Ximena Warnaars's blog

Yesterday, a delegation of indigenous leaders travelled from Bolivia to Washington, DC, to testify at the Inter-American Human Rights Commision's upcoming thematic hearing on the human rights situation in Bolivia's Isiboro Sécure National Park and Indigenous Territory (or TIPNIS, for its Spanish acronym). These leaders, from TIPNIS and the Indigenous Confederation of Eastern Bolivia (CIDOB), will present information about the threats posed by a Bolivian highway project to the human rights of TIPNIS’ indigenous peoples. Their testimony will be live-streamed on Friday at 3:15pm Eastern time.

ERI's legal team, together with our friends at RAMA, Fundación Construir, Amazon Watch, Due Process of Law Foundation and Georgetown University Law Center have organized a series of events this week to create awareness about the case and hopefully, to inspire more people to support them and their plea for justice. 

The TIPNIS park is the first conservation area to be recognised by Bolivian government in 1965 and it was also later recognized as indigenous territory in 1990. Despite these clear protections, for decades the Bolivian government has expressed an interest in traversing this biologically fragile zone to construct a road, the Villa Tunari – San Ignacio de Moxos highway, which would connect the lowland Amazon to the highlands.  Now there is enough funding and powerful geopolitical interests to push the construction forward. Even Bolivian President Evo Morales has heralded this highway as bringing progress and inaugurated its construction in 2011. Unfortunately for these developers, the TIPNIS park, and the ancestral home of several thousand Yuracaré, Chiman, and Moxeño indigenous peoples, lies right in the middle of their planned highway. 

This August and September, the Amazonian School for Human Rights (EADH for its Spanish acronym) in Pucallpa, Peru, successfully carried out its 6th year of classes for indigenous leaders of the Peruvian Amazon. The EADH was founded in 2007 as an initiative of four alumni of ERI’s former Amazon School for Human Rights and the Environment, which trained students from 2001 to 2005 in Ecuador. The alumni have adapted ERI’s model of training for indigenous leaders and human rights defenders of communities in the Peruvian Amazon.

Since its founding, EADH has worked to increase knowledge regarding rights, the petroleum industry, and legal defense, but also emphasizes leadership training, having now provided capacity-building workshops to more than 130 indigenous leaders from across the Peruvian Amazon. Many of these leaders  are currently in decision-making positions within their organizations or active in other ways at the service of their peoples.

This year’s EADH session, now formally part of the regional Ucayali indigenous federation, ORAU, was directed by ORAU vice-president Lizardo Cauper, an EarthRights School alumnus who also co-founded the EADH School. Other EarthRights School alumni involved in coordinating the school include Robert Guimaraes, Cecilia Brito, and Ronald Suarez. This year, ERI provided support in designing and coordinating the syllabus and speakers, and ERI staff taught a class.

The students, both men and women, are chosen by their indigenous organizations. All participants come from peoples and communities that are affected by extractive industries or mega-infrastructure projects that are promoted by the central and regional governments. As a requirement for participation, the students must be involved in or carrying out activities that defend the rights of indigenous peoples affected by extractives and mega-projects.

The school is also an opportunity for indigenous leaders to build bridges across communities and share their experiences. Each participant shared the types of projects that affect or threaten their communities and their personal working experience in defending the rights of indigenous peoples. This year in particular saw an increase in the participation of indigenous women.

On the 8^th of March, International Women´s Day, and only three days after the Ecuadorian national government signed the country´s first contract for a large-scale mining project with the Chinese-owned Ecuacorriente (ECSA), citizens of Ecuador´s south east Amazon started their march to the capital. They performed an indigenous ceremony to launch their march to Quito along the banks of the Chuchumbletza River in the parish of El Pangui - the site of my own PhD fieldwork.

On the 22^nd of March, International Water Day, after two weeks of walking 700 km, thousands of marchers—including community members, indigenous people, farmers, women, students, environmentalists and workers—arrived in the capital to denounce the development of large-scale mining in the country. Human rights groups supporting the demands of the marchers called for the suspension of the large-scale project.

Ecuador’s President, Rafael Correa made several statements questioning the marchers’ legitimacy. He claimed the march to be a failure from the start. He claimed that the marchers were neither indigenous nor anti-mining, but individuals attempting to destabilize the government. He tried to show popular support for his government by calling citizens to a counter-march, leading to an encounter of marchers in the streets of Quito. Although Correa did not receive the marchers, the president of Parliament Fernando Cordero did meet with a group of leaders, heard their demands, and committed to consulting with them in May 2012 regarding the Water Resources Law.

A few weeks ago, Benjamin blogged about the Grand March for the Right to Water and Life in Peru. Over 8 days, people marched hundreds of miles from different corners of Peru, sleeping in elementary schools, restaurant floors and fed by townspeople in solidarity with their cause. The marchers finally arrived in Lima, the City of Kings, on the 9th of February, and their journey and demonstrations have come to symbolize a historic moment for social movements and communities affected by mining, showing the country and the world that fundamental changes need to be made in the extractive industries. Two legislative changes are proposed: first, the creation No-go-zones for mining—in particular to prohibit mining in the headwaters of rivers—and second, to protect water sources by making water a human right.

ERI was present to greet the marchers. I was in the public forum, sitting front row next to my friend, colleague and ex-vice minister of the Environment Jose de Echave, whose critique of the Conga project brought about his resignation. We watched and heard the voices of many individuals, leaders and politicians, all sharing their sentiments about mining politics in Peru. In between speeches, we were entertained by the “beauty contest” winner Miss Cerro de Pasco, from the oldest mining town in Peru, which has an open pit mine 2 kilometers wide eating away at local houses. On stage she performed for the audience, telling us all about the special quality of her blood that is full of heavy metals, her lovely town that rations an entire 2 hours of water a day for each family, and the leach pads full of contaminants that tourists can visit. She sarcastically thanked the mining companies for the wonders of her town.

Recently, Benjamin blogged about the success of indigenous peoples in Bolivia in stopping the construction of a highway through their territory which threatened the environment and the livelihood of indigenous communities.  The marchers had protested against the lack of prior consultation, and the fact that the Bolivian government never sought their consent before beginning the project.  The events in Bolivia come at a time when the issue of “free, prior and informed consent” (FPIC) is on the political agenda of several countries in the region, and at a time when indigenous peoples have had to go to great lengths to ensure that their voices are heard in defending their territory.

In neighboring Peru, the Law for the Right to Consultation was unanimously passed by Congress in September and is vigorously being debated as the government prepares to codify the law. While international law in the form of Convention No. 169 of the International Labour Organization (ILO) requires previous consultation and guarantees FPIC for indigenous populations, governments in countries that have ratified the ILO convention (like Bolivia and Peru) have a long way to go towards codifying those requirements within their national law.

In Ecuador, the indigenous and mestizo peoples of the rural parishes of Victoria del Portete and Tarqui called for a vote (consulta) at the end of September on implementation of the large scale mining Quimsacocha project, owned by Canada's IAMGOLD. The result was that 92% voted to reject the project. Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa called the consulta illegitimate.