On September 30, 2010, representatives of various environmental conflicts arising by mining frontier in Latin America, appeared before people respected and recognized for its ethical practice in various areas of social life, to accommodate the First Court of Ethics to the Mining Frontier, a civil society effort towards visible and put values \u200b\u200bworld
the threats facing today's diverse peoples of the continent.
Panel of Judges composed of:
Juan Luis Ysern,
Bishop Emeritus of Ancud, Chile.
Elsie Monge,
Executive Director, Ecumenical Human Rights Commission CEDHU, Ecuador.
Cristian Cuevas,
President of the Confederation of Copper Workers CTC and Secretary of Collective Bargaining, Conflict and Solidarity, CUT - Chile.
Wheels Lorenzo Hurtado,
Governor of the People or Guambiano Misak, 1985, 2007 and 2008 and Constituent and Senator of the Republic on behalf of the Indigenous Peoples of Colombia .
Karyn Keenan,
Halifax Initiative Coalition, Canada.
Cases before the Court:
Chicomuselo: Mexico-Guatemala
Cerro Blanco: El Salvador-Guatemala
Cordillera del Condor, Ecuador, Peru
The Mutún: Bolivia-Brazil Pantanal
Pascua Lama: Chile-Argentina
STATEMENT OF PANEL OF JUDGES
before giving our opinion, picking up the unanimous expression of the room, we want to express solidarity with the causes that have led to the hunger strike of the Mapuche brothers, causes that are the same that inspired the convening of the Court. We welcome the dignity of men and women fighting for life in the midst of a system that imposes the death.
BACKGROUNDER NEEDED:
- The economic model has developed a series of instruments, which include the Free Trade Agreements of Cooperation and the bilateral agreements as the Treaty mining, or regional, such as the Initiative for South American Regional Infrastructure Integration, IIRSA and Plan Puebla Panama, PPP, so inconsiderate, uninformed and without community participation.
- The current phase of the global economy deepens the "third world" en un rol de suministrador de materias primas, el mismo que ha cumplido durante siglos, pero que con los actuales niveles de voracidad con que operan las transnacionales extractivistas, obliga a los gobiernos a abrir zonas antes intocables, como fronteras, parques nacionales, reservas mundiales de la biosfera, hábitat de pueblos no contactados, entre otros.
- Los territorios en cuestión son poblados por culturas cuya cosmovisión entiende que el humano es parte y en ningún caso, dueño de la naturaleza, por lo tanto la explotación en estas zonas supone una agresión sociocultural que en más de un caso traerá to the disappearance of these communities.
- Mining is one of the most polluting industrial activities (five of the ten most polluted places on Earth are caused by mining activity) and accumulated irreversible impacts on the water supply watershed which is installed . This is exacerbated in the mining of border points as a highly fragile ecosystems such as glacial and peri-glacial environment.
- mining provinces of the continent reveal high rates of poverty and deterioration of quality of life, inheriting liabilities environmental and social problems pose significant risks to life and involve significant outlays for the States and that laws requiring firms to assume these costs.
- Mining occupying this Court involves the borders of neighboring countries, the same defense, the line and on behalf of national sovereignty, has already claimed thousands of lives in the past. Being given these areas to gain particular goals, it risks creating further outbreaks of conflict that sow death among our sister nations.
ALLEGED FACTS:
- competing communities have denounced illegitimate government pressure to enter the mining industry in their districts. These governments have expressed approve projects without prior consultation, mocking the ILO Convention 169, dictating laws to the extent of the flagship companies such as the Chilean Binational Treaty Argentina (rife with speculation that Barrick Gold wrote it), ignoring the role duly qualified auditor, misinforming the public through speeches intended for businesses, generating security and tax benefits that no other sector has not promoting economic and criminalization of social protest that has even the assassination of social leaders.
- communities also reported that states are gradually abandoning its subsidiary role, allowing multinationals to assume duties and functions of social policy. With it, companies become needed for subsistence, but also reserve the right to deliver or not the "benefits" affronting serious human rights and helping to build a climate of fear and social insecurity.
- communities complain that mining TNCs operate under the delusion, promising improvements that never come and omitting relevant information when submitting their projects. For example, hide the existence of glaciers in the area to operate, minimizing the impacts of extractive methods threaten to dislodge governments who do not sell their land, etc.. This penetration strategy has been supported and endorsed by governments and authorities.
- States of origin of the multinational mining have proved an important element of pressure for governments of each country, as they have used their networks to influence and condition the approval of projects, enabling the development of censorship practices in parent countries, and devising mechanisms to provide financing, insurance and political support for extractive industries operating in the abroad.
