Conservatives fail to take human rights seriously in Canada-Colombia deal For the second year in a row, the Conservative government has failed tolive up to its moral obligation to analyze the impact of the Canada-Colombia Free Trade Agreement (CCOFTA) on human rights. The reporting obligation, embedded as a side agreement in the FTA, was hailed by the Liberals as a "new gold standard" for human rights reporting in free trade agreements and touted by the Conservative government as a meaningful way to address human rights accountability in trade.
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(Ottawa/Washington/Bogotá) The Compliance Advisor Ombudsman (CAO), the independent complaints office of the International Financial Corporation (IFC), will carry out an audit of the IFC’s decision to purchase US$18.2 million in shares of Eco Oro Minerals (previously Greystar Resources). The Canadian company is proposing to develop the Angostura gold mine project in the high altitude wetlands – known as páramos – of Santurbán, located in the Colombian departments of Santander and North Santander.
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Tabled June 14, the report’s tone, content, and quiet release leave some wondering what the government is trying to hide.
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A little report, issued quietly in the middle of June, marked the moment when the Conservatives reneged on an agreement to study how a free-trade deal in Colombia might affect human rights. It’s an odd blind spot for the Tories, who, after all, like to argue that trade is good for ordinary people in developing countries. The Harper government has recently started pushing aid projects aimed at showing that the mining industry can bring a better life to people in Africa and Latin America – and Canada-Colombia business, after all, is dominated by mining.
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The main finding of the Harper government’s first complete human rights impact assessment of the Canada-Colombia free trade agreement (CCOFTA), tabled without almost anyone noticing in the House last week, is that there really isn’t any point in doing a human rights impact assessment of the Canada-Colombia free trade agreement.
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Colombia is paying a high price for the boom in mining, which is producing unrecognized costs due to the preeminence of a narrow and deficient economic philosophy, according to a new book on the subject.
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The Colombian minister of Mines and Energy, Federico Renjifo Vélez, will be at the International Economic Forum of the Americas in Montreal this week. On Tuesday, he will be attending a working breakfast titled Doing Business with Colombia. The minister’s visit comes on the heels of a May 2013 report issued by the Colombian comptroller general that links the extractive industry in Colombia to armed conflict and human rights violations.
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On June 6, 2013, Luzmila Ruano Gavira, human rights activist and member of the Committee for the Integration of the Colombian Massif (CIMA), received death threats for her community organizing against mining exploration projects in the Department of Nariño, Colombia. At 9:50 am, Ms. Ruano Gavira was approached by a man in downtown Pasto, the capital of Nariño, who yelled: "Ms. Luzmila, Ms. Luzmila, stop with the mining organizing because you are too pretty a woman to die."
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This summer PASC and members of the Red de Hermandad y Solidaridad con Colombia (Redher - Colombia Friendship and Solidarity Network) will be organizing a Popular Tribunal against Colombia's extractive industry policies. The Tribunal is a chance to put foreign mining, gas and hydroelectric companies on trial for the pillage of Colombia's natural resources, as well as for fueling political violence against union members, communities affected by mega-development projects, and environmental and social activists.
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