Urgent action - model letter of protest to President of Peru

To send the full model letter send the letter via your local Peruvian embassy or via fax to the Council of Ministers see http://www.embassiesabroad.com/embassies-of/Peru

Please copy your letter to:

Yehude Simon Munaro, President of the Council of Ministers     (ysimon@pcm.gob.pe , Fax +51 1- 716- 87-35 ) Rafael Vásquez Rodríguez, President of Congress     ( rvasquezr@congreso.gob.pe , Fax +51 1- 311- 77- 03 ) Public Ombudsman Office of Peru     ( centrodeatencionvirtual@defensoria.gob.pe ) Peruvian Embassador in your country     (for contact details - see http://www.embassiesabroad.com/embassies-of/Peru ) UN Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples     ( indigenous@ohchr.org ) UN Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances     ( wgeid@ohchr.org ) UN Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom expression     ( freedex@ohchr.org ) United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues     ( indigenous_un@un.org ) IACHR Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples     ( cidhoea@oas.org ) IACHR Rapporteur on the Right to Freedom of Expression     ( cidh-expresion@oas.org ) ________________ Model letter:

xx May 2009 Your Excellency: Request for suspension of state of emergency in the Peruvian Amazon, a plea for urgent measures to fully respect the rights of indigenous peoples, and a call for peaceful resolution of differences

[xxxx] is writing to you to communicate our grave concerns regarding the current militarisation of indigenous territories in the eastern lowlands of Peru alongside government legal measures that seriously weaken protections for the rights of Peruvian indigenous peoples.

The purpose of this letter is to appeal to your government and its armed forces, police and other authorities to refrain from any use of force against peaceful protesters and to ensure that their human rights are fully respected. We call on your government to take urgent measures to enter into good faith dialogue with the representatives of indigenous peoples in the Amazon region in order to peacefully resolve their grievances regarding threats to their rights arising from recent legislative decrees (reportedly linked to the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) between Peru and the USA).

Background and fundamental concerns: In August 2008, indigenous peoples in the Peruvian Amazon used peaceful protests to challenge regressive legislative decrees adopted by your government that would weaken indigenous land and territorial rights and open up the Amazon region to increased commercial development of land, water and subsoil resources.[i] Indigenous peoples made multiple representations calling for the offensive legal measures to be withdrawn on the grounds that they violate their well-recognised and legitimate rights protected under national and international law.[ii]

In December 2008, a cross-party commission of the Peruvian Congress recommended that the offending decrees be immediately withdrawn as unconstitutional.[iii] The Public Ombudsman of Peru has likewise concluded that the legal reforms are in violation of the Constitution of Peru, in particular as they have been formulated without prior consultation with affected rights holders, including indigenous peoples.[iv]

Despite robust evidence that the legal measures are unconstitutional and in violation of the duties and obligations of Peru under domestic and international law, in 2009 the government is pushing ahead and refuses to repeal the legislative decrees and laws that:

• undermine the legal rights of indigenous peoples to own, control and administer their traditional lands and territories (DL1064, DL995)
• allow the transfer of indigenous peoples’ lands considered “idle” to government control (DL994)
• permit the privatisation and break up historically held communal lands through incentives for individual titling (DL1064, DL 1089)
• remove the protection for collective lands as imprescriptible property (DL1064)
• do away with legal prior consultation requirements for investments and plans affecting indigenous peoples’ traditional lands (DL1064)
• promote the militarisation of indigenous territories (DL1090)
• threaten to extinguish indigenous peoples’ recognised rights over rivers in their territories (Law 29338)
• give greater legal protections to commercial and industrial interests at the expense of indigenous peoples’ physical integrity, culture and land and resource rights (DL 1089, Law 29338)

Current situation and ongoing concerns: Given the failure of the government to address concerns raised in 2008 and in view of the inadequate and time-consuming legal remedies available to challenge the regressive reforms within the Peruvian system, indigenous peoples again commenced peaceful demonstrations in the Amazon region in April 2009 (in the regions of Amazonas, Loreto, Ucayali, Madre de Dios, Cuzco and Junin).[v] [XXXX] is dismayed to learn that genuine efforts by indigenous leaders over the last few weeks to seek constructive dialogue with officials on how to resolve the problems have been rebuffed by your government.

We are alarmed that on May 9th your government suspended rights to freedom of assembly, personal liberty and movement, and sent in armed forces and special-operations police to the areas where protests are taking place. These areas are now under a 60-day State of Emergency.

According to information available to [XXXXX/us], tear gas and rubber bullets have been used in Bagua Province in the Amazonas region where indigenous protesters have been beaten, injured, detained and threatened by police and the army. We understand that one Awajun person is missing and feared dead as a result of the military and police actions. We have also learned that there has been intimidation of protesters and heavy police presence on the Napo River (Loreto region).

This increase in the number of law enforcement forces in the area is especially troublesome given that the media and press have reportedly been prevented from entering protest areas to monitor and report on the manner in which justice and peace are administered.

We are likewise deeply troubled on receiving news that on May 15th 2009, the Shawi leader and President of the Interethnic Association for the Development of the Peruvian Amazon (AIDESEP) was summoned to court and accused of “rebellion” and actions against public order[vi] and was then charged on May 19th 2009.

Recommendations: In view of the worrying reports of oppression and intimidation and serious threats to the rights of indigenous peoples posed by recent regressive legal measures we call on the government of Peru and you as President to take urgent steps to:

• suspend the current State of Emergency
• withdraw military and special-police forces from indigenous peoples’ territories where protests are taking place
• establish immediate dialogue with indigenous leaders at the highest level of government to seek ways to address their concerns and resolve the current crisis
• repeal legislative decrees that violate indigenous peoples’ rights protected under the Constitution, national laws and international human rights instruments ratified by Peru, including DL 1064, 1020, 1089, 1090, 994 and 995 and discriminatory provisions in Law 29338 (Water Resources)
• undertake reforms to establish stronger legal and institutional mechanisms to uphold the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and ensure effective compliance with Peru’s obligations to protect indigenous peoples’ rights established under ILO Convention 169, the Convention for the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (CERD), the International Covenants on Civil and Political Rights ("ICCPR") and Economic, Social and Cultural Rights ("ICESCR") and the American Convention on Human Rights, including obligations to protect indigenous peoples’ rights to their lands and territories and the need to uphold the principle of free, prior and informed consent for all decisions and activities that may affect the lands and territories that they traditional use or occupy or otherwise own
• re-examine and reconsider the legitimacy in a just society of the judicial charges against the Shawi leader Segundo Alberto Pizango Chota.

[XXXXX] looks forward to learning at the earliest opportunity how your government plans to address the concerns and recommendations presented in this letter.

Yours respectfully,

____________________

[i] http://www.servindi.org/actualidad/4495 [ii] http://www.servindi.org/actualidad/4499/4499 [iii] http://tr.im/lUU2 See also http://tr.im/lURN [iv] http://tr.im/lUU2 See also http://www.defensoria.gob.pe/descarga.php?pb=3733 and http://tr.im/lUS3 [v] http://www.aidesep.org.pe/index.php?codnota=618 [vi] Fiscalia Provincial Penal Turno Permanente de Lima (2009) Notificación de Denuncia, May 15th, 2009