San José, December 1, 2016.- Leaders of the Original Kichwa People of Sarayaku; his lawyer, Mario Melo, and the Center for Justice and International Law (CEJIL) evidenced during a press conference, the lack of compliance by the Ecuadorian State with fundamental points of the sentence that the Inter-American Court of Human Rights issued in against him in 2012.

Three points of the sentence will be the topics to be discussed in the supervision hearing, which will take place in San José, Costa Rica, today, Friday, December 2, from 9 to 10:30 a.m. The hearing will be broadcast live through the official website of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights: http://www.corteidh.or.cr/

The Inter-American Court ordered the State of Ecuador to remove the pentolite -an explosive with high destructive power- from the territory inhabited by the Sarayaku people, located in the Ecuadorian Amazon. Given this, Mario Melo denounced that the State has not yet removed or neutralized the pentolite abandoned 14 years ago on the surface of the territory and buried with the aim of conducting a seismic study that would allow oil exploitation. Due to their characteristics, these explosives represent a danger to the Sarayaku people and prevent the use and enjoyment of a significant part of their territory.

At another point, the sentence obliges the Sarayaku people to consult any activity or project for the extraction of natural resources within their territory that could have an impact on them. Finally, this 2012 resolution obliges Ecuador to adopt or modify legislative, administrative and any other measures, in order to ensure the implementation of the right to prior consultation of indigenous peoples.

Despite what was ordered by the Inter-American Court, the Ecuadorian State convened a new round of oil tenders -the eleventh- that ended with the assignment and concession of three blocks that will affect the Sarayaku territory. Said tenders, the representatives of the people maintained, were carried out without the prior, free and informed consultation required by the ruling of the Inter-American Court and international law.

"The lack of adaptation of Ecuadorian policies, practices and legislation to international obligations regarding indigenous peoples has consequences that include and exceed the Sarakayu, insofar as they put the survival of numerous indigenous peoples in the country at risk," he said. Viviana Krsticevic, Executive Director of CEJIL added: “In a regional context, where the actions of States and extractive industries against indigenous peoples are being closely examined, Ecuador could serve as a benchmark, if it adapted its legislation and its practices complying with what was ordered by the Inter-American Court”.

The president of the Sarakayu people, Félix Santi, pointed out that this non-compliance has been repeated, despite what the highest inter-American court orders: "Although the Court's ruling was a historic victory for us, the non-compliance by the State threatens again our territory, worldview and development as an indigenous people. We demand that the State comply with what was ordered by the Court to preserve the Kawsak Sacha (living forest) that is our life.”

Part of the damage to the Sarakayu territory will be evidenced at the hearing through an interactive map. The tool was developed by CEJIL and the Amazon Conservation Team, to strengthen the Sarayaku struggle. It had the technical support of the geographer of the Ecuadorian organization Terra Matter, Carlos Mazabanda, and the assistance of Amazon Watch. The project graphically narrates the struggle of the people in defense of their territory and nature. To access the map:

http://amazonteam.org/maps/sarayaku/

For more information about the case:

https://cejil.org/es/sarayaku and https://goo.gl/ZAq89L

CARTE INTERACTIVE ILLUSTRANT LA LUTTE DU PEUPLE SARAYAKU EN EQUATEUR
– Cet outil a été I launched the public hearing supervisor of the application of the sentence pronounced by the IACHR.
“MAP EMBED”
San José, December 2, 2016.- Lords of the supervisory hearing before the Cour interaméricaine des Droits humains, des leaders du Peuple autochtone de Sarayaku ont exposé le non-respect de la part de l'Etat de la sentence pronounced par ce court in 2012. Pour cela, il dispose de cartes interactives qui aportent des informations sur les nouvelles concessions octroyées par l'Etat équatorien et qui affectent son territoire.
“Cette carte est la preuve de notre plainte historique contra les concessions octroyées par l'Etat que n'a pas respecté nos droits”, explains Félix Santi, president of the Sarayaku people.
Malgré cette sentence qui a condamné l'Etat à consulter le peuple Sarayaku avant toute nouvelle adjudication de son territoire, l'Equateur a lancé un nouvel appel public aux entreprises pétrolières et leur a assigné trois nouveaux blocs que affectent 91,8% de leur territoire.
Selon le Center pour la Justice et le Droit international (CEJIL) – an organization that represents the Peuple Sarayaku before the IACHR, ces concessions ont été octroyées sans le moindre respect por la consulta préalable, libre et informée du Peuple Sarayaku tel que demanded par the Court.
“Today, the Equateur n'a pas harmonisé sa législation en matière de consultation préalable avec les législations internationales, ce qui représente un risque important pour Sarayaku mais également pour all peuples autochtones de l'Equateur”, declares Viviana Krsticevic, guideline du CEJIL.
Récemment, l'Etat a octroyé deux blocs pétroliers à une entreprise chinoise. Ceux-ci affectent le territoire Sapara even so that peuples do not contactés sans qu'il y ait eu de processus de consulta préalable ni regarding leurs droits.
This letter number shows the current risks caused by the presence of abandoned explosives in the Sarayaku territory for 10 years and that the State in a tour has neither withdrawn nor neutralized the sentence pronounced by the Cour in 2012. Ces explosifs ont été dispersed and buried between 2002 and 2004 around the surface of the territoire lors des explorations seismiques.
The letter illustre commented on the quarantaine zones close to the main zones of activities of the Sarayaku people, representing a serious danger and empêche de jouir librement de leur territoire.
La carte numérique – developed by CEJIL and the Amazon Conservation Team with the help of the geographer of the Ecuadorian organization Terra Matter, Carlos Mazabanda and Amazon Watch – see to reinforce the Sarayaku lutte. Cet outil clearly demonstrates the consequences of the activities of the petrochemical industries and the manque of prréalable, free and informed consultation with the autochtones ont droit, in addition to the environnemental impact of celles-ci at the national and regional level.
“The ACT is there with CEJIL to discuss the history of an indigenous people in the Amazon and their labor for the defense of their territory and their environment with the help of the oil companies and the aid of technologies innovants de cartographie et de narracion digitale”, explains Rudo Kemper, géographe de l'ACT et développeur de la carte de Sarayaku.
“Cette carte aide à comprehend the impacts of l'extraction pétrolière et minière sur les peuples indidigènes dans région de l'Amazonie”, rappelled Kevin Koenig d'Amazon Watch. “Il already a nouveau petrolier boom in the Ecuadorian Amazon who saw to allow the State of rembourser sa dette contractée auprès de la China avec un coût très elevé in terms of droits, biodiversity et de climat.”
Pour consulter la carte “MAP EMBED”:
http://amazonteam.org/maps/sarayaku/

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