The Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACHR) today condemned Ecuador for granting an oil concession in the Amazonian indigenous territories of the Kichwa people of Sarayaku in the early 1990s without carrying out prior, free and informed consultation, in accordance with international standards, in violation of the rights of the Sarayaku People to indigenous communal property and cultural identity, as well as for not having granted them effective judicial protection and for having put the lives and personal integrity of its members at risk due to the presence of high-powered explosives in the territory.
The Court, whose headquarters are in Costa Rica, notified the parties on July 25 (and immediately posted it on its website) of its ruling, which establishes, among other things, that the Ecuadorian State must "neutralize, deactivate and remove the pentolite (explosives used to extract oil) on the surface and buried in the territory of the Sarayaku People."
It also imposed the obligation to consult the Kichwa people of Sarayaku "in the event that an activity or project is intended to be carried out for the extraction of natural resources in their territory, or an investment or development plan of any other kind that entails potential impacts on their territory."
Ecuador must also provide training in human rights to military, police and judicial officials whose functions involve relations with indigenous peoples; hold a public act of recognition of international responsibility for the facts of the case; publish the judgment and pay compensation for material and non-material damages to the indigenous peoples.
According to the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, the concession to the Argentine oil company Compañía General de Combustibles (CGC) violated indigenous communal property and their cultural identity."The State is responsible for the violation of the Sarayaku People's right to communal property," the Court's ruling states.
The Sarayaku territory is located in the Pastaza province in the Ecuadorian Amazon, where about 1,200 people live. It can be accessed by plane (half an hour) from the nearest town or by motor canoe for a day.
The confrontation between the Quichua people and the State began in 1996, when the government of the time granted the CGC the right to exploit oil on their land. Today, the Ecuadorian government maintains its intentions to exploit oil in these territories, something that the Kichwa people resist.
This case was submitted to the Court by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights on November 26, 2010;At the public hearing for this case (held last year), the Kichwa of Sarayaku said they hoped that a ruling in their favor would create a legal precedent for all of Latin America that would require governments to ask indigenous communities before granting oil or mining concessions in their territories.
Franklin Toala, representative of Foreign Relations of the Kichwa people of Sarayaku, said with emotion: "We send our enormous gratitude to all the friends and colleagues who have supported the Sarayaku Case for so many years. The sentence does justice to the indigenous peoples of America."
To read the full document of the ruling, which sets a precedent for the decisions that states must take in the face of the introduction of extractive megaprojects in the territories of indigenous peoples, follow this link
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