In the Jequitinhonha Valley, in the heart of Minas Gerais, Brazil, Indigenous and Quilombola communities have lived in harmony with a unique ecosystem for generations. Today, this territory has found itself at the epicenter of lithium: the mineral that powers the batteries of the electric vehicles that drive the global energy transition. The company exploiting the majority of the lithium in the Valley is celebrated in international markets as a pioneer in the “green” mining industry. It also operates without having obtained the Free, Prior and Informed Consent of the communities whose territory it is exploiting.
Indigenous Peoples have not contributed to the global climate crisis, yet they are disproportionately affected by its consequences. What is happening in community lands and territories, the impacts on the beings who live there, the threats to the survival of cultural identity and the continuity of dialogue among generations–all of this directly affects communities, their cosmovisions and philosophies of life, posing a severe threat to Indigenous Peoples and their rights.
Rights on Paper and Rights in Reality: A Persistent Gap
Across the regions and the latitudes of the world, Indigenous Peoples constantly denounce how States and companies systematically violate their rights in pursuit of a neocolonial extractivist model that proceeds without respecting their self-determination, community governance systems, and territorial stewardship.
The pattern is so egregious that the UN Working Group on Business and Human Rights issued a call for reports on Indigenous Peoples’ right to Free, Prior and Informed Consent, recognizing an ongoing gap between rights on paper and the reality of States’ and companies’ non-compliance.
The testimonies that Cultural Survival gathered and presented to the Working Group tell a story that is repeated time and time again: meetings that are framed as “consultations” but that merely provide information; incomprehensible technical documents provided just days before signatures are demanded; economic pressure exerted on impoverished communities; and the promise that development will bring “benefits.” What is brought, in actuality, is the contamination of rivers, the fragmentation of territories and communities, and the criminalization of the people who defend their rights.
The hydroelectric dam known as Chan-75, built by the company AES Panama and backed by the Panamanian government, is a prime example. The project was installed in the Ngäbe Peoples’ territory without guaranteeing even basic standards of participation, adequate information, or territorial protection. And the testimonies are conclusive. The meetings held by the State were limited to providing information, without opportunity for dialogue or translation into the Ngäbe language, and they provoked community divisions. They focused exclusively on the project’s supposed benefits, omitting critical information about the environmental, sociocultural, and spiritual impacts that dam construction would entail.
In Argentina, public hearings continue to be presented as the appropriate mechanism to guarantee Indigenous rights. In reality, however, these hearings are a tool for citizen participation in environmental law and are legally diametrically opposed to Indigenous Peoples’ right to consultation and Free, Prior and Informed Consent. Even worse, the results of these hearings are non-binding and can be dismissed, making them mere administrative formalities.
One factor that exacerbates these cases is territorial insecurity and forced displacement at the hands of extractive projects, the installation of large industries, and the data centers driving the new AI era. In many cases, Indigenous communities do not have clearly demarcated territories recognized by the State. When communities lack legal title, it is easier for the State to ignore their right to Free, Prior and Informed Consent or to fail to recognize them as affected by a given project. This facilitates the falsification of processes to obtain licenses in the hands of companies.
Queyaqueyani community members in Bolivia looking at a barrage of chemicals from the Bolívar Mine. During the dry season, the toxic liquid dries up and turns to dust. Photo by Julien Defourny.
The Many Faces of Rights Violations
In international human rights law, the State is the party responsible for promoting, respecting, and guaranteeing Indigenous Peoples’ rights. However, States are also the parties who regularly violate these rights by distorting, tokenizing, and manipulating and/or evading them. This happens because States either do not adopt the legislation required to protect and guarantee rights, or because those who fail to apply the law are the States themselves.
In the Bolivian Gran Chaco region, the oil frontier is expanding, driven by State and private companies on biological reserve lands protected by law. For years, communities have been organizing in defense of the Aguaragüe National Park, publicly denouncing the fact that this incursion is being perpetrated in violation of constitutional protections of natural areas through the manipulation of the community consultation process and without a true, consensual dialogue with the Indigenous Peoples of the region. Yet, the Bolivian government has allowed oil exploration and exploitation across more than 70% of Aguaragüe National Park’s territory, which is the ancestral territory of the Guaraní Peoples and the communities that live there.
Companies must respect Indigenous Peoples’ rights, and so must States. However, neither States nor companies comply with their responsibilities: States fail to comply with their legal obligation to recognize and apply the right to Free, Prior and Informed Consent; and companies take advantage of States’ non-compliance rather than contributing to finding solutions.
Sigma Lithium’s mining site in the Jequitinhonha Valley, Brazil. Photo by Rebeca Binda.
Call to Action
Sustaining an agenda of “green” investment that persecutes, harasses, criminalizes, and threatens the lives of Indigenous defenders of life and territory is not viable. An energy transition cannot be just if it means forcibly displacing communities and families from their territories and rupturing the survival of their cultures, identities, and cosmovisions.
States and companies must commit to respecting and complying with laws and recommendations regarding Indigenous Peoples’ rights. It is imperative that States take responsibility for investigating violations of the right to Free, Prior and Informed Consent, for designing effective complaint mechanisms, and for establishing the legal avenues to enable this. They must make the effort to create systems for monitoring, evaluation, and verification of the implementation of Free, Prior and Informed Consent, in accordance with the highest standards for Indigenous Peoples’ rights.
Without effective territorial protection and demarcation, Indigenous Peoples’ governance and development based on their preferences and with respect for the cultural identities and cosmovision cannot be guaranteed. Development projects at the cost of Indigenous Peoples’ self-determination, of the violation of the rights of people, the environment, and all of the beings who dwell there, may not continue to be promoted by companies, nor supported by States.
Main photo: Aerial view of a chemical tailings dam from the Canadian-owned Bolívar Mine in Antequera, Bolivia. Photo by Julien Defourny.
Read our report to the UN Working Group on Business and Human Rights at www.cs.org/ reports
