Complaint against Ecuador for having granted a concession for oil exploration and exploitation and allowing an Argentinean company to begin seismic exploration within the Sarayaku people’s territory without having consulted with the Sarayaku or obtaining their consent. Violations of the right to prior consultation, prior consent, community indigenous land, cultural identity, life, and personal integrity.
In the 1990s the Ecuadorian government allowed an Argentinean oil company, Argentina’s Compañía General de Combustibles (CGC), to explore the lands of the Sarayaku people without prior, free, and informed consultation of the Sarayaku. The company’s activities had an impact on sites of special cultural value, in part due to the fact that the analysis of environment impact was implemented by a private organization hired by the oil company. In 2010, the company abandoned 1,400 kilos of explosives in an area covering 16,000 hectares, putting the lives and the physical integrity of members of the Sarayaku people in serious danger. No access to justice was guaranteed, in order to address alleged threats and injuries against the Sarayaku people.
The Inter-American Court of Human Rights decided that Ecuador should clean the Sarayaku lands of the explosives. A previous, adequate, effective and full consultation of the Sarayaku people should be conducted in case of any resource extraction project, including with regard to the analysis of environmental impact. The State should conduct training programs on the rights of indigenous peoples for public employees working with indigenous peoples. The Court also decided that the State should organize a public act at the Sarayaku lands, recognizing its responsibility for violations. Finally, the Court ruled that the State should pay compensation for both material and non-material damages.
Although it is early to assess enforcement, the Ecuadorian government has publically recognized its responsibility for violations. The Legal Secretary of the President, Alexis Mero, has confirmed Ecuador’s intention of complying with the Court’s decision, although he has not specified by when that would happen. Nonetheless, it remains to be seen if Ecuador removes the explosives from Sarayaku’s territory. Additionally, although Ecuador affirms that it will include prior consultation processes in the upcoming XI Round of Oil Concessions, planned for the year 2012, the government published Executive Decree No. 1247 on July 19, 2012, which purports to regulate prior consultation rights. In the words of the Sarayaku and other indigenous organizations from Ecuador, the Decree “attempts to relegate the consultation to a mere formality or process of information or socialization, thus ignoring the Inter-American Court of Human Rights decision in the Sarayaku Case.”
The decision symbolizes indigenous resistance against oil, logging, and mining throughout the Amazon and it celebrates the solidarity among members of the Sarayaku people in fighting for their lands. According to the Sarayaku’s attorney, Mario Melo, the Court’s decision and intense international attention that it received are the result of a strategy of the Sarayaku that could be used with the same success by other indigenous communities that face the imposition of “development” projects in their lands. The Sarayaku were examples of unity, organization, social cohesion and determination. Moreover, from a normative perspective, the decision clearly establishes criteria for prior and informed consultation that will serve for other cases of development-induced violations of indigenous peoples’ rights in Latin America. It also recognizes indigenous communities themselves as subjects of collective rights under international law (Interview with Mario Melo, documents by CEJIL, Amazon Watch, The Economist).
Fundación Panchamama
Center for Justice and International Law – CEJIL