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#NoALosPilotosDeFracking hashtag on Twitter raises awareness of opposition to fracking in Colombia

By
Brent Patterson
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On July 2, many individuals and organizations tweeted messages with the hashtag #NoALosPilotosDeFracking (No To The Fracking Pilots).

Media reports have indicated that the Colombian government will grant contracts for fracking pilot projects in September/October and that those activities would begin in 2021.

Some of the messages tweeted included:

CumbrePopularUrbana tweeted an infographic of the VMM-37 block in the Middle Magdalena Basin that could be fracked by ExxonMobil and Patriot Energy (a subsidiary wholly owned by Toronto-based Sintana Energy Inc.).

Luisa Ojeda tweeted: “At Magdalena Medio, we are not willing to take the risks involved in pilot fracking projects.”

Óscar Sampayo tweeted: “No to the Fracking Pilots in the Magdalena Medio, because it would affect the Cienaga de Paredes, the Llanito and the wetland complex of the region where the Manatees live.”

César Pachón tweeted: “They once told us that there should be economic opening in the 90s and they broke us. Then they said that the FTAs were the last salvation and they broke us. Now they say fracking and they are going to break us.”

 

¡Salvemos el planeta! tweeted: “Truth 4: Have you heard about the climate crisis? Well, fracking deepens and aggravates it. The high greenhouse gas emissions (mainly methane) make it a very very harmful technique for our Earth.”

More tweets can be read by searching the #NoALosPilotosDeFracking hashtag on Twitter.

MP Paul Manly hears from Colombian human rights defenders concerned by Canadian company in San Luis de Palenque

By
Brent Patterson
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On July 2, Peace Brigades International hosted a Zoom call between Canadian Member of Parliament Paul Manly and representatives from the Committee in Solidarity with Political Prisoners (CSPP) and the Social Corporation for Community Counseling and Training (COSPACC) who are accompanied by PBI-Colombia.

Franklin Castañeda Villacob and Alexandra González Zapata from the CSPP provided a broader context of Canadian oil and gas companies in Colombia and the details of the specific case of Toronto-based Frontera Energy and the community of San Luis de Palenque.

Frontera’s operations there have resulted in: dust pollution from heavy trucks on the road; post-production water the oil company sprayed on the road to contain the dust; the dumping of post-production water into the Pauto River; water-takings from the river; and the burning of gases associated with the extraction of these barrels of oil.

Michel Forst, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders, noted this case in his report to the UN Human Rights Council last year. He highlighted that Frontera signed two agreements on November 16 and 19, 2018 with the Colombian Ministry of Defence totalling US$1.3 million to provide protection for the company.

Then on November 27, 2018, more than 200 members of the Army and Police, along with two helicopters, arrived in the community and charged the eight activists with criminal conspiracy, violence against a public servant, and obstruction of a public road among other crimes. Eighteen months later three of those activists remain in prison, five are under house arrest, and no trial date has been scheduled.

Manly offered insights on avenues to raise this issue as well as highlighting the importance of legislation that would give people outside of Canada the ability to bring civil suits to Canadian federal courts for violations of environmental and basic human rights, including arbitrary arrest, involving Canadian corporations operating outside of Canada.

Manly also expressed a willingness to visit Colombia, when the pandemic-related restrictions have been lifted, to see first-hand the situation described in this Zoom call.

A recent Business & Human Rights Centre report highlights that from 2015 to 2019 Colombia was the second most dangerous country in the world for defenders challenging business and that there were at least 43 attacks against defenders challenging oil, gas and coal.

This is notable also within the context of three Canadian oil companies – Parex Resources, Sintana Energy, and Canacol Energy Ltd. – bidding for the controversial fracking pilot project contracts to be awarded this September/October.

PBI-Guatemala accompanies BDH human rights law firm at hearing on Hogar Seguro fire

By
Brent Patterson
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On July 2, the Peace Brigades International-Guatemala Project posted: “Yesterday we accompanied the BDH [human rights law firm] to the hearing to review coercive measures in the Hogar Seguro case. The request of two defendants to be paroled for health conditions was declared without place.”

