This was the place that Isidro called home

taken from the London Mining Network. See original here

Last Friday, 5 June, the expropriation of Isidro’s house in Roche Community took place . “It was a small house made of natural material, it didn’t take more than five minutes to tear down but it was the place that Isidro called home,” said one of the delegates.

On Thursday, after a long day of travel across La Guajira, visiting communities impacted by the Cerrejón coal mine as part of a Witness for Peace delegation, we met a woman named Doña Maria from the community of Roche, who came to us for help.   She had just found out that the police were planning to knock down her father’s house, probably the following day in the Roche community, where Cerrejón has already displaced the majority of families and resettled them in Nueva Roche.  Her father, Don Isidro, a  community elder, who was born in Roche and has live there for all 97 years of his life, was facing expropriation from the land passed down by his family.

Prior Consultation and Free, Prior, and Informed Consent at the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues 2015

By Emma Banks

Vanderbilt University

Between April 20-May 1, the United Nations hosted its fourteenth annual Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues in New York.  Representatives from state institutions, NGOs, indigenous advocacy groups, and other organizations from around the world gathered to discuss the future of indigenous people, and how the UN can incorporate the diverse indigenous agenda in its programs and policies.    This year was an especially important meeting as the UN’s Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) expire this year, and will be replaced by a new set of fifteen-year goals, which will be called the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).  The MDGs made no explicit mention of indigenous peoples, but the UN has since recognized the importance of indigenous voices in achieving development goals and protecting natural resources for years to come.  The UN must not only guarantee the participation of indigenous people in name, but also monitor and evaluate compliance with UN norms worldwide.  To this end, several organizations are experimenting with pilot programs to allow indigenous people to report on state, regional, and local compliance with the UN Declaration on Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP).  These programs are part of the UN goal to create more robust development indicators that disaggregate data on indigenous peoples to better understand their specific development challenges and needs in the future.

Free, Prior and Informed Consent: Protecting Indigenous Peoples’ rights to self-determination, participation, and decision-making

Taken from Cultural Survival, in http://www.culturalsurvival.org/publications/cultural-survival-quarterly/free-prior-and-informed-consent-protecting-indigenous

“Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) is one of the most important principles that Indigenous Peoples believe can protect their right to participation. It is embedded in the right to self-determination. The duty of States to obtain Indigenous Peoples’ FPIC entitles Indigenous people to effectively determine the outcome of decision-making that affects them, not merely a right to be involved.” --UN Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples

Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) is an emerging standard in the dialogue on Indigenous Peoples rights; some argue that it is becoming part of customary international law. At Cultural Survival’s recent board meeting in October, Stella Tamang (Tamang) from Nepal, Grand Chief Edward John (Tl’azt’en) from Canada, Vincent Nmehielle (Ikwerre) from Nigeria, and Nicole Friederichs weighed in on what this concept actually means in practice. They see FPIC as an important standard Indigenous people can use to claim their rights to self-determination, consultation, and participation in decision-making. Governments and corporations can no longer ignore these principles.

The community that dies from thirst

A three year old child died of malnutrition last Friday in Uribia, a town of Colombia located in the department of La Guajira, mostly inhabited by the indigenous population Wayuu. The lack of water in recent years has taken the lives of nearly 5,000 children, according to Javier Rojas, leader of the Association of Traditional Indigenous Authorities Shipia Wayuu Wayuu. The more than 400,000 people who make up this community live 365 days a year with temperatures between 35 and 42 degrees, without water. Since a mining company was installed more than 10 years in the region, there has been a decline in the possibilities to access the liquid. The deaths make clear the drama that is lived.

The case has already reached the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), which called on Wednesday the Colombian Government to explain what measures it has taken to address this community and follow up to any attempts they have made to solve the food crisis that also affects those indigenous peoples. At the end of the process, according to Carolina Sáchica, the lawyer handling the case on behalf of the Wayuu, they expect to recover the water from the largest water resource in the area, the Rancheria River, which was dammed for the exclusive use of companies expected engaged in coal mining.

Book exposing Glencore (one of the owners of Cerrejon)! and its human right, labor, and environmental violations

Swiss-registered Glencore is one of the world's largest companies in  the extractive industry. Glencore's many mines and mining projects have  violated human rights and labour and environmental legislation on  countless occasions. In May 2014, MultiWatch published "Milliarden mit Rohstoffen – Der  Schweizer Konzern Glencore Xstrata", a survey of Glencore's  controversial business practices and of the negative impacts of its  mining projects. MultiWatch now present the English and Spanish version of the book.
Download here:
English and  Spanish

Cerrejón mine in Colombia: can it address its human rights risks?

An interesting article discussing what Cerrejon thinks and plans for addressing the allegation of their human right violations. Is it enough to just inform their personnel about Human Rights Law? or to impose ways to deal with situations that are incommensurable, such as the use of territory in indigenous ancestral lands?

La Guajira only has a handful of formal petrol stations. Instead, drivers in this remote corner of north-east Colombia fill up at temporary kerbside stops, where a vendor stands with a plastic drum of contraband fuel and a shorn-off hosepipe.
Over the years, the state has earned a reputation as Colombia's Wild West. As well as pimpineros (petrol smugglers), its porous border with nearby Venezuela is a popular route for narcotic gangs and leftwing guerrilla groups. The region also bears the scars of Colombia's decades-long civil during which millions were displaced and an estimated 200,000 killed.

International Campaign to stop the diversion of the Bruno Stream

The Cerrejón coal mine in Colombia has already forcibly relocated thousands of people from local communities. Now the mine wants to divert one of the area's few rivers to access more coal - but it is one of the main sources of water for people in the area.
Local communities have joined forces with workers in the mine to stop the river diversion and protect the livelihood of people living in the area. Community opposition recently stopped the company from diverting the arid region's major river to get at 500 million tonnes of extra coal.

Cerrejón is owned by three massive mining multinationals listed on the London Stock Exchange: Anglo American, BHP Billiton and Glencore. Please tell them to respect community rights in Colombia and halt the diversion of the Arroyo Bruno river.

This is a joint action by a coalition of organisations working in solidarity with communities around Cerrejón.

Click here to sign and show your support