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Chinese business activities in Latin America have increased at an unprecedented rate – impacting the Ecuadorian Amazon. Through the United Nations, those Latin American countries are granted processes to advocate for the respect of human rights, and when they are not, it provides external oversight to guide reparation and compliance. Our recent report, as members of the Collective on Chinese Finance and Investment, Human Rights and Environment (CICDHA), in collaboration with the International Service for Human Rights (ISHR), The Extraterritorial Human Rights Obligations of the People’s Republic of China in Relation to Business Activities in Latin America, was delivered to the United Nations (UN) Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR), in Geneva this past February.
The report documents the impacts of Chinese corporate activities in 14 projects developed in nine Latin American countries: Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico, Peru, and Venezuela. The report demonstrates violations of the rights of Indigenous peoples, the right to health, a healthy environment, water, food, housing, labor rights, and various civil and political rights, which are protected by UN treaties, covenants, and conventions. Furthermore, the report states that “…China is one of the largest investors in Latin America and has an enormous responsibility to avoid the negative effects of the projects in which its companies participate or which are financed by its banks”.
As members of CICDHA, alongside representatives of affected communities, ISHR and FIAN International, we participated in the third evaluation of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) by the United Nations (UN) Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR), in Geneva. Through this report, we requested the CESCR recommend that the PRC respect, protect, and fulfill its extraterritorial obligations related to economic, social, cultural, and environmental rights contained in the ESCR Covenant and other UN instruments it has signed and recognized. This obligation includes the activities of Chinese state-owned and semi-state-owned companies and banks, as well as projects in which they participate in Latin America.