- alleged complicity translates into unprecedented defenseless communities, their culture and they preserve biodiversity. This brings with it a growing mistrust on the part of affected communities and civil society to the various levels of dialogue and encounter from the institutions that arise, such as roundtables, shared management funds, etc. This smear is highly violent, since all the complainants in the Tribunal communities tend to settle their disputes through dialogue.
- Aboriginal peoples have been most affected by the cases in question, and express discrimination by States, as well as systematically violate the right to consultation, they are forced to take concepts development and progress that are alien to them.
- This new phase of expansion of mining mega chemical has been consumed, destroyed or contaminated glaciers, wetlands, tropical forests, wetlands, lakes and rivers, belonging to protected sites and ecosystems of biological and cultural. This has increased water stress and determined that all conflicts are exposed in court related to the threat that hangs over the water and life. In addition, sites have undergone surgery to decrease and the disappearance of native species, both flora and fauna, which has altered the food chain and has become extinct traditional activities of indigenous communities.
- communities complain that the employment generated by mining for its people is poor, the working conditions are extreme and developed anti-union practices can not organize and visualize this reality. This adds to the disappearance of other activities that generate sustainable employment in agriculture, handicrafts, tourism, fishing, criancería, among others.
PRINCIPLES CONSIDERED:
Right behind this trial is natural, before any legislation is expressed in these 5 basic principles.
- common good, considered not as the sum of private property but as the good of each and every one and indivisible. It is a good that is done together and projecting into the future.
- universal destination of goods , which becomes unacceptable in the name of private property made a few powerful masters of the world and a large crowd and run out of service the powerful. E l universal destination of goods including future generations who come after us and have the right to find a world where they can live with dignity.
· P RINCIPLE of subsidiarity, which states that higher-level entities such as States, must submit to each estate under consecuenciar organization necessary to fulfillment and self-development. It is an ethical imperative that states not only do not hinder, but leave room and support social organizations to which they owe.
- principles of participation, according to which every citizen in person or with other contributes to the life and work of the civil community to which it is linked, according to qualities and possibilities. Each person has an obligation to contribute to its conscious and responsible participation in community life in the common good.
- principle of solidarity , which in principle requires the transformation of social structures of injustice and oppression to which they become structures of collaboration with relevant laws, market rules and appropriate systems. Solidarity as a moral virtue is a firm and persevering determination to commit oneself to the common good, either every one, that we are all really responsible for all.
JUDGEMENT
The experiences presented for our consideration today:
- No apparent attitude of dialogue from companies to reach places.
- not see any interest in the common good but in the private good.
- appears not respect any reference to the universal destination of goods, but an attitude of emptying their own benefit and environmental destruction.
- attitude does not appear subsidiarity of the authorities or the powerful but functional imposition of economic interests.
- results not alguno a la participación de la comunidad a la que, incluso, se la engaña o se la mantiene desinformada con la complicidad de los medios de comunicación social.
- No hay ninguna actitud de solidaridad auténtica con la vida y labor de la comunidad según los requerimientos del bien común, aunque hay algunos actos o eventos de aparente solidaridad.
En conclusión, atendiendo al marco señalado, no es aceptable la actitud y forma de proceder de las empresas que han sido presentadas a nuestra consideración durante el día de hoy, como tampoco es aceptable la complicidad with them to the authorities, executive, legislative or judicial one way or another support them. It is unacceptable to the support given to such undertakings, either with some specific action already complicit silence or inaction on the part of institutions or public or private persons.
Is the attitude of those who, through the paths of dialogue and not violence, without endangering anyone's life, offer resistance to the above course of action. So doing not only right but may be a duty. Efforts should be appropriate to keep everyone well informed about the bases of truth and justice and promote genuine dialogue to development.
RECOMMENDATIONS:
people are recommended to prevent by all peaceful means at their disposal, the adoption of new laws or agreements that compromise their present and future and welfare of their communities. This through partnerships with civil society and pressures on agencies.
is recommended that communities and organizations that have reached this Court are organized and / or articulate in order to visualize this aspect of mining expansion, its impact and future risks.
recommended strengthening the community self-esteem, caring for and maintaining traditional values \u200b\u200bof the association, autonomy and autarky, so that statements of progress, employment and business development speaking have no place in communities.
is recommended that civil society demanding justice for the peoples invaded by this new phase of expansion of mining. Understanding that justice must involve not only the recognition of current and historical debt to indigenous peoples and peasants but also the restitution and compensation for them.
governments are required, both in countries where mining is done, as in those of origin of the mining companies to meet their responsibilities under international regulations, including the State's obligation to respect, protect and fulfill human rights .
