On November 26, the Constitutional Court of Ecuador convened a hearing on the Extraordinary Protective Action that was presented by several Shuar leaders and the Ecumenical Human Rights Commission in 2015, for the violation of the right to free, prior, and informed consultation committed by the Ecuadorian government when granting a 2011 the environmental license for the advanced exploration of the large-scale mining project “San Carlos – Panantza” operated by the Chinese capital company Explorcobres SA (EXSA).
Representatives from Ecuador’s Ministry of the Environment, Water and Ecological Transition, Ministry of Non-Renewable Resources, and State Attorney General’s Office participated in the hearing. Among their arguments, they stated that the prior consultation should not be applied because the mining concessions do not affect Indigenous territories, which is false, since 46% of the mining concessions of this project overlap the territory of the Shuar Arutam People.
Indigenous leaders and plaintiffs Domingo Ankuash and Luis Tiwiram testified before the court that they were never consulted and that the communities within the project’s bounds have been in permanent opposition to mining activity. Ankuash and Tiwiram reported that the breach of the right to prior consultation and the disrespect for their self-determination caused an intense social conflict when in December 2016 the Ecuadorian government, with public force, forcibly evicted the Nankints community at the request of the company EXSA. The militarization of the Shuar Indigenous territory spread to other communities and this conflict lasted until mid-2017, due to the declaration of a State of Exception in the province of Morona Santiago.
According to the “Environmental Audit Report” that the company EXSA presented in July 2010 to the Ministry of the Environment of Ecuador, the “Social Participation” was limited to one meeting held in June 2010, in the town of San Juan Bosco, which is outside the area of mining concessions. Only 161 people participated in the meeting, of which 65% were government officials. Only ten people belonged to Indigenous communities and 46 people were members of the general public. 12,289 inhabitants live in the project’s area of influence, 46% are of Shuar nationality. This single meeting is not a valid “Social Participation” process and has not guaranteed the majority participation of the population.
“In a month the Constitutional Court has dealt with two cases, Cofán Sinangoe and the Shuar Arutam People, where Indigenous organizations and human rights organizations have shown that the Ecuadorian government has not guaranteed the right to free, prior, and informed consultation, nor environmental consultation. This makes all these concessions and mining projects illegal. These cases are not isolated. There is not a single mining or oil project where these rights have been adequately complied with, so it is urgent that the Court rule in accordance with international human rights standards that require the government to comply with adequate consultation mechanisms that respect the right to decide of the communities, even more so when the current government has announced increase oil and mining exploitation, particularly within Indigenous territories in the Amazon,” said Carlos Mazabanda, Amazon Watch Ecuador Field Coordinator.
