Extractive industries are fueling ecocide and human rights abuses in the Caribbean. This will be the message at a landmark hearing of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights on the Impact of Extractive Industries on Human Rights and Climate Change in the Caribbean, scheduled for October 26 at 14:00 EST.
The urgency of this issue cannot be overstated. While extraction in the Caribbean is nothing new, the past few years have seen an unprecedented expansion in the nature and intensity of extraction in the region. This includes the recent launch of Guyana’s fossil fuels industry, an increase in oil exploration across the region, and the expansion of mining on lands traditionally inhabited by Indigenous, Afro-descendant and rural communities.
Today, the cumulative environmental degradation caused by centuries of extraction presents an existential threat to human rights and the environment in at least five key ways:
First, extraction-related environmental degradation threatens the enjoyment of the right to a healthy environment in the Caribbean. This right is enshrined in the Constitutions of some Caribbean states, such as Jamaica and Guyana, and was recently recognized by the UN Human Rights Council in a historic resolution, which received 43 votes in favour (including from The Bahamas), zero against, and four abstentions (China, India, Japan, Russia).
Despite recognition of the importance of a healthy environment, states across the Caribbean are allowing companies in the extractives sector to destroy crucial ecosystems with little to no accountability. In Guyana, for example, the gold mining industry is causing deforestation and the contamination of rivers from mercury use. In Jamaica, communities have complained that the Bauxite-Alumina Industry is causing noise and dust pollution, which results in respiratory and other illnesses, and effluent spills that lead to massive fish kills, reduced water quality, and the disruption of the lives of communities who rely on the river for domestic purposes. In Trinidad and Tobago, frequent oil spills pose a major threat to fisher communities and marine ecology.
Second, the environmental degradation caused by extraction threatens a number of other economic, social and cultural rights that are dependent on a healthy environment. These rights include the rights to food, water and cultural identity, which are enshrined in some Caribbean constitutions to varying degrees, as well as in the widely ratified International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.
In the case of Indigenous Peoples, “Tribal Peoples” such as the Maroons, and rural communities, their economic, social and cultural rights are further reinforced by treaties and human rights documents, such as ILO Convention 169, the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, and the Declaration on the Rights of Peasants and Other People Working in Rural Areas. These documents seek to protect the special relationship that these communities have with their territory in a way that guarantees their social, cultural and economic survival. These documents recognize a number of specific rights, including communal land rights and the right to free, prior and informed consent in the case of Indigenous and Tribal Peoples.
Contrary to this framework, extractive industries, given their harmful impacts on land and water resources, are disrupting traditional ways of life while threatening food and water security in the region. This is especially the case for Indigenous and Tribal Peoples and rural communities whose close relationship with the environment makes them particularly vulnerable to extraction-related environmental damage. In Guyana, for example, gold mining takes place in the interior, which is predominantly inhabited by Indigenous communities. Gold mining presents an existential threat to their cultural identity, including though the destruction of their traditional lands and the granting of mining concessions without their free, prior and informed consent. This situation arises within a wider structural context in which the Government has failed to adequately protect their communal land rights. In Jamaica, the Bauxite-Alumina industry is gobbling up prime agricultural lands that are crucial for food security, while displacing rural communities whose unique way of life is under existential threat.
Third, extractive industries are shaping the climate vulnerability of the region. Dominant modes of extraction, especially fossil fuel extraction, are fueling the climate crisis. This crisis disproportionately impacts Caribbean islands given their vulnerability to sea level rise and catastrophic weather events of increasing intensity. Climate displacement is also a serious issue as seen, for example, in the aftermath of hurricane Dorian, which resulted in hundreds of thousands of displacements across several countries. Extractive industries are also simultaneously undermining food and water security at a time when climate crisis threatens both.
Yet, Guyana has entered into fossil fuel production, raising concerns that this will significantly increase greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to climate change and adversely affect the most vulnerable groups.
Fourth, extractive industries rely upon and reproduce racial and intersectional forms of oppression that subjugate racialized and already vulnerable communities, particularly women, Indigenous and Tribal peoples, and rural communities. Ultimately, the stories of impact described above are not aberrational. They are rooted in deeply held notions about how formerly colonized nations ought to exist in the world. From colonial times to the present, Caribbean nations have been relegated to sacrificial zones of extraction where they remain trapped in a vicious cycle of debt, dependency and environmental degradation. Within this dynamic, Caribbean communities bear the brunt of extraction-related damage, but reap the least benefits, which disproportionately accrue to shareholders and consumers in the so-called developed world.
Fifth, extractive industries are undermining environmental democracy, including with respect to the right to participate in environmental decision-making, the right to access information, and the right to access an effective remedy. These principles of environmental democracy were recently reinforced in the Regional Agreement on Access to Information, Public Participation and Justice in Environmental Matters in Latin America and the Caribbean (commonly known as the Escazú Agreement), which has been signed and ratified by a number of Caribbean countries. Contrary to these principles, Governments across the Caribbean are pushing through extractive projects by systematically excluding affected communities from participation, access to information and access to remedy.
There is an urgent need for rights-based, earth-centered alternatives for post-colonial development in the region. Human rights bodies, such as the IACHR, can help to advance these alternatives by promoting human rights standards that empower affected communities to take action in defense of their environment and livelihoods against extraction-related environmental degradation.
The upcoming IACHR hearing will provide an opportunity for Caribbean organizations and activists to call upon the IACHR to take concrete action on extractive industries in the region. The regional hearing was requested by Malene Alleyne, human rights lawyer and Founder of Freedom Imaginaries, and Esther Figueroa, environmental filmmaker. The delegation will be the most diverse to appear before the IACHR from the Caribbean. In addition to Alleyne and Figueroa, the delegation includes: Immaculata Casimero (Wapichan Women’s Movement – Guyana), Samuel Nesner (Kolektif Jistis Min – Haiti), Gary Aboud (Fishermen and Friends of the Sea – Trinidad and Tobago), Diane Christian-Simmons (Cocorite Fishing Association – Trinidad and Tobago), Janette Bulkan (University of British Columbia – Guyana), and Kirk Murray (Fire Chief – North Abaco, The Bahamas).
The hearing will be broadcast via Zoom (https://cidh-org.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_SHyMdmj2SNSp0HAoOmw-7g) and Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/CIDH.OEA/live)
