Since its creation in 2011, the annual United Nations Forum on Business and Human Rights has brought together thousands of government representatives, international organizations, businesses, trade unions, civil society and academics to address and prevent the rights impacts of business and achieve greater sustainability of the global economy.
The eleventh edition of this forum, which will take place on 28 and 29 November in Geneva, has as its motto “right holders at the center: strengthening accountability to promote corporate respect for people and the planet in the next decade”. In this edition the forum will see the participation of Carlos Ajónindigenous Kichwa and elected representative of communities affected by oil spills in the Napo and Coca River basins in the Ecuadorian Amazon.
Carlos will present the situation of his people in various spaces and meetings, with the important support of the 2nd Regional Report on Human Rights Violations in the Amazon where, in its 1st chapter, the terrible and structural situation that thousands of families live every day in the Ecuadorian Amazon is collected.
Carlos will be accompanied by Monsignor Adalberto Jimenezpresident of REPAM-Ecuador and bishop of Aguarico, vicariate affected by the spills of the Trans-Ecuadorian pipeline.
The participation of both in the main UN platform for dialogue on business and human rights is part of the advocacy work carried out by Cáritas Española in defense of Amazonian communities. That is why the delegation will have the support of Sonia Oleahuman rights expert at Cáritas Española and head of international political advocacy for REPAM throughout the region.
15,000 barrels of oil
The 15,000 barrels of oil spill on April 4, 2020 affected several communities, six in Orellana and six in Sucumbíos (northeast of the country). These populations develop their life around the river where they wash their clothes, bathe their children and fetch water for their crops.
The level of poverty in these provinces is the highest in the country, but “thanks to the support of Caritas and other friendly institutions, training and organization is being promoted in order to be able to claim rights and propose alternatives”, says Monsignor Adalberto Jiménez.
REPAM, of which Cáritas Española is a founding entity, has for some time been making an enormous effort to give visibility to the situation of human rights violations of the peoples inhabiting the Amazon – which has worsened due to the impact of Covid – 19 across the region- and strengthen the dialogue role of REPAM in all international fora.
Last April the REPAM presented in New York and Washington in high-level meetings of the United Nations System and the Organization of American States the findings contained in the aforementioned report, which is being presented these days to the Human Rights Council in Geneva and to some of its special mechanisms.
