Outrage as Colombia rolls back fundamental human rights amid COVID-19 crisis

Indigenous and Afro-Descendant communities in Colombia are outraged at what they call “a full-on abuse of power” by the Colombian government. In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, the agency mandated to uphold their human right to prior consultation and free, prior and informed consent (FPIC) had proposed to press forward with these processes via virtual consultations, bowing to private sector interests.

On 20 April, the Ministry of the Interior did an about face on its initial proposal, announcing revocation of the measures. Yet the original proposal signals a very worrying intention to roll back rights due to private sector pressures that will continue despite the proposal’s revocation.

Economic actors “intend to turn the pandemic into an opportunity for dispossession and they have asked the government to continue making environmental licenses more flexible and limiting the fundamental right to prior consultation," a joint declaration issued on April 16 by affected indigenous, Afro-Descendant and campesino organisations stated.

Indeed, responding directly to private sector demands, Colombia’s Ministry of the Interior announced in an external circular letter (see attached) that it intended to impose virtual consultation processes on rightsholders in light of social distancing restrictions that do not allow for in-person processes to take place.

This is “openly unconstitutional, ominous and embarrassing,” the joint declaration by Indigenous and Afro-Descendant organisations underscores. It also contravenes ILO Convention 169, Colombia’s Constitution, the Inter-American Convention on Human Rights, the UN Declaration on Indigenous Peoples’ Rights and national and international jurisprudence, as Colombia’s Attorney General has made clear. Furthermore, it contravenes Indigenous Peoples’ own laws and protocols on consultation and consent, such as the Resguardo Indígena Cañamomo Lomaprieta’s Resolution 048, the protocol developed by the peoples of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta and the protocol of the Black Communities of the Palenke Alto Cauca. And not all communities have access to Internet.

“It’s illogical and unheard of for us to think about virtual consultations or other inventions that veer from those adopted by our peoples,” the joint declaration emphasised.

Yet it is the timing of this announcement that is causing outrage.

Even without COVID-19, Indigenous, Afro-Descendant and Campesino peoples battle against profound structural discrimination, territorial dispossession, and conditions of extreme poverty, precariousness and violence spurred by Colombia’s armed conflict and extractivist economic policies. With the pandemic they are suffering disproportionately, some without water or food, others subject to curfews imposed by armed actors, none with sufficient access to personal protection equipment or other measures to combat the pandemic.

This is indeed an unusually cruel moment for the Colombian government to roll back rights protection.

The Forest Peoples Programme will be monitoring this situation closely. We echo the demands of Indigenous, Afro-Descendant and campesino organisations in their April 16 declaration, and urge:

• That the National Agency for Environmental Licenses suspend all environmental licensing processes in the territories where COVID-19 and armed conflict have deepened the vulnerabilities of ethnic and campesino communities, and particularly those territories where food shortages, air pollution and lack of access to drinking water jeopardise the lives and integrity of indigenous, black and peasant communities.
• That the Ministry of the Interior ensure that all projects advanced meet with the minimum standard of free, prior and informed consent especially at this time of increased vulnerability where peoples’ cultural and physical survival hangs further in the balance with the onslaught of COVID-19.
• That the Presidency of the Republic—in compliance with international standards that oblige the special protection of indigenous, Afro-descendant and peasant populations and the Constitution of Colombia, which recognises the multiethnic and multicultural nature of its population— inform about what special protection measures it is adopting, indicating in detail:
  • a) the resources assigned to address the health, food security and other inherent rights integral to maintaining their cultures, the origin of these resources, and the beneficiary population;
  • b) the measures to guarantee the supply of drinking water in communities that do not have access to said resource, informing about the resources invested, the logistics operators contracted, and the mechanisms used to guarantee proper implementation.

We further request from the Ministry of the Interior:

• A copy of the minutes of consultation and consent signed by the Permanent Roundtable for the Consultation of Indigenous Peoples and the National Space for Prior Consultation of Black Communities, with respect to the proposal of the Government to advance prior consultations virtually;
• A copy of the norm that empowers the Ministry to regulate the fundamental right to prior consultation through its external circular letter CIR 2020-29-DMI-1000 of March 27, 2020.

Despite the Ministry of Interior’s about face, industry will continue to place enormous pressure to roll back rights protections. The joint declaration’s demands remain critical, and in need of rapid response.  

For more information, contact:

Héctor Jaime Vinasco, Resguardo Colonial Cañamomo Lomaprieta +57 3183972770

Gabino Hernández Palomino, Palenke Alto Cauca-Proceso de Comunidades Negras +57 3122393228

Tom Dixon, Forest Peoples Programme tdixon@forestpeoples.org +44 1608 690760