for the Guadalajara gas disaster in April this year, the Mexican government is now being accused of complicity in the murder of environmental rights activists. Fidencio Lopez, mayor of San Mateo Rio Hondo, was shot dead early this year and his killing has been linked to powerful logging interests whose illegal operations he exposed.

PHILIPPINES:
Journalists writing about environmental problems in the Philippines face death threats through "acts of officially sanctioned violence" and libel suits seeking heavy damages. As a result, publishers of smaller publications are discouraging green investigations.

USA:
The cases of state-sponsored repression of anti-nuke activists documented in the report range from harassment at work and the filing of poor performance reports to a scare campaign against chemist Paula Nathaniel who refused to withdraw her complaint against a technician who lit a cigarette next to a potentially dangerous and unstable nuclear waste tank. Surveillance and filing poor performance reports not succeeding, management then gave her a choice: resign, go on six months unpaid leave or move to another position within the company.

USSR (Erstwhile):
Access to information was regularly denied, especially to groups protesting the abuse of citizens' rights by the Communist Party. The founder of the Moscow Trust Group, an anti-nuclear organisation, suffered forced psychiatric detention and police harassment.

INDIA:
The Gujarat government has been indicted for arresting and harassing Narmada Bachao Andolan activists opposing the Sardar Sarovar reservoir. Human rights abuses include illegal detention, beatings and forced relocation of people.