In October 2023, Cultural Survival and our accomplice group Qhana Pukara Kurmi submitted a joint alternative stakeholder report on the scenario of Indigenous rights in Bolivia for the 111th session of the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD), which can happen in Geneva from November 20-December 8, 2023.
The CERD is the treaty monitoring physique for the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD), and one in all 9 Worldwide Human Rights Treaties throughout the UN system. The ICERD is legally binding for the 175 international locations which have ratified it to this point. The CERD was the primary Treaty Monitoring physique to be established throughout the UN System and is chargeable for reviewing the compliance of all State events with the provisions of the ICERD. It additionally makes suggestions as to how States ought to change their insurance policies and practices to adjust to their obligations beneath the ICERD to remove racial discrimination of their international locations.
The submitted various report relies on the rights violations suffered by the eight Quechua and Aymara communities composing the Ayllu Acre Antequera, an affiliation of grassroots Indigenous communities and ayllus within the division of Oruro representing a complete of three,264 inhabitants. Nevertheless, Indigenous Peoples expertise violations of their rights associated to mining in a number of elements of the nation and the case of the Ayllu Acre Antequera will be extrapolated to many different areas in Bolivia.
In 2013 the businesses Illapa and Sinchi Wayra, branches of the Swiss firm Glencore, signed a brand new contract with the Bolivian Mining Company (COMIBOL) for one more 15 years for the exploitation of zinc, silver, and lead within the Bolívar mining mission, which is situated within the territory of Ayllu Acre Antequera and the Quechua and Aymara Indigenous communities that comprise it.
Mining actions on this Indigenous territory have a collection of impacts together with water air pollution and shortage of water sources, criminalization of ancestral authorities for defending their land, and impacts on tradition and group life, all of which generate structural discrimination towards the Quechua and Aymara individuals who inhabit these lands. Some individuals have described it as dwelling in a “poisonous desert.”
In an already arid area, the mine is utilizing far more water than allowed under its lease, and group members have witnessed rivers and wells being polluted and the ecosystem drying up. The mine makes use of 800,000 liters of water per day and discharges 80 liters of wastewater per second into the Antequera River. A lot of the remaining water has been polluted by the mine and isn’t appropriate for human or animal consumption or for irrigating crops. Technical studies present proof of the presence of arsenic, lead, cadmium, zinc and cyanide sulfates on this territory, exceeding the maximum levels allowed in Bolivia, which might trigger critical well being issues for individuals and animals dwelling on this polluted land. Many households have needed to eliminate their livestock, which is of significant significance to their livelihoods and its disappearance has an important impression on the communities’ meals and financial sovereignty. Some group members report that pipes carrying poisonous substances cross their gardens and homes.
Right this moment, the destruction of territories has gone to this point that communities are being confined to particular territories in an try to flee air pollution in an effort to entry water and produce provides. Nevertheless, these territories have gotten smaller and smaller and folks can’t maintain themselves with the few present pure assets. In consequence, most of the Indigenous individuals who have historically lived within the space have been pressured to depart their lands. This pressured migration separates the youth from the elders of the group, stopping the inheritance of cultural information and threatening the cultural survival of those communities.
As well as, those that dare to denounce these impacts face criminalization. Folks dwelling within the Ayllu Acre Antequera testify that they typically really feel threatened and watched by the Illapa firm. In the event that they complain, they’re threatened with prison prosecution or the dismissal of members of the family who work within the mine. A number of of their leaders have suffered accidents to their bodily, psychological, and ethical integrity and are victims of judicial persecution. This harassment will not be solely directed at people however is a part of a terror marketing campaign directed on the Indigenous inhabitants usually.
Girls within the Ayllu have suffered differentiated impacts, struggling verbal threats, racist and sexist insults, bodily aggressions, touching, and intimidation by members of the mining union.
As well as, Indigenous Peoples’ internationally protected proper to offer or withhold their Free, Prior and Informed Consent for any exercise going down of their territory or any measure affecting them has been violated. The contract between Illapa and the COMIBOL for the Bolívar mission was finalized with none regard for this course of and with none interplay with the eight affected communities.
On this context, Cultural Survival and Qhana Pukara Kurmi urge the members of the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination to make the next suggestions to the Plurinational State of Bolivia:
- Implement safety measures in favor of human rights defenders and girls of the Ayllu Acre Antequera, detailing the differentiated measures with a gender perspective.
- Implement measures to make clear the assaults towards the inhabitants of the Ayllu Acre Antequera and set up measures to keep away from re-victimization similar to complete help for the victims and reparations for the assaults suffered.
- Assure the life and bodily integrity of the individuals dwelling within the Ayllu Acre Antequera, particularly the Indigenous authorities and group members who’re defending their territories, surroundings, and human rights.
- Be certain that the safety measures supplied by the State are in accordance with a complete threat evaluation, agreed upon with the beneficiaries, and that the related inter-institutional coordination is carried out to safeguard their life and integrity, contemplating territoriality, gender, and their standing as human rights defenders, amongst others.
- Take measures to mitigate the consequences on the human proper to a wholesome surroundings.
- Acknowledge the fitting to self-determination of Indigenous Peoples and the resolutions issued by the Justice Council of the Ayllu Acre Antequera in accordance with worldwide human rights requirements.
- Perform an emergency intervention within the Ayllu Acre Antequera by the accountable entities at each the nationwide and worldwide ranges.
- Guarantee the supply of ingesting water for the individuals and animals that inhabit the Ayllu Acre Antequera.
- Stop the harassment, defamation, and discrimination towards the Indigenous authorities by the mining radio station 16 de Marzo owned by the mining firm and the members of the Bolívar mine union.
