🌱 What international obligations are there?
Broadly speaking, governments and companies must uphold “Indigenous Peoples’ rights in line with international standards including the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) and the ILO Convention 169 Indigenous and Tribal Peoples”. They also a have an obligation to meet their “international commitments, including but not limited to the Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, UN SDGs, OECD Due Diligence Guidance for Responsible Business Conduct, Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, and the Paris agreement”.
🌱 Who is in charge of the mining?
Mining operations on and close to the lands of the Indigenous Quechua People started in the late 1990s. One of the largest operations in the area is the Bolívar mine, which contains silver, lead, and zinc. As the “control of many operations has changed hands” over the years, it has however been challenging “for communities to track who is responsible for the mining activity”.
🌱 How are Indigenous Peoples impacted?
In Bolivia, the open-pit mining for silver, copper, lead, zinc, tin and other minerals has adversely impacted Indigenous Quechua People. The mining has led to “pollution, water scarcity and land use change near the Indigenous Quechua community collective, or ayllu, of Acre Antequera”. The mining has used up large amounts of the Quechua community’s freshwater, and the waste from mining activity has contaminated their food and large amounts of the remaining water in the area. As a consequence of this, the Quechua community is effectively left “without enough water to raise livestock and grow crops” in the dry season from May to November. This has led to “an increasing number of residents […] relocat[ing] to other parts of the country, creating concern that many cultural practices will disappear”.
🌱 What has happened to protesters?
Indigenous communities protesting the open-pit mining projects “have been threatened and attacked” since 2022. More specifically, several women – who had protested against the mining – have reported being attacked and having their campsites burned. They stated that the miners also followed them home and threw dynamite into their homes. Moreover, by surrounding their homes and stopping them from leaving, “their children weren’t allowed to attend school”. While no one was hurt, residents have said that they live in fear for their lives and some have “decided to leave their communities until the situation is resolved”.
Read more about the conflicts here:
- https://fortune.com/2023/04/21/bolivia-lithium-western-extraction-indigenous-religion-world-view/
- https://earthworks.org/blog/bolivian-government-must-respect-the-autonomy-of-indigenous-communities/