Chile is the one nation in South America that doesn’t acknowledge Indigenous Peoples in its structure, so it shouldn’t be a shock that it has didn’t adequately align its nationwide laws with worldwide requirements for the safety of their rights. One in all its most evident failures has been the absence of respect for the proper to Free, Prior and Knowledgeable Consent (FPIC) of Indigenous Peoples dwelling in lithium mining and exploration areas. This subject offers strategy to different conflicts, similar to injury to ecosystems, shortage of water assets, and energy abuse by authorities, which mirror the entrenched discrimination towards Indigenous Peoples within the nation.
Based on the final census of 2017, 12.8% of Chile’s whole inhabitants of 17,574,003 self-identify as Indigenous, with the Mapuche being the most important group within the nation (79.8%), acknowledged by Chilean Regulation No. 19.253. The legislation additionally acknowledges as Indigenous the Aymara, Quechua, Atacameño or Likanantai, Colla, Diaguita, Chango, Yagn, Rapa Nui, Selk’nam, and Kawashkar Peoples. On this context, it ought to be famous that in a span of 10 years, from 2007 to 2017, the quantity of people that self-identify as Indigenous has increased by 50%, and this development is prone to proceed to extend.
Though there have been a number of efforts within the nation to attain the respect and safety of Indigenous Peoples, they haven’t been profitable. Some examples have been: the continuing strategy of constitutional change beginning in 2019, the creation of the Particular Fee on Indigenous Peoples (1993), the Nationwide Company for Indigenous Improvement (1993), and the adoption of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples in 2007 and the ILO Conference 169 in 2008. Nevertheless, right now, Indigenous Peoples proceed to be at a drawback in comparison with the remainder of the Chilean inhabitants. Round 30.8% of the Indigenous population dwell in poverty and proceed to be marginalized and oppressed as their rights are threatened by energy abuses by the authorities and the misuse of land with out their consent.
In September 2023, the Colla Neighborhood of Copiapó and Cultural Survival submitted a joint stakeholder report on the state of Indigenous Peoples’s rights in Chile for the UN Common Periodic Assessment. Relating to rights violations in Chile, we reported on numerous particular circumstances which aren’t new. Within the first place, the violation of the proper to Free, Prior and Knowledgeable Consent is going on as excessive portions of lithium are extracted each day with out the consent of the impacted Indigenous communities. Chile is accountable for roughly 40% of the world’s supply of this mineral. Though the mining corporations have argued that the exploitation of lithium has no detrimental influence, the Indigenous communities that inhabit the affected areas, such because the Likanantai Individuals dwelling among the many Atacama salt flats, and the unbiased scientific neighborhood have demonstrated by exhaustive research that there are certainly detrimental impacts of lithium mining on the scarce water assets of the salt flats. It’s alarming that corporations have licenses to extract brine even in locations the place Indigenous Peoples have land and water rights. Nevertheless, the Chilean authorities has most well-liked to wager on the lithium mining growth with out taking into consideration that what’s being offered as an answer to local weather change, i.e., lithium, as an energy transition mineral, doesn’t respect the rights of Indigenous Peoples and can enhance drought and detrimental impacts on the atmosphere and surrounding communities.
The so-called National Lithium Strategy, adopted on April 20, 2023, units out aims to prepare and promote the trade and Chile’s financial system. Nevertheless, Indigenous Peoples aren’t adequately included, even if at the moment, many of the territories the place lithium is extracted are positioned in Indigenous territories, so they need to be central to the technique with a view to respect FPIC and their different rights. Likewise, there may be nice uncertainty concerning the position of Indigenous Peoples of their participation within the creation of the Nationwide Lithium Firm.
One of many circumstances that has attracted probably the most consideration resulting from rights violations has been that of the Colla communities of Salar de Maricunga, as they’ve confronted a authorized course of because of the set up of the Salar Blanco venture. Undertaken by Salar Blanco, a subsidiary of the Australian firm Lithium Energy Worldwide, the venture goals to extract lithium from the Salar de Maricunga positioned within the commune of Copiapó, within the Atacama area of Chile and the territory of Colla Peoples. Because the venture identifies solely the Colla neighborhood of Diego Almagro as being affected, it leaves out different Colla communities within the territory, similar to Copiapó, Pastos Grandes, Sol Naciente, Pai Ote, Runa Urka, and Sinchi Wayra, as a result of the State refuses to acknowledge that their ancestral territories are the property of the communities. Due to this fact, the basic proper to equality enshrined within the legislation is violated by not together with all affected communities within the session course of and the neighborhood’s proper to dwell in an atmosphere freed from contamination.
In parallel to this venture, Simco submitted the Gross sales de Maricunga venture to the Environmental Affect Evaluation System, an instrument that determines whether or not the environmental influence of a venture complies with present rules, which likewise didn’t think about the communities talked about earlier than. Nevertheless, in contrast to the earlier case, the Supreme Courtroom upheld the request of the Pai Ote neighborhood and required that every one the aforementioned communities be thought of. The result’s that they’re at the moment within the session course of. It’s putting that Chile’s Supreme Courtroom determined otherwise concerning two tasks with related traits, violating the rights of the Colla Indigenous communities, that are certainly inclined to be affected by such extraction tasks. The communities declare that in neither of the 2 circumstances talked about above did the businesses nor the state present details about the damages that may very well be brought on by extracting lithium from the salt flats.
A second violation that we reported on is that of the rights of Indigenous defenders. Particularly, we denounced the circumstances of the weichafe (warrior or defender) Pablo Marchant, who was murdered in 2021 in the neighborhood of Carahue after being shot within the head by three carabineros (police). Equally, Alejandro Treuquil, was shot to dying in 2020 by unknown outsiders, though days earlier than this occasion, the cops had threatened and attacked him. Nevertheless, up to now, there are a sequence of irregularities within the investigations, along with the truth that the folks probably concerned haven’t been detained. Different atrocities that we highlighted included that the carabineros used pressure towards conventional Mapuche authorities to defend their territories, together with tear fuel and pellet weapons.
Lastly, the violation of Indigenous girls’s rights stands out, as they expertise larger violations than different teams in a number of areas, similar to entry to justice–resulting from aggravating components similar to geographic remoteness, lack of interculturality, or police violence– and entry to schooling, the place they’ve a lot decrease charges than non-Indigenous girls. Sadly, as there may be not sufficient disaggregated information to totally illustrate the conditions and realities they dwell in, the seek for options is usually very difficult, particularly to points associated to employment and poverty.
Based on the Latin American Middle for Rural Improvement, there’s a disparity in Indigenous girls’s workforce participation, with 47% in comparison with the 71% participation within the workforce of males. Sadly, this example is exacerbated relating to Indigenous girls dwelling in rural areas since their revenue is especially derived from agriculture and commerce. As well as, Indigenous girls are disproportionately impacted by the results of local weather change, similar to droughts, as they’re pressured to tackle unpaid home work or migrate to city areas to hunt different employment. These circumstances exhibit the vulnerability of Indigenous girls and the State’s failure to take duty to generate information concerning the actuality during which they dwell, resulting in a scarcity of response to this drawback.
Within the Common Periodic Assessment course of, fellow United Nations member States assess the human rights scenario of the member state beneath overview and make suggestions, taking into consideration data gathered in civil society studies in addition to studies from the nation itself. That is the fourth time Chile will likely be reviewed. Previous to this cycle of overview, the Chilean authorities accepted a sequence of suggestions from different States which were alarmed by these ongoing violations of Indigenous rights. A number of of the suggestions haven’t been applied.
Within the third UPR cycle, Norway really helpful strengthening the implementation of ILO Conference 169, particularly the unbiased analysis of nationwide session and participation mechanisms. Alongside the identical strains, Germany and Canada really helpful the popularity of the rights of Indigenous Peoples in Chile’s structure and guaranteeing the participation of Indigenous communities in decision-making processes that have an effect on them, similar to insurance policies and prior consultations. A second suggestion was made by Canada in the identical cycle resulting from allegations of extreme use of pressure by police towards human rights defenders, Indigenous Peoples, girls, and adolescent women, advocating for efficient investigations and human rights coaching and protocols.
Given this state of affairs, Cultural Survival and the Colla Indigenous Neighborhood of Copiapó urge UN Member States to make the next suggestions to the State of Chile:
- Respect session processes in line with self-determination and neighborhood processes, guaranteeing the proper of Indigenous Peoples to offer or deny their Free, Prior and Knowledgeable Consent on the exploitation of pure assets and any exercise that takes place of their territories.
- Perform good religion consultations in all circumstances during which any venture takes place in Indigenous territories or impacts them straight or not directly, with out the communities having to denounce or provoke authorized processes to have this proper revered.
- Respect and assure the rights and security of Indigenous defenders to make sure the non-repetition of the violations dedicated and to place an finish to the harassment, prosecution and violence suffered by them.
- Combine worldwide requirements on Indigenous Peoples’ rights into the Nationwide Lithium Technique and guarantee compliance with them in any respect milestones.
- Guarantee ample investigation processes for the murders of land defenders with a view to make clear the context during which they occurred, the perpetrators and masterminds, and procure justice.
- Contemplate Indigenous girls in a differentiated method inside public insurance policies associated to girls and compile disaggregated details about them with a view to reply to their wants and realities.
Read the joint stakeholder report here.
High picture: Atacama Desert. Photograph by A. Duarte.
