Colombia trade deal goes forward as Indigenous peoples at risk

ORIGINAL: EmbassyMag.ca

Alex Neve ,Kathy Price

Published: Thursday, 10/25/2012 12:27 am EDT

Last Updated: Thursday, 10/25/2012 12:57 am EDT

While a report has been promised for May 2013, there is no guarantee it will look seriously at the impact on Indigenous peoples.

Amnesty International Toronto Organization Photo

"People of Canada, the Zenú People need your support." Photo of a Zenú man, part of Amnesty International Toronto Organization's exhibit "This is what we want to tell you: Messages from Indigenous Peoples at risk of annihilation in Colombia."

"We are facing a monster."

This is how an Indigenous leader, his face etched in anxiety, described the deep fears of so many Indigenous peoples in Colombia, faced with voracious exploration and exploitation on their lands by a rapidly increasing number of resource extraction companies.

He didn’t identify the nationality of the monster. But the truth is that Canadian companies have already been involved in gold, petroleum, and other resource extraction projects that affect Indigenous lands in Colombia. And there is every reason to believe there will be many more projects now that a free trade deal is in place between the two countries.

Last week, we attended the eighth Congress of the National Indigenous Organization of Colombia, an event held every four years which brings together thousands of Indigenous peoples from across the country.

They gathered at a time of unparalleled peril. Decades of unending grave human rights violations have taken such a toll that the country’s own Constitutional Court has ruled that 35 Indigenous nations are at risk of “cultural or physical extermination”.

It is a stunning human rights crisis. Yet equally stunning is how little international concern has been generated or action galvanized.

The congress covered many pressing issues, including armed incursions into Indigenous territories, ongoing threats from supposedly demobilized paramilitaries, widespread conflict-related sexual violence against Indigenous women and girls, disappearances and assassinations, forced displacement, lack of justice, and more. In all of these discussions, the impact of resource extraction on Indigenous communities was flagged time and time again.

We heard many accounts of communities not being properly consulted, as national and international law requires, before resource extraction projects have gone ahead. Others told of displacement, killings, rape and other human rights violations, carried out with the seeming intent to clear lands for mines and other economic projects. We heard wrenching descriptions of the health problems that come with contamination of air, lands and water.

The Canada-Colombia Free Trade Agreement, in force since August 2011, is going forward against this backdrop. The trade deal opens the door for ever greater numbers of Canadian companies to join the influx into Indigenous lands. That in turn gives rise to the troubling possibility of Canadian companies being implicated in human rights violations or benefiting from abuses that have already taken place.

During the three years that the trade deal was being negotiated and debated, Amnesty International and numerous other organizations, acutely aware of the crisis faced by Indigenous peoples and numerous other human rights concerns in Colombia, called for an independent study to responsibly assess the human rights impacts. The intention was to be sure the treaty would do no harm.

The government passed on that opportunity to show leadership. It refused to commission an assessment before the deal came into force. To win Liberal Party support for implementing legislation, the government did agree to yearly human rights reports after the deal was launched, but the reports lack credibility since they are prepared by the two governments themselves and have no teeth to act on recommendations.

By law, the first report was due four months ago, in mid-May. Shockingly, it contained no information at all about human rights impacts. The government said it was too early and that there was not yet enough information to assess.

While a report has been promised for May 2013, there is no guarantee it will look seriously at the impact on Indigenous peoples. There is also no indication to date of a credible process being put in place to grapple with the human rights impacts of this trade deal. No one knows how it will be done, who will carry it out, and who will be consulted.

Indigenous peoples in Colombia deserve more than that. They need to see a solid process in place, now. They need confidence that they will be meaningfully consulted as the report is prepared and that their concerns will be taken into account. But the bottom line is that they cannot and should not have to wait another eight months to see strong action from Canada.

The crisis faced by Colombia’s Indigenous peoples and the implications for the commercial relationship between Canada and Colombia must become a regular topic during exchanges at the highest levels between the two governments: Prime Minister to President, Minister to Minister.

It is also time for Canadian resource extraction companies to demonstrate they truly understand the gravity of the crisis and are committed to taking the concrete measures needed to ensure their operations respect and do not violate the rights of Indigenous peoples. Companies should do so publicly and with determination.

We would not want Canada to be known as a monster. Action is needed urgently to ensure we are part of the solution to the grave dangers that beset Indigenous peoples in Colombia, not part of the problem.

Alex Neve is secretary general and Kathy Price is Colombia campaigner of Amnesty International Canada. They travelled to Colombia from Oct. 8 to Oct. 13 to attend the Congress of the National Indigenous Organization of Colombia.

editor@embassymag.ca