A strategy used by corporations to avoid having to address their adverse impacts is to undermine the campaigns of human rights defenders that raise their voices against the company by generating conflict within the impacted communities.
CASE STUDY: Norte Energia divided Brazilian indigenous communities
This strategy can, for example, take the form of corruption among the leaders of the communities suffering from the company’s operations, or providing incentives for the communities’ members to separate from each other and to disorganise. If successful, the result is that corporations can continue their operations without accountability, and HRDs are discouraged from acting against corporate interests in future.
