Facing the real risk of the expansion of the oil frontier in the Ecuadorian Amazon, Indigenous confederations and nations united to put a stop to it. They mobilized from their territories to the city of Quito, in order to demand that Ecuador’s Constitutional Court issue a key ruling that guarantees autonomy over their territories.
On the morning of July 18, 2024, a delegation of around one hundred people from the Waorani, Kichwa, Achuar, Shuar and A’i Cofán nations, together with the authorities of the Confederation of Indigenous Nations of the Ecuadorian Amazon (CONFENIAE) and the Confederation of Indigenous Nations of Ecuador (CONAIE), demonstrated in unity to demand that the Constitutional Court prioritize the analysis of Case No. 1296-19-JP, convene a hearing in the province of Pastaza in the Ecuadorian Amazon, and issue a ruling that guarantees the collective right of indigenous peoples to free, prior and informed consultation.
Case No. 1296-19-JP refers to the historic victory won in 2019 by 16 Waorani communities of Pastaza, which annulled the consultation carried out by the Ecuadorian State in 2012, on the basis of its violation of their collective rights. The Constitutional Court selected this ruling in 2020 to generate jurisprudence on consultation and free, prior and informed consent, but after four years, it has yet to make a ruling. Meanwhile, the current Ecuadorian government has expressed interest in promoting new oil and mining bidding rounds in the Ecuadorian Amazon.
The collective demand being made is for the sentence to be ratified, for clear criteria on consultation to be issued, and that all this be followed up with by the Court, to ensure compliance not only for the Waorani nation, but for all the nationalities of the Amazon.
As Jorge Acero, human rights defender and lawyer for Amazon Frontlines, explains: “The Constitutional Court should pronounce itself over what is already established in the 2019 Waorani case sentence, that there should not only be a consultation, but that the consent of the communities is necessary. The Court must deepen and clarify the criteria for prior, free and informed consultation, and ensure that it is complied with. It is no use issuing clear criteria if the government in power does not comply with them.”
Luis Canelos, president of the Kichwa people of Pastaza – Pakkiru, points out that all previous consultation processes have violated their rights because “they have not been binding on the issue of consent. Rather they were done through public officials and without respecting our organizational structures, without our territorial authorities. They violated our rights.” This shared experience helps explain why the ratification of the Waorani Case sentence, a precedent, will impact the other Indigenous nations in Ecuador, which will have one more tool to defend their territories.
The delegation of peoples and nations was received and heard by six judges of the Constitutional Court, including the reporting judge Richard Ortiz, who is in charge of the analysis of the case. Waorani leader Nemonte Nenquimo expressed that it is now the responsibility of the Constitutional Court to extend the measures established in the