Photo: “On February 3, the FOA and more than 100 community members met with Ambassador Kowalik during a public assembly in Cuenca to share their concerns regarding the Canadian mining project and the proposed FTA with Canada.”
Peace Brigades International has joined with other organizations to “express our grave concern about the situation of repression and human rights violations, particularly against human rights defenders as well as Indigenous Peoples and Nationalities, ‘campesino’ and Afro-descendant communities, women and young people, and civil society organisations that make up the social fabric of Ecuador.”
The statement highlights: “The implementation of a securitized policy and the normalisation of states of emergency, surveillance and militarisation under the pretext of addressing a serious structural security crisis, as well as the erosion of judicial independence and the rule of law.”
And the signatory organizations say: “The international community must reinforce its monitoring of the situation of human rights and environmental defenders, provide assistance to strengthen the rights system, and offer direct support to civil society as a whole.”
Additionally, this week “Seventy-seven Ecuadorian, Canadian, and international civil society organizations and coalitions have sent a formal letter to the Canadian Ambassador to Ecuador, Craig Kowalik, urging the Canadian Embassy to implement Canada’s Voices at Risk: Canada’s Guidelines on Supporting Human Rights Defenders in response to the criminalization of Indigenous and environmental defenders from the Federation of Indigenous and Campesino Organizations of Azuay (FOA, Federación de Organizaciones lndigenas y Campesinas del Azuay).”
“FOA members are facing criminal proceedings for their environmental defense work to safeguard the Kimsakocha páramo from the Loma Larga gold mining project, owned by Canadian mining company DPM Metals Inc.”
The letter states: “The Canadian embassy must prioritize human rights and the rights of nature over the interests of Canadian mining companies in the country.”
We continue to follow this.
