Indigenous and human rights organisations submit Shadow Report on Peru to the United Nations for Universal Periodic Review (UPR)

The shadow report describes a State which is by turns absent and perpetrates human rights violations in the Peruvian Amazon.

First, it reviews the structural causes of the pressures and threats on the territories of Amazonian Indigenous peoples. Among them: the slow progress in the recognition and titling of Indigenous territories; the lack of transitional protection mechanisms for untitled collective territories; the absence of effective protection tools for already-titled Indigenous territories; and the absence of conflict resolution mechanisms in the regulation of Indigenous rural property that would allow for the restitution of stolen territories.

The report also delves into violence and other forms of human rights violations against Amazonian Indigenous peoples by apparently legal and illegal economies.

There is the case of the native community of Santa Clara de Uchunya of the Shipibo-Konibo people, which continues to resist the aggressive expansion of large-scale agro-industrial activities after having suffered the dispossession of their forests. Also mentioned is the case of the Indigenous peoples in a situation of isolation and initial contact (PIACI) in the Loreto region, where the Regional Government granted 47 forest concessions on Indigenous reserves requested in their favor.

It also exposes the exclusionary conservation model that has dispossessed the Kichwa people of their ancestral territory in San Martin by creating the Cordillera Azul National Park (PNCAZ) and the Cordillera Escalera Regional Conservation Area without free, prior and informed consent. And where since 2008, the PNCAZ has been executing a Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+) project that trades carbon credits without transparency or accountability for the US$80 million traded between 2008 and 2022.

"The State itself should be aware of how this has been done, as it has violated the rights of Indigenous peoples because there has been no consultation for the creation of "conservation areas". Carbon credits have not been reported either. They turn a blind eye, they say that the Indigenous peoples have been informed, when this is not the case. They also say that it is State land, but who protects it? ..." Reogildo Amasifuen, leader of the Kichwa people and president CEPKA.

The report also shows how the extractive boom contributes to dynamics of intra-community domination by generating greater dependence of women on men for wages, aggravating the risk of Indigenous women becoming victims of violence by state and non-state agents, including through sexual violence.

The report questions the implementation of state policies regarding the protection of Indigenous defenders. For example, this ranges from requests by Indigenous defenders for protection under the framework of the Intersectoral Mechanism where responses exceeded the stipulated deadlines, to the negligence of the Ministry of the Interior in not approving the guidelines for action plans of the aforementioned Mechanism.

It also addresses the various barriers to access to justice for Amazonian communities.

It highlights serious setbacks in the jurisprudence of the Constitutional Court, where in 2022 at least four rulings undermine recognised rights in favor of Indigenous peoples. Such are the cases of the Federation of the Achuar Nationality of Peru (FENAP), Santa Clara de Uchunya, the peasant communities of Chila Chambila and Chila Pucara, and the Apurímac-Cusco road corridor. The report also denounces an inactive justice system in cases of physical aggressions against Indigenous defenders, generating a condemnable context of impunity. The report mentions the cases of the Kichwa communities of Santa Rosillo de Yanayacu and Anak Kurutuyacu in San Martín, who have filed multiple complaints for environmental crimes in their untitled territories, but the prosecutors’ inspections have been rescheduled up to 16 times.

The report also explores the lack of recognition of Indigenous self-protection mechanisms that emerge in the face of State neglect, and the lack of adequate reparation measures for Indigenous defenders.

Finally, the organisations present recommendations to the Peruvian State for each of the points mentioned.

"...These should not just be words, we must demand that the State complies. Our apus (leaders), organisations and allies are working so much, but there is no response from the various State institutions. We take action, but what response do they give us? We always put pressure on the State, and they have to give an answer, but now, not just with papers. How many papers, how many documents? And how many answers? Concrete actions have to be taken, and hopefully this report will serve as a wake-up call," Graciela Reátegui, Shipibo-Konibo leader and leader of FECONAU.