Victory for U’wa Nation as Case on Indigenous Land Rights and Extractive Projects Moves Forward
http://www.earthrights.org/media/victory-uwa-nation-case-indigenous-land-rights-and-extractive-projects-moves-forward-inter
Victory for Uwa Nation as Case on Indigenous Land Rights and Extractive Projects Moves Forward at Inter-American Commission on Human Rights
October 16, 2015,
Washington, DC The Uwa Nation has received an admissibility report by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights allowing its case against Colombia to move forward, recognizing that the indigenous group can seek the Commissions help in defending its traditional territory. Although the Uwa have successfully defeated multiple oil and gas projects in the nearly two decades since they first filed their complaint with the Commission, the report recognizes that winning these battles does not end the overall complaint with the Colombian government, which does not fully recognize the Uwa peoples rights to their territory.
In a statement released today, The Uwa organization Asouwa said: Our U'wa Nation has been heard by the natural law, our ancestors and gods that guide and govern our thinking to safeguard, protect and care for our mother earth; While there are U'wa people, we will continue resisting in defense of our ancient rights. EarthRights International (ERI) has been supporting Aura Tegria Cristancho, an Uwa lawyer who has been working on the case since 2013 from its offices in Lima, Peru, and Washington, DC.
Asouwa, supported by the National Indigenous Organization of Colombia and the Coalition for Amazonian Peoples and Their Environment, first filed their complaint with the Commission in 1997. At the time, US-based Occidental Petroleum (Oxy) was threatening to drill for oil in their lands. The Uwa, supported by a global campaign against Oxy led by groups such as Amazon Watch and the Rainforest Action Network, secured Oxys withdrawal in 2001. More recently, Colombias Ecopetrol tried to move forward with a gas project on Uwa land, but pulled out earlier this year. However, Uwas title over their ancestral lands have not been yet recognized.
The Commissions decision comes after the Uwa and their supporters made it clear that, despite these victories, the root of the problem is the governments lack of recognition and protection of the indigenous groups ancestral territory. ............