The objective of this document of FIAN Ecuador is to provide arguments from the right to food and Peasant Rights perspective to allow for the construction of public policies aimed at a transition to an Ecuador free of pesticides.
This publication is the first of the “Peasant Rights” Series, which aims to make political readings in the rural area in the light of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Peasants and other people working in rural areas.
FIAN International stands in solidarity with hundreds of social movements and civil society groups around the world calling for a binding treaty with the teeth to protect peasants, small hold farmers, Indigenous Peoples and communities who have no proper recourse to justice when their lives, health and livelihoods are threatened.
“There are too many gaps in international law which allow for the impunity of corporations that have caused or contributed to serious human rights impacts. After seven years of talks, governments must now stand firmly on the side of affected communities and advance the negotiations, taking into account the urgent need for global solutions,” said FIAN International’s Permanent Representative to the UN Ana María Suárez Franco.
There is currently no binding global legal framework to regulate the activities and value chains of transnational mining companies, agribusiness and other businesses with atrocious human rights records. This is particularly problematic in resource rich countries in the Global South with weaker legal protections, where companies can argue that they are not breaking any local or international laws when they force communities off their land, pollute their habitats, and even cause loss of life.
Voluntary guidelines like the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights and national legislation like the French law on the duty of vigilance of transnational corporations are not enough to protect communities and the environment from unscrupulous corporations. As demonstrated in several recent high profile cases, such as the massive displacement of communities in Uganda by French oil giant Total, the Brumadinho Dam Disaster in Brazil and Land grabbing by POSCO in India, a robust set of binding rules are needed to ensure peoples human rights are prioritized over economic interests.
“An international treaty on transnational corporations and other businesses is essential to govern globalized economies,” said Ana María Suárez Franco. “A level legal playing field would fill the gaps in protection, allow people better access to justice, and hold companies liable for their human rights and environmental impacts.”
In the wake of last month’s UN Food Systems Summit in Rome, which failed to curb the growing power of agribusiness, it is all the more important to seize this opportunity at the UN in Geneva between 25 and 29 October.
Corporate interests, or states intent on defending them at the expense of people, must not be allowed to hijack the Open-ended Intergovernmental Working Group on Transnational Corporations and Other Business Enterprises with Respect to Human Rights (OEIGWG) must not be hijacked by corporate interests, as happened in the past with similar initiatives.
That would be a lost opportunity for communities fighting human rights abuses around the world and for the UN-system.
Brasilia, Brazil. 28 April 2021. Yesterday, the Latin American sections of FIAN International presented the report Toxic Pesticides in Latin America: Violations of the Right to Adequate and Nutrition at a well-attended online event.
This 108-page publication features data and reports on the impacts of these toxic substances in eight countries across Latin America and the Caribbean: Brazil, Colombia, Paraguay, Ecuador, Honduras, Guatemala, Mexico, and Haiti.
The report documents how pesticides affect environmental health and that of humans' as well, as they hinder the full realization of the human right to adequate food and nutrition. It also identifies a widespread pattern in the business strategies of companies in the region which is based on corporate capture of public institutions and territories.
Over 700 participants attended the online release of this report. During the event, Juan Carlos Morales González, from FIAN Colombia, and researcher Leonardo Melgarejo presented the report’s main findings and conclusions. Affected communities in Brazil, Haiti and Paraguay shared their stories about the devastating and destructive effects pesticides have had on their livelihoods. Then, geographer Larissa Bombardi, author of Geography of the Use of Agrochemicals in Brazil and Connections with the European Union, and the UN Special Rapporteur for toxics and human rights, Marcos Orellana, analyzed the results of the report and presented their viewpoints. Rapporteur Orellana clarified:
“The fact that certain types of pollution are legal does not justify violating human rights … dangerous substances must be eliminated”. He went on to underscore “[the] shared responsibilities of exporting and importing countries…nations’ obligations to prevent exposure to toxic substances are based on human rights”.
As follow-up on the work documented in this report, FIAN International will soon file a complaint with the relevant United Nations special rapporteurs regarding the Brazilian case presented during the online event, in which aerial fumigation was weaponized to evict rural workers from a disputed area in Pernambuco.
On May 5th, another online seminar will showcase this report before a global audience: during which FIAN International will explain the results of a study on the experiences of farmers transitioning towards pesticide-free communities and food systems.
