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Thousands of participants arriving at the People's Summit voiced concerns about the negative impacts of mega-projects on their land and resources. Staff attorney Leonardo Crippa taught a workshop on using international mechanism to defend indigenous rights. Photos courtesy of Leo Crippa. |
LIMA, Peru - Nearly 3,000 representatives attended the four-day People's Summit held at Lima's National University of Engineering to discuss poverty, global warming, commerce and environmental degradation affecting their communities. It was billed as a parallel forum to the Fifth Latin America, Caribbean and European Union Summit being held simultaneously.
The People's Summit also included the Permanent People's Tribunal that put 20 transnational mining, oil, energy and banking corporations on trial for human rights violations. (see stories below) Crippa presented another workshop for indigenous representatives from the Amazon Basin on mechanisms indigenous communities can use to defend their rights and influence the development of mega projects. The first is the IDB internal inspection mechanism which communities can use to file a complaint seeking an investigation to determine whether IDB's agencies have complied with safeguard measures established under the Operational Policy on Indigenous Peoples. The other mechanism is the Inter-American Human Rights System, where communities can file a petition against the State (federal government) before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights to seek redress for human rights violations. Affected communities can also file a request for precautionary measures with the Inter-American Commission to prevent human rights violations, and they can request a thematic hearing before the Inter-American Commission to report and document human rights violations they are facing as a result of the mega-projects.
For more about the People's Summit go to: |
