Dear friends,
The communities of the Intaq region in Ecuador have been struggling for the last ten years to resist plans of a large-scale copper mining project that would destroy their lands and water resources. During the last months tension has been increasing and it is important to show to the government of Ecuador that international civil society is not tolerating what is happening.
Together with the community organisation DECOIN we have drafted a letter to the president highlighting our concerns about the human rights situation in Intaq. We would be very happy if your organisation could support this letter.
If yes, please send your signature to Andree Germain at Friends of the Earth Canada (agermain@foecanada.org). If possible send him an electronic signature to be included in the letter.
The deadline for the sign-on is Tuesday, July 11th noon, Canadian time.
The Intag communities are organizing a demonstration to be held in Quito next Thursday the 13th and we want to make sure the letter reaches the president in time.
We also encourage you to - in addition - send a fax straight to the president. His fax number is +593 2 2580 714
For more information on the struggle of the Intaq communities please visit the website of DECOIN or watch the documentary “The curse of copper.”
The letter is currently being translated into Spanish and will be available soon.
Thank you for your solidarity!
Ute Hausmann
FIAN Germany
*copy of letter follows*
Doctor Alfredo Palacio
Constitutional President
Republic of Ecuador
Plaza de la Independencia,
Quito, Ecuador
Junin Mining Project (Ascendant Copper Corporation): Concern over Human Rights Situation
Mr. President,
The undersigned international organizations are very concerned with the human rights situation in the Intag area of Imbabura province, in relation to the presence of the Canadian mining company, Ascendant Copper Corporation. We are especially concerned with threats posed by the Junin mining project to the human rights to food, water, housing and health, as well as the safety of those defending these rights. We are also concerned that decisions by democratically elected local and regional bodies are undermined by the actions of the company.
Mr. President, Ecuador has ratified the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR) as well as other human rights documents which oblige the state of Ecuador to protect the above mentioned rights. We therefore urge you to ensure that the activities of Ascendent Copper Company comply with international human rights and environmental standards. We ask that your government investigate the denunciations coming from the Intag area, its residents, and some of the Quito-based human rights groups regarding the behavior of the company and its contractors- including Daimi Services. We also ask you, given the opposition of the democratically elected local and regional bodies to the mining project, to consider the revocation of any licenses awarded to the company. In any case we urge you to take preventive measures to avoid violations of the human rights to food, water, housing and health.
According to reliable sources in Ecuador, the Japanese International Cooperation Agency’s (JICA) 1996 Environmental Impact Study predicted that four communities and over one hundred families would have to be relocated in order to make room for the open-pit copper mine. The area currently under discussion for mining is substantially larger, which also means that impact on the population will be even greater than predicted in 1996. Forced relocation constitutes a major interference with the right to housing and poses severe threats to the right to food of those families who loose access to productive resources. Any government is therefore obliged to regulate large-scale development projects in such a way that forced relocation is reduced to a minimum and that project-affected persons are not worse off than before the project.
The JICA study predicted contamination of rivers and streams with lead, arsenic and other heavy metals, as well as “massive deforestation”, which would be enough to start drying out Intag’s climate, and impact dozens of mammal and bird species threatened by extinction. The study also mentioned impacts to the biodiverse Cotacachi-Cayapas Ecological Reserve. In addition, the Intag area is extremely rich in water resources which are under threat by the mining project. As state party to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, the government of Ecuador has to act according to the following principles:
“Before any action that interferes with an individual’s right to water is carried out by the State party, or by any other third party, the relevant authorities must ensure that such actions are performed in a manner warranted by law, compatible with the Covenant, and that comprises:
(a) opportunity for genuine consultation with those affected;
(b) timely and full disclosure of information on the proposed measures;
(c) reasonable notice of proposed actions;
(d) legal recourse and remedies for those affected; and
(e) legal assistance for obtaining legal remedies [Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights “General Comment No. 15. The Right to Water (arts. 11 and 12 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights), 2002]
We urge you to ensure that these principles, which so far have been ignored, will be implemented in the Junin project by the relevant supervising state authorities.
We have received information, that, to date, ten local community residents face criminal charges for a variety of measures taken to protect the rights of the project-affected communities. We do not want to judge nor condone the measures the communities felt necessary to take to defend their communities’ way of life and their land, but we understand they would have never taken place had the communities’ rights to be previously consulted and to be involved in democratic decision-making been recognized. We are very concerned that those defending communities’ rights are not only being subjected to criminal charges but also that their safety is not guaranteed.
Representatives of some of our organizations have visited the Intag area and witnessed first hand the social conflicts generated by the presence of the mining company, and have received information about methods of intimidation used by the company to try and implement a mining project that is clearly opposed by the majority of Intag’s residents. We are aware that in May of 2006, all of Intag’s local governments publicly asked for the company to leave Intag, and have noticed that the company has opted to ignore the wishes of these locally elected officials. It is also worth noting that for years the government of Cotacachi County has adopted, and publicly manifested the same position regarding the mining project. Given the opposition of the democratically elected local and regional bodies to the mining project, the intimidation of local residents, the far reaching impacts on the local population, the health of the human and natural environment and on the development of the whole region, we ask you to consider the revocation of any licenses awarded to the company.
In closing, we would like to thank you in advance for taking action to protect all human rights (civil, cultural, economic, political, social) as well as environmental rights in the Intag area. Please inform us about any action you have taken in this regard.
Sincerely,
cc. UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, Jean Ziegler
UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Housing, Miloon Kothari