Find out how the discussion unfolded and access the report in Portuguese, Spanish or English, and the executive summary in English
View another webinar Poisoned Food, Poisoned ecosystems: how people are working towards pesticides free communities
For more information please contact: Ana María Suárez Franco Suarez-franco@fian.org
Download here (only in Spanish language)
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The Executive Secretary of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) – Organization of American States (OAS), Paulo Abrão will cross the Atlantic to meet his European counterparts this week. A series of high-level meetings will be held with EU and EU Members States officials as well as international CSOs, which have been supporting both politically and financially the inter-American system, particularly during last year’s financial crisis. Abrão will also take the opportunity to present its recently approved Strategic Plan, which various CSOs contributed to, including FIAN International’s section in Ecuador on behalf of all FIAN entities. Need for real commitment In a context where States and the private sector (particularly transnational corporations) are increasingly pushing for voluntary guidelines to take over internationally binding human rights instruments and standards, it is crucial to genuinely reinforce the political and legal role of regional human rights systems. This is particularly imperative for OAS Member States that have progressively been withdrawing their financial and political support to the IACHR, thereby leading the latter to its worst crisis in history. The lack of political commitment by OAS States is also reflected on some of their sponsored candidates, whose competences are questionable, for the two seats that the 47 Regular Session of the OAS General Assembly will choose in June. The 163rd Period of IACHR Sessions in July will also see the appointment of the first rapporteur on economic, social, cultural and environmental rights, which could suppose a positive change for communities across the Americas.
Guarani and Kaiowá, seeking justice in IACHR The Inter-American system is crucial for fighting injustice and structural inequalities against most marginalized groups, especially indigenous communities. This is the case of the indigenous peoples Guarani and Kaiowá in Brazil, who have been facing evictions and violence throughout their struggle for the right to ancestral territory as well as to food and nutrition, and whose situation has only worsened following the Parliamentarian coup d´état. Last December, the Guarani and Kaiowá’s great assembly Aty Guasu, with the support of CIMI, FIAN International and its Brazilian section, as well as Justicia Global, filed a petition to the IACHR against the State of Brazil. Not only this petition will contribute to further developing standards on the right to food and nutrition in connection with the right to ancestral territory, but also to the IAHRC rapporteurship on economic, social, cultural and environmental rights. FIAN International hopes that OAS Member States strengthen and prioritize their political and financial support to the IACHR. In addition, this should be reflected on the dialogue and cooperation between the EU and its Member States with the OAS, as regional systems are a crucial element for the development and implementation of the EU Guidelines on Human Rights Defenders and EU Action Plans on Human Rights. The organization will engage in the IACHR visit, together with the European CSOs network CIFCA to keep supporting the consolidation of regional human rights systems. For more information, please contact castaneda-flores[at]fian.org In May, the Ecuadorian State will have the fulfillment of its human rights obligations evaluated by the 56 countries that make up the United Nations Human Rights Council (HRC). Civil society in the country has contributed a total of 18 written contributions, including those by FIAN Ecuador, which address several issues related to the right to food. Among these, the section points to a discriminatory distribution of aid during the earthquake across the Ecuadorian coast and human rights violations as a result of forced evictions of peasant and indigenous peoples, such as the Association of Montubios * in the Colimes Canton (ASOMAC). The forced eviction of ASOMAC shows the impact of the evictions as well as the mismanagement of the redistribution of land. According to data by the survey on living conditions issued by the Statistics and Census Institute of 2014, 81.9% of households engaged in agricultural activities do not own land and only 3.2% have land through public procurement. The delegation will count on the participation of the Ecuadoran section of FIAN, as well as that of the President of ASOMAC, Carlos Carpio. The delegation will attend different meetings with UN rapporteurs, diplomatic missions of the countries that make up the HRC, as well as human rights organizations in Berlin and Stockholm. He will also be part of the panel during the Forum “Human rights realities for peasants and indigenous peoples in Brazil and Ecuador” in Geneva. On an important note, the delegation will meet with Ecuador’s permanent mission in Geneva to highlight the work Ecuador is carrying out in the negotiations for a treaty on transnational corporations and other business enterprises with respect to human rights. It is expected that such commitment will continue with the newly elected president, who succeeded in the polls last Sunday. For more information on the tour, contact: Representation of FIAN International for the United Nations in Geneva:Suarez-Franco[at]fian.org FIAN Ecuador: vera[at]fianecuador.org.ec FIAN Germany: A.Abascal[at]fian.de FIAN Sweden: rebecka.jalvemyr[at]fian.se For press work, contact: FIAN Ecuador: vera[at]fianecuador.org.ec and FIAN International: delrey[at]fian.org European tour agenda: 03-07 April- Geneva, Switzerland 07 – 09 April – Berlin, Germany 09 – 13 April – Stockholm, Sweden NOTES TO EDITORS:
Last Monday, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) broke the astonishing news about its financial crisis. The Commission announced that 40 percent of its personnel will not be renewed beyond July and that its 159th and 160th sessions will be suspended, unless it receives funds or the commitment for donations before June 15. Such drastic changes would have a serious impact on its ability to fulfill its mandate and carry out its basic functions, thereby risking the human rights protection of the billion people living in the Americas. Reacting to the news, several NGOs from all over the world has issued an Open Letter whereby it appeals to all member states of the Organization of American States (OAS) to take the necessary measures to ensure the immediate and adequate funding of IACHR. FIAN International recalls that the Inter-American Human Rights system is the result of people’s struggles in the Americas. They delegated their sovereignty to the States to create a system that ensures protection against abuse and injustice. Therefore, it is the obligation of OAS member states to ensure sustainable financial fund for the Commission to remain fully operational as last resort against violations of fundamental rights in the continent and an international reference for its great efforts in protecting thousands of affected people and communities. You can read the Open Letter here. Kimsakocha means three lagoons in the indigenous peoples’ language, Quechua, and metal deposits are located in the middle of a water source that supplies more than 30,000 peasants. For several years, the mining company (IAMGOLD first – in which the Swedish National Pension Funds had millions of dollars invested in the company by the end of 2013 -, and later the subsidiary INV Metals) explored the area where Miriam Chuchuca lives. Though the exploration has been favourable and it expects to extract large amounts of gold in the coming years, it threatens peasants’ access to both water and food, and thousands of people will have to move from their land if the company poisons or dries out the lagoons in Kimsakocha. The victims are human rights defenders who are currently being oppressed by regressive laws allowing the authorities to detain people involved in the protests. From the time the struggle began it has not been easy for the women, since they have been subjected to oppression. Miriam Chuchuca, as many other women in Kimsacocha who are the foundation for the struggle, is one of the brave women who brought this struggle forward. “We have protested and struggled. The police has beaten and shot tear gas at us. When we protested against the mining law, it was almost like a war. It was war”, says Miriam. The criminalization of social protests have fragmented peasants’ struggles and weakened the economic and solidarity initiatives for women’s struggle. Now the women do not dare to risk days in jail because that means they would have to be away from home, children and animals. Moreover, the United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR) has directed strong criticism against Ecuador and urged the government to respect local people’s will and rights. For more information or if you want an interview, please contact Rebecka Jalvemyr. FIAN has worked in various ways with the Kimsakocha case, both in Sweden with “AP-fonderna”, the Swedish National Pension Funds campaign, but also in Ecuador, with the support of the human rights defenders who lifted the case at international level before the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR) in Geneva. In a two-hour event on November 11, 2014 in Berlin, the lawyer and agricultural specialist Milton Yulán will draw attention to the land policy of the current government in Ecuador, represent the current debate among indigenous and smallholder sectors for new legislative proposal, and discuss about different mechanisms of criminalization in this country. The innovative Constitution of Ecuador of 2008 and the adoption of laws on food sovereignty (2009) and the “Plan de Tierras” (2009) have raised hopes of a more equitable distribution of land by the indigenous and small farmer groups in this country. However, actual progress in terms of land distribution and agrarian reform are sobering. The current government has a new legislative proposal (“Ley Orgánica de Tierras Rurales Productivas”) without previous social participation or consultation, which is currently controversially debated in Ecuador. In addition, the proposal does not seem to include major historical demands of social movements or the implementation of a number of human rights. Mr. Yulán will also pursue the questions about the objectives these laws include and whether or not they are consistent with the principles of ‘El Buen Vivir’ (‘the good way of living’) and the requirements for food sovereignty already enshrined in Ecuador’s Constitution. Furthermore, the discussion will be examined in the context of the neoextractive policies of the government of Rafael Correa and the signing of the Free Trade Agreement by Ecuador with the European Union. Milton Yulán is an Ecuadorian lawyer for the farmers’ organization Union Tierra y Vida and a member of FIAN Ecuador. The Committee for Food Sovereignty in the National Assembly has begun in 2014 the process of debating a “Bill of Productive Lands” without citizen participation, including organizations and social movements linked to struggles for land and territory. In response, FIAN International has sent a letter to the National Assembly of Ecuador calling for mechanisms that guarantee widespread and active participation of social organizations throughout the bill development process. Moreover, the letter highlights that such approach may prevent the collection of peoples’ demands for the realization of their right to adequate food, land and territory. IACHR meets European counterparts at a critical time
For media enquiries please contact delrey[at]fian.org Ecuadorian indigenous and peasant realities land in Europe
A billion people need fully functioning IACHR
Ecuadorian human rights defender visits Sweden
The tour includes the following key events:
Event in Berlin discusses current land legislation in Ecuador
For more information
Read “Monitoring Report on Land Policies and the Right to Food in Ecuador 2013” (available in Spanish)
New Land Bill process in Ecuador excludes citizen participation
Read letter to the National Assembly of Ecuador below (available in Spanish)
