After the stoppage imposed by the pandemic, the Pan-Amazon Ecclesial Network (REPAM) resumes its international advocacy agenda with a two-week tour to New York and Washington to maintain various high-level contacts in different spaces of the United Nations System and the Organization of American States.
In addition to giving visibility to the situation of violation of human rights of the peoples who inhabit the Amazon – which has been aggravated as a consequence of the impact of Covid-19 throughout the region – and reinforcing the role of REPAM as an interlocutor in those international forums, the members of the delegation will transfer to the international institutions the findings contained in the recently published 2nd Regional Report on Violation of Human Rights in the Pan-Amazonwhere Sonia Oleaan expert in Human Rights from Cáritas Española, has been part of its coordination, compilation and edition.
The delegation is made up of Cardinal Pedro Barretopresident of REPAM and archbishop of Huancayo (Peru); Monsignor Rafael Cobvice president of REPAM and apostolic vicar of Puyo (Ecuador); Peter Hughescoordinator of the Human Rights Nucleus of REPAM; Lily Calderon, technician from the REPAM Human Rights Nucleus; and Sonia Olea, responsible for Political Advocacy at REPAM and coordinator of this trip and its agenda.
New cases of violation of rights in the Amazon
This new Regional Report on Human Rights Violations in the Pan-Amazon region documents five cases of human rights violations in indigenous communities in Peru, Ecuador, Colombia and Brazil. Specifically, it refers to two cases related to the violation of the human right to access to water in the communities of Boca Parianu, Madre de Dios (Peru) and the Kichwa communities in the Coca and Napo rivers, in Ecuador; a case of violation of the human right to health in the Piquiá de Baixo Community, in Marañón (Brazil); another case on the violation of the human right to the territory of the people of Mura de Careiro da Várzea, in Brazil; and a fifth case on violation of the right to prior, free and informed consultation in the indigenous communities of the Great Reserve of Vaupés, in the Mitú territory of Colombia.
The Report also includes, as an annex, the violations suffered by the communities and peoples of the Venezuelan Amazon during COVID-19.
Conclusions and proposals of the Report
In the chapter dedicated to conclusions and proposals, it is stated that “the reality of the testimonies [recopilados] They testify that indigenous and peasant communities are deprived of basic and elemental services such as the right to water, territory, health, education or a healthy environment”. “Although many protection instruments have been developed at the national, regional and international levels, the situation of the communities is increasingly worrisome and the mechanisms for the protection of human rights have not achieved the proposed objectives”, the Report states.
REPAM also denounces that “in recent years, the Amazon has become a haven for murderers.” “Impunity has found a favorable ground where it can develop”, she adds.
In order to advance in the defense of the rights of Amazonian communities, the Report raises a series of proposals to international organizations and States in four areas: guarantee the right to live without discrimination or threats, protect the right to land and the use of its resources, the recognition of the human right to water and access to the right to health.
“Pope Francis, both in Laudato Si and in Querida Amazonía, reminds us of this. Although they seem like few people to us and their representation in the world is almost symbolic; The women, men, boys and girls who inhabit the Amazon are the guardians of the common home, its air, its water, its plants and animals. From Cáritas, the task of accompanying this fight continues to be essential”, says Olea from New York.
meeting schedule
The agenda of the REPAM delegation in New York includes meetings with the United Nations Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, Francisco Cali; representatives of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues. Likewise, an interview with the Apostolic Nuncio to the United Nations, Monsignor Gabriele Giordano Caccia, is planned, as well as coordination meetings with the Mining Working Group, an allied organization of REPAM to the United Nations, and with the Permanent Missions of Mexico and Norway to the United Nations. United.
In addition, within the framework of the Agreement between REPAM and the Inter-American Human Rights Commission (IACHR), the members of the Delegation participate, on April 28, in a joint parallel event on the Official Agenda of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Issues Indigenous, chaired by Cardinal Barreto.
In Washington, among others, meetings are scheduled with the Secretary General of the OAS, Luis Almagro; the new Executive Secretary of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR, Tania Reneaum, and her Assistant Secretary, Marisol Blanchard; the OAS Secretariat for Access to Rights and Equity and its advice on indigenous peoples; the Apostolic Nuncio to the United States , Monsignor Christophe Pierre and the representative of the Holy See to the OAS, Father Juan Antonio Cruz.Finally, the trip will conclude with a working meeting on mining and integral ecology with the Episcopal Conference of the United States.
