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.

Departmental March on March 19 to defend the Bruno Stream

The Civic Committee for the Dignity of La Guajira invites everyone to all Guajiros to go out to march in March 19 to tell Cerrejon and the government of Santos that the people from La Guajira will not allow the change of the course of the Bruno Stream

Cautionary measures to protect the rights for water of the indigenous Wayuu people

This month we should know the decision of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights around the cautionary measures to be taken requested by the Wayuu communities that depend on the Rancheria River for their subsistence.

The situation that the Wayuu indigenous people have suffered for decades shows that it is false to think that extractivist projects generate prosperity for the communities living in the territories where they are held. La Guajira is coping with one of the worst humanitarian crisis in the country, a few miles from one of the most profitable mines in its history: El Cerrejón.

Coal miners against Coal?

– By Ewa Jasiewicz on October 8, 2014

in Union Solidarity International (original at: https://usilive.org/coal-miners-against-coal/)

Freddy Lozano leads a union of coal miners who are against coal mining.

Let me break that down for you. SINTRACARBON, headquartered in Riohacha, North Eastern Colombia, organises in one of the biggest open-cast coal mines on earth – Cerrejón. The name is taken from the indigenous Wayuu peoples’ name for the area meaning ‘Sacred Mountain’. Over the past 30 years that sacred mountain has become a vast network of pits run by Anglo-American, BHP Billiton and Glencore Xstrata. Seventeen indigenous and Afro-Colombian communities have been displaced and see the operation, in the words of Aurellio, a leader from the Campo Allegre community, as ‘terrorism against our people’.

Cerrejón mine

It was when Freddy, President of the Porto Bolivar Section, visited communities impacted by the mine eight years ago that he and the union embarked on a journey that would see them protest side by side with community members last year against the expansion of the mine.

The company wanted to access 500 millions tons of coal under the Rio Rancheria river, the only major river in the dry province of La Guajira, by diverting it for 26.2 kilometres. Local communities reliant on the river were outraged.

Summary and conclusions of "The Congress for Life, Autonomy, and Territorial Permanence" in La Guajira, Colombia:

By: Emma Banks
Anthropology Ph.D Student
Vanderbilt University

 Between August 7 and 9, communities affected by the Cerrejón coalmine in La Guajira hosted "The Congress for Life, Autonomy, and Territorial Permanence." During these three days, with support from the NGOs Cajar and CINEP, communities came together to host a tribunal against aggression by the mine in their territory, a visit to sacred Afro-Colombian and indigenous sites, and Autonomous Consultation voting in two Wayuu communities.  This event was the first of its kind in Colombia.  Representatives of national and international NGOs and human rights organizations attended the event as observers and jury members on the tribunal.

I had the honor of being a jury member in the "Tribunal Against Mining Agression in La Guajira" on August 7 held in El Cerro de Hato Nuevo, a Wayuu reservation.  During the first session, we heard testimony from Afro-Colombian and indigenous people accusing Cerrejón of violating their cultural and autonomous rights.  Indigenous Wayuu representatives spoke of losing their language and cultural practices.  All communities in the area have lost access to communal lands on which they once fished, hunted and gathered medicinal plants.  Displaced communities such as the Afro-Colombian community of Tabaco recounted how their social fabric has been torn when they lost their lands.  Communities traditionally reliant on agriculture have lost their ability to provide for their families from the land.  Both Afro-Colombian and Wayuu indigenous witnesses claimed Cerrejón has violated their ancestral land, and thus their autonomy and rights to cultural preservation.  Furthermore, many reported that Cerrejón attempted to divide communities by intimidating and bribing leaders, offering compensation to only select families, and discouraging resistance.

El Cerrejon Mine in Colombia attacks communities No Pasaran!

Scenes from Tabaco 2001.  Stop this from happening again

STOP THE FORCED EVICTION OF VILLAGERS IN ROCHE

TO MAKE WAY FOR A COAL MINE

Cerrejon Coal and the Colombian courts are threatening to evict indigenous and afro-descendent villagers at Roche, in the northern province of La Guajira, on Thursday 29 August. They want to expand their massive opencast mine. Cerrejon Coal is owned by three mega mining multinationals (Anglo American, BHP Billiton and Glencore Xstrata) and exports most of its coal to power plants in the eastern United States, including the Brayton Point plant in Somerset, MA.

Press and Public Release from the "Forum towards a New National Mineral Policy and the Compensation for the Socio-Environmental Impacts the Guajiro people

WE NEED TO CHANGE THE MINING-ENERGY POLICY

Social movements, academia, trade unions, indigenous peoples, student movements, and the general public gathered at the University of La Guajira on May 9 and 10, 2013, for the Forum towards a New National Mineral Policy and the Compensation for the Socio-Environmental Impacts the Guajiro people. Throughout this event, we expressed our deep concern regarding the uncontrolled advance of the "Mining-Energy Locomotive", promoted by the current Colombian Government.

Indigenous peoples' struggle for water

You would think that water is one of the most basic rights. However, privatization of water, together with the intensification of its use, have become important issues negatively affecting indigenous communities all over the world who now struggle to find this precious and basic liquid.
Read a quick article:
http://www.culturalsurvival.org/publications/cultural-survival-quarterly/none/indigenous-peoples-and-water-rights
and
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/international-archives-60/233-water-law-and-indigenous-rights-in-the-andes

Impacts of Cerrejon and local efforts to resist

Some more of why there is the need to resist the kind of mining that Cerrejon carries out. Read about some of the national, international and local issues in this struggle, how people have been affected, and how they resist.
follow link:
http://www.culturalsurvival.org/publications/cultural-survival-quarterly/colombia/extraction-colombia-mine-takes-much-more-land-coal

Problems in consultation processes worldwide

Multinational companies are required carry out prior consultation to local communities before a project. These companies often companies claim that their processes of consultation is transparent. However, the methodologies of these and how these affect local communities give us a different sense of the reality. This happens not only in La Guajira, but also in other places around the world. Read about two cases: one in Panama and one in the Northwest Territories.
Go to this link
http://www.culturalsurvival.org/ourpublications/csq/article/community-consultation-mining

La Guajira, the Wayuu, and El Cerrejon

Read an interesting article from the organization Izilwane. This article presents a fine summary about El Cerrejon, the Colombian state, and the relationship to the Wayuu indigenous communities

link:
http://blog.izilwane.org/a-long-journey-to-help-guajira-and-the-wayuu-people

Rivers all over the world threatened

The Rancheria River is not the only river that local communities are trying to defend. Read about the case of Santa Cruz Barillas, Guatemala
Link:
http://www.culturalsurvival.org/publications/cultural-survival-quarterly/defending-life-first-struggle-protect-river-and-human

Dirty Coal imported to the United States

Learn about the process of displacement by El Cerrejon on the Wayuu indigenous and afro-descendant communities of Colombia. No longer can we ignore it. Now these concerns have been brought to the US.
Read about its Massachusetts Connection
http://www.culturalsurvival.org/publications/cultural-survival-quarterly/colombia/massachusetts-connection-colombian-indigenous-resi

Coal exploitation in Venezuela = Misery and Disruption for Local Communities

Clearly, coal exploitation by multinationals have wide-spread and long lasting effects. And they are not limited to a single region or country. Read these two articles about coal exploitation in Venezuela and the response of the  Wayuu and other indigenous peoples to defend their lives.

http://www.culturalsurvival.org/take-action/venezuela-support-indigenous-peoples-vs-coal-mines/venezuela-support-indigenous-peoples

http://www.culturalsurvival.org/publications/cultural-survival-quarterly/venezuela/coal-and-wayuu-venezuela