Forty-one girls, who were 14 to 17 years of age, died in a fire at the Hogar Seguro Virgen de la Asuncion shelter south-east of Guatemala City on March 8, 2017.

The Guardian has reported: “It has emerged that 56 girls had been locked inside a room measuring 6.8 metres by 7 metres as punishment for organising a protest the day before against cramped conditions and abuse by staff. More than 700 children lived at the home, which had capacity for 400-500.”

“The fire, which began in the early hours, sparked angry demonstrations in the capital over the government’s failure to protect young people in its care. Complaints about abuse at the centre had been made, but not followed up. A month before the fire, Guatemala’s human rights commission had asked for it to be closed.”

In March 2019, Al Jazeera reported: “Several government employees, including police, are now on trial for their role in the fire. The girls were locked in a room and shelter officials waited for nine minutes as the girls burned before they unlocked the door.”

“Some of the victims of the March 8, 2017 fire in the Hogar Seguro Virgen de la Asuncion shelter had run away from home, fleeing abuse and sexual assault by relatives. But many faced more of the same inside the shelter.”

That article adds: “For years, girls reported being raped and forced into prostitution inside the state-run facility, but their protests were ignored.”

PBI-Guatemala has previously explained on its website: “Édgar Pérez Archila and BDH provide pro-bono [free] legal representation to victim organizations in judicial proceedings for human rights violations committed during the internal armed conflict and other human rights violations past and present.”

PBI Guatemala has accompanied BDH since 2013.

Canadian companies bidding to win fracking contracts to be awarded by Colombia in September/October

By
Brent Patterson
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Colombian human rights defenders Julia Figueroa and Andrea Nocove from the Luis Carlos Perez Lawyers’ Collective (CCALCP) and Ivan Madero from the Regional Corporation for the Defence of Human Rights (CREDHOS) raised concerns about fracking in Colombia when they visited Canada in November 2019.

On June 11, Business News Americas reported: “Colombia is on track to award contracts for fracking pilots this year as the government fast tracks plans for unconventional oil and gas drilling, according to a senior energy official.”

That article quotes Armando Zamora, the head of national hydrocarbons regulator ANH, who says the contracts will be awarded in September or October.

Vanguardia further quotes Zamora who says: “That regulation [for fracking pilot project] is already in drafts. Next month the final rules will come out. That has advanced on schedule and is advancing rapidly.”

Canadian companies seeking these contracts

The BNAmericas article also highlights: “ExxonMobil, ConocoPhillips, Parex, Drummond and state-run oil firm Ecopetrol are among companies that have submitted plans for unconventional pilots in the Andean nation.”

Toronto-based Sintana Energy and its subsidiary Patriot Energy Oil & Gas Inc. are reportedly part of a joint venture with ExxonMobil to frack the VMM-37 bock near Puerto Wilches, Santander. And Calgary-based Canacol Energy Ltd. and its subsidiary CNE Oil and Gas are reportedly partnered with ConocoPhillips to frack the VMM-2 and VMM-3 blocks near Puerto Patiño and San Martin, Cesar.

Last year, along with ExxonMobil, ConocoPhillips and Ecopetrol, Colombian Mines and Energy Minister Maria Fernanda Suarez noted that Calgary-based Parex Resources was among the companies seeking to frack in Colombia.

And while not reported as a contender for fracking, Toronto-based Frontera Energy is a minority owner in 236,000 barrel per day pipeline that runs from the Magdalena Medio region to Coveñas on the Caribbean coast that is ready to move increased crude output if fracking is approved beyond the pilot projects.

Opposition to fracking in Colombia

In February 2019, a poll found that more than 90 per cent of Colombians are opposed to fracking in their country.

The concerns being expressed include: the divisions extractivism can cause in communities, the safety of social leaders opposed to fracking, the possible contamination of drinking water and impacts on fishing villages, the lack of social licence, and climate change.

The Union of Workers of the Petroleum Industry (USO) voted against fracking in November 2019 and the National Strike Committee submitted 104 demands, including opposition to fracking, to the government in December 2019.

The Alliance for a Colombia Free of Fracking has also stated that fracking would violate the Colombian constitutional principles that guarantee citizens the right to life, the right to water, and the right to a healthy environment.

Peace Brigades International in Colombia and Canada continues to support human rights defenders raising concerns with Canadian officials and the broader public about the impacts of Canadian oil and gas activities on communities and social leaders.

It is expected that the fracking pilot projects will begin in 2021.

You can read more about the Peace Brigades International advocacy tour with CCALCP and CREDHOS that took place in November 2019 here.

Frente No a la Minería calls for the closure of Vancouver-based Fortuna’s San José Mine in Mexico

By
Brent Patterson
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A company security guard checks a truck entering the San José Mine, November 2012.

Vancouver-based Fortuna Silver Mines Inc., through its subsidiary Compañía Minera Cuzcatlán, operates the San José Mine about 2 kilometres from the Indigenous Zapotec village of San José del Progreso in the state of Oaxaca in southern Mexico.

The mine has a controversial history.

In 2006, Fortuna signed agreements with individual landowners and secured permission to explore the area through closed-door negotiations with municipal authorities, but community members were not informed of this as required by the International Labor Organization’s Indigenous and Tribal Peoples Convention 169.

NACLA reports: “In March 2009, a group of residents protested this violation of their rights by setting up an encampment at the entrance to the mine. In May, 1,000 state and federal police—acting at the request of the mining company and its local political allies—evicted protesters using helicopters, tear gas, and dogs.”

The mine began production in September 2011.

El Universal has reported that there has been four deaths and eight people shot in direct relation to the mine between 2010 and 2012.

Those deaths included community defenders Bernardo Méndez who was killed on January 18, 2012 after he and others confronted a municipal crew working on a water pipeline they suspected would divert water for use at the mine and Bernardo Vásquez who was killed on March 15, 2012 as he travelled back home from the Oaxaca airport.

El Universal has also reported that in 2018 four defenders had precautionary (protection) measures granted by the Human Rights Defender of the People of Oaxaca (DDHPO), an autonomous organ of the State of Oaxaca.

In October 2018, residents of the town of Magdalena Ocotlán stated that heavy rains resulted in mine waste overflowing into the Coyote River leaving behind contaminated mud in the vicinity of the community’s drinking wells.

While the Environmental Protection Agency (Profepa) had Cuzcatlán pay a fine for the spill, no remediation plan was put into place.

That same month, a People’s Trial against the State and Mining Companies in Oaxaca called for the closure of the San José mine and the cancellation of 322 concessions in Oaxaca granted to mining companies by the Mexican government.

In November 2018, Peace Brigades International-Canada hosted a visit in Ottawa and Toronto by Salvador Martínez Arellanes (an Indigenous leader from Santa Carina Minas) and Neftalí Reyes Méndez (from Educa Oaxaca).

They brought news of the People’s Trial and opposition from Santa Catarina Minas (situated about 15 kilometres from San José del Progreso) to a mining concession granted to Fortuna near that community.

Then in March 2019 the No-to-Mining Front (Frente No a la Minería) issued these 8 demands including the cancellation of the San José mining project.

In June 2019, the Peace Brigades International-Mexico Project accompanied Educa Oaxaca at a Guelaguetza (a celebration) against mining that reaffirmed the call to close the Fortuna mine and cancel the 322 mining concessions.

And on February 20 of this year, El Muro reported on the No-to-Mining Front announcing that the federal Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources (Semarnat) had denied the authorization of the Environmental Impact Statement for the proposed San José II mine, a 7,000 hectare expansion of the existing 700 hectare mine.

Periodismo Hoy further reported that the No-to-Mining Front had called on Semarnat not to grant a renewal of the existing mine which was conditionally authorized to operate for a period of 12 years from 2009 to 2021. That article notes that Cuzcatlán wants to extend the operations of the San José I mine to 2029.

PBI has accompanied Educa Oaxaca since May 2013 and continues to follow closely the situation in San José del Progreso.

For more in Spanish, please see this 7-minute video posted on May 7, 2020 by CODIGO DH (also accompanied by PBI-Mexico) that notes that Fortuna, through four subsidiaries, holds 26 mining concessions “with which it has stripped indigenous and peasant peoples and communities of 80 thousand hectares.”

Caal Xol says Oxec hydroelectric company violates the rights of Mayan people during the COVID-19 pandemic

By
Brent Patterson
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On July 1, Bernardo Caal Xol posted on Facebook: “The irresponsibility of the hydroelectric company OXEC S.A. in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic crisis once again violates the rights of the Mayan people Q’eqchi’ of Chi K’ajb’om.”

Caal adds: “It has been proven through the company’s negligence and non-compliance with provisions for the prevention of infections that they do not care about the lives of people, now that several of their collaborators and members of communities are infected and quarantined within the hydroelectricity facilities.”

On May 22, Caal had also tweeted: “Thousands of Mayan Q’eqchis settlers at this time of COVID-19 do not have water since the Renace has captured the Cahabón river for 30 kilometers.”

The Peace Brigades International-Guatemala Project has previously explained: “On the Cahabón River and its tributaries Oxec, Canlich and Chiacté, seven hydroelectric plants currently operate: Renace I, II, III, IV, Oxec, Oxec II, and Chichaic.”

The two most recently completed dams are Oxec II which began operation in September 2018 and Renace IV which became operational in January 2019.

PBI-United Kingdom has noted: “In August 2017, PBI provided security support to the good-faith consultation in which the 195 communities of the Cahabón River overwhelmingly rejected the Oxec hydroelectric projects.”

Numerous concerns have been raised about these dams, including their impacts on the river, tributaries and ecosystems. Indigenous peoples have stated that the dams are illegal because they were not properly consulted or informed about them as required under the ILO Convention 169 and the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

Caal is a leader of the Peaceful Resistance of Cahabón, a collective of 38 Maya Q’eqchi communities. The resistance was formed in 2015 to oppose these dams.

On November 9, 2018, Caal was criminalized for his opposition to the dams and sentenced to seven years and four months in prison for aggravated detention and theft.

The United Nations Special Rapporteur on the rights of Indigenous peoples Victoria Tauli-Corpuz visited Caal in prison in May 2018.

She has stated: “The conviction of the Q’eqchí’ leader is an apparent attempt to silence and discredit the legitimate exercise of the rights of the indigenous community.”

Tauli-Corpuz adds: “This is not an isolated case; there are numerous indigenous community members who are being criminalised in Guatemala for defending their traditional lands and resources against large-scale development projects which cause environmental damage.”

PBI-Guatemala has accompanied the Peaceful Resistance of Cahabón since July 2017.

LNG import terminal to be built in Buenaventura as human rights concerns persist

By
Brent Patterson
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In September 2019, PBI-Colombia accompanied a visit by human rights organizations and embassies to Buenaventura.

On June 4, Business News Americas reported on a proposed liquefied natural gas (LNG) import regasification terminal that is now scheduled to be built at the port of Buenaventura on Colombia’s Pacific Ocean coast.

BNAmericas reports: “Officials have said that a tender for the project will be launched by August, with construction expected to begin early in 2021 amid efforts to avert a gas supply deficit.” Construction is expected to be completed in 2024.

That article adds: “Naturgas [the Colombian natural gas association] has given cautious approval for the project to go ahead, with the proviso that higher import capacity does not create a disincentive to local production.”

That local production could include Calgary-based Canacol Energy Ltd. In November 2019, the Canadian Press reported that Canacol “has started making and selling liquefied natural gas to supply energy consumers” in Colombia.

Buenaventura civic strike

In May 2017, Buenaventura residents held a 22-day civic strike to protest investment in the port rather than the spending needed to build a local hospital and provide access to potable water. The Colombian government sent the ESMAD riot police to quell the protest.

Canadian organizations have worked in solidarity with the leaders of that strike.

In October and November 2018, the Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC) and other unions and organizations organized a cross-country speaking tour in Canada with three of the Buenaventura civic strike leaders.

PSAC highlights: “The strike—which the visiting leaders are careful to note was suspended, not ended—won an agreement containing important concessions from the government to improve public services, including community housing, health services, roads, the justice system, and a new framework agreement to protect the rights of port workers.”

It then cautions: “Yet, since May 2017, threats against strike leaders have continued as plans go forward to expand and modernize the port, while the government fails to implement its agreement with the strikers.”

NOMADESC and the Inter-Church Commission on the port

PBI-Colombia has accompanied NOMADESC since 2011 and its president Berenice Celeita since 1999. A 3-minute PBI-Colombia video with Berenice reflecting on the conditions in Buenaventura and the civic strike can be seen here.

PBI-Colombia has explained: “NOMADESC now works with a dozen organisations … and started an integrated research initiative to show how the current port expansion and infrastructure development are linked to the human rights violations in the city and how constitutional and ethno-territorial rights are being infringed.”

PBI-Colombia also accompanies the Inter-Church Justice and Peace Commission.

Father Alberto Franco has commented that the construction of a freshwater port in Buenaventura region was a factor in the displacement of Indigenous people from the lower stretches of the Calima and San Juan rivers.

Father Franco has also remarked: “Violence is essential to remove poor people from areas to pave the way for development projects. With violence, people have learned that if they see or if they hear, they don’t talk.”

PBI-Colombia has noted: “The Inter-Church Justice and Peace Commission report Buenaventura: Displacement for a Competitive Economy explains how the living conditions in Buenaventura have deteriorated as a consequence of the economic growth, modernization and expansion through the development of the port.”

Photo: In 2018, PBI-Colombia accompanied NOMADESC at an event in the Isla de la Paz neighbourhood of Buenaventura that recognized the leaders of the May 2017 Civic Strike.

Mathare Social Justice Centre in Kenya tweets: “Mathare says abolish the police!”

By
Brent Patterson
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On June 8 children in Mathare (an informal settlement in Nairobi, Kenya) joined a march against police violence. Photo by the Mathare Social Justice Centre.

On June 8, the Peace Brigades International-Kenya Project tweeted: “Last week, [human rights defender] and member of the [women human rights defender toolkit organizers] network [Sakwa Francis] was summoned to Pangani police station to record a statement on the killing of James Mirithi Waitheru (Vaite) and a protest that followed afterward.”

On June 4, Sakwa tweeted: “I spent nearly 3 hours at Pangani police station DCI [Directorate of Criminal Investigations] after being summoned to record a statement on the killing of Vaite and if I took part in the ‘protest’ that happened afterwards.”

Sakwa has perviously commented on the PBI-Kenya website: “There is a lot of hardship growing up in Mathare, like in any other informal settlement. Reaching 30 years for a young man and not being dead is an achievement.”

What happened?

On June 1, the Social Justice Centres Working Group tweeted: “A homeless elderly man has been shot dead today in Mathare at around 8PM by the police from Pangani Police Station, for being found outside during curfew hours, the killing happens just hours after the president’s speech on Madaraka Day [that commemorates the day in 1963 that Kenya attained internal self rule after being a British colony since 1920].”

The Kenyan Star has reported: “Vaite was shot dead on Monday night [June 1] in Mathare. Residents blamed police; police blamed thugs for killing the harmless, friendly man. Outraged residents took to the streets.”

That article adds: “A post-mortem showed he had been shot three times at close range and his leg fractured at the knee, suggesting he had been struck. He was shot in the chest, near the stomach and in the thigh. He died from loss of blood.”

And Opera News notes: “Mathare residents especially those that knew him staged a night protest, ignoring curfew rule that the government put in place on March 27 to help curb the spread of the novel coronavirus disease. They blamed the police for not finding out who he was before pumping three bullets inside of him.”

What is the broader context?

The Mathare Social Justice Centre (MSJC) report Who Is Next? A Participatory Action Research Report Against the Normalization of Extrajudicial Executions in Mathare documents that the police killed more than 50 people in Mathare and a total of 803 people in Kenya between 2013 and 2015.

And on February 14 of this year, the Missing Voices network released its 2019 Annual Report on the State of Police Killings and Enforced Disappearances in Kenya. That report noted that Kenyan police had killed 107 people in 2019, most of whom were young men living in the informal settlements.

PBI-Kenya has commented: “Extrajudicial executions are frequently carried out in these areas by murderous police officers, whose collaboration with the regular police units and with the operational and support structures remains a mystery. Such experiences do not occur in Nairobi’s affluent neighborhoods, highlighting the scorn and widespread criminalization of the urban poor.”

Calls to abolish the police

On June 8, Kenyans.co reported: “Mothers of police brutality victims led a huge protest in Mathare Constituency, Nairobi on Monday, June 8 as they demanded justice for victims of extra-judicial killings and police brutality.”

That article adds: “With many of the protesters being Mathare residents, they also demanded justice for Vaite, a homeless man allegedly gunned down by police during curfew hours on Monday, June 1.”

During the protest march on June 8, the Mathare Social Justice Centre was tweeting about it. The MSJC tweeted: “Mathare says abolish the police! Power to the people. We want dignified lives not ‘good relations with the police’. Mathare residents demanding justice and an end to police killings now.” It also tweeted: “The ghetto can’t breathe. Mothers can’t breathe. Young people can’t breathe.”

Global Affairs Canada

In its travel advisory for Canada, Global Affairs Canada does not mention concern about this high level of police violence, but rather notes: “In Nairobi, exercise extreme caution in informal settlement communities, such as Kasarani, Kibera and Mathare, due to the high level of crime and limited capacity of police to respond to incidents.”

Peace Brigades International in Kenya

PBI established the Kenya Project in December 2012. It works to amplify the voices of grassroots human rights defenders and strengthen their protection networks.

Our 2019 Annual Review notes: “In Kenya PBI supports a range of grassroots defenders across Nairobi’s urban settlements, raising their profile in the national and international contexts. In 2019, defenders took part in advocacy tours to Europe to discuss the challenges they face defending human rights in Kenya.”

PBI-Kenya is part of the Missing Voices network and the Police Reforms Working Group network. It also works with the Mathare Social Justice Centre and Dandora Community Justice Centre as well as other social justice centres in Nairobi.

Prior to the pandemic it was also organizing a monthly in-person mandazi meeting with toolkit organizers on gender-based violence. A mandazi is a fried snack, similar to a doughnut, only triangular and far less sweet. Mandazis are always had with tea and it’s a time to gather in solidarity and share stories, initiatives, problems and successes. During the pandemic, those monthly meetings have continued virtually.

For more on the work of PBI-Kenya, please see its website, Facebook page, Twitter feed, and Instagram account.

Register now! Webinar with Danilo Rueda, July 2, 1 pm ET

By
Brent Patterson
-

Hear Danilo Rueda of the Inter-Church Commission for Justice and Peace (CIJP) on a webinar this coming Thursday July 2 at 1 pm ET.

This event is co-hosted by the Colombian Caravana, ABColombia, Peace Brigades International-United Kingdom in the collaboration of Institute for the Rule of Law of the International Association of Lawyers (UIA-IROL) and Lawyers for Lawyers.

The Peace Brigades International-Colombia Project has accompanied the Inter-Church Commission for Justice and Peace since 1994.

When recently asked about the future for Colombia, Rueda replied: “The country is changing, if it manages to protect rights to life and freedom of expression, we will build another democracy in Colombia. People are demonstrating against fracking or in favour of protecting the animal welfare movement, regrettably with many human costs for their members and social leaders.”

Rueda has also commented: “Palm oil means death because of the violence it brings with it and because of the environmental damage it causes. Because big business, hand in hand with Colombian and international policy, is destroying water sources and flora and fauna by depleting the forests. This is capitalist logic, which favours the accumulation of capital, and in the long term, the effects are highly negative.”

The promotion for this webinar notes: “The Caravana is particularly concerned about recent allegations of unlawful surveillance activities by the Colombian National Army on 130 individuals between February and December 2019, and Danilo is one of them.”

It adds: “This will be a unique opportunity to discuss access to justice, risks to lawyers and implementation of the Peace Accord, particularly at times of COVID-19.”

To register for the webinar, send an email to info@lawyersforlawyers.nl and they will send you a link to join the webinar.

To see the original post for this webinar, please click here.

Rueda will also be part of a PBI-UK webinar panel on July 8 speaking on corporate accountability. For more on that, please click here.

BHRRC report highlights risks to defenders raising concerns about oil and gas companies in Colombia, including Toronto-based Frontera Energy

By
Brent Patterson
-

A recent Business & Human Rights Resource Centre report highlights that from 2015 to 2019 Colombia was the second most dangerous place in the world for defenders focusing on business and that 90 per cent of the attacks were on defenders raising concerns about just four industries, with the second largest category (with 43 attacks) being oil, gas and coal.

In the category of oil and gas, the report highlights a situation involving Toronto-based Frontera Energy in the community of San Luis de Palenque:

“On 27 November 2018, eight social leaders protesting the operations of the Frontera Energy oil company were arrested, allegedly for belonging to an organised crime group, and called to trial. NGOs have denounced this and requested international intervention, but the government said that they belonged to an organised crime group that used social protest as a ‘facade to harass the hydrocarbon companies’. NGOs stated that those captured in this case are ‘deprived of their freedom solely by participating in social organizations, holding meetings and promoting peaceful mobilizations’.”

The report notes: “The UNGPs [United Nations Guiding Principles] also specify that when states fail in their duty, companies nevertheless have a responsibility to avoid causing or contributing to attacks and seek to prevent and address attacks against HRDs linked to their operations and business relationships. This includes carrying out human rights due diligence that recognises the need to address risks to HRDs.”

The report then comments: “The Colombian state has taken some important steps to address this situation but has so far failed to quell rising attacks on HRDs who raise concerns about business operations.”

In its Future Outlook section, it notes: “Investment in dangerous sectors for HRDs is set to continue at current levels and in some cases expand. Colombia ranks 22nd in oil production globally and 6th in the Americas; it stood at 865,191 barrels per day in 2018 and investments are planned for expansion, which significant sections of the population see as threatening their traditional livelihoods.”

This is notable given three Canadian oil companies – Parex Resources, Sintana Energy, and Canacol Energy Ltd. – are reportedly bidding for the controversial fracking pilot project contracts to be awarded this September/October.

The report then concludes with three recommendations for companies (including Canadian companies) operating in Colombia:

1- Adopt a zero-tolerance approach on reprisals and attacks on HRDs not only in their operations but also when they are linked to such attacks through their value chain and business relationships.

2- Implement due diligence procedures for the prevention of harm and human rights abuse of individuals, communities and the environment which explicitly recognises the risks to HRDs. Companies that invest or work in districts and/or sectors with high levels of attack need to prioritise the risks to HRDs in their human rights due diligence and act consistently on their findings.

3- Respect popular consultations, indigenous communities’ right to free, prior, and informed consent; and support community-led human rights and environmental assessments and consultations that reflect the aspirations of local communities.

To read the full 8-page report, please click here.

For more, you can also read the 65-page report Human Rights Abuses by Fossil Fuel Companies released by 350.org in February. It notes that: “Some of the most severe corporate human rights abuses worldwide may be attributed directly or indirectly to the operations of fossil fuel companies.”

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