Gendered Impacts of SLAPP Suits: Women Environmental Defenders in Bosnia and Herzegovina

Alma Mirvic, United Nations Development Programme (Bosnia and Herzegovina)

Women environmental defenders in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) are increasingly targeted through strategic lawsuits against public participation (SLAPPs), criminal defamation threats, and gender-based harassment. As highlighted in the preliminary findings of the UN Special Rapporteur Mary Lawlor’s 2025 visit, these tactics are used by politically connected actors and private companies to silence criticism, restrict public participation, and reinforce entrenched power structures. This paper examines SLAPPs against women defenders as a form of lawfare, where legal systems are weaponized to discipline activism and suppress environmental justice claims. Viewing from a environmental justice lens, it explores how gender norms, weak institutional protections, and fragmented governance amplify the harms faced by women defending rivers, forests, and community health. Methodology: Interviews with women activists, review of SLAPP cases and legal threats, and discourse analysis of media narratives and online abuse. The paper shows how SLAPPs deepen power asymmetries in BiH and calls for gender-responsive legal reforms and enhanced Aarhus Convention implementation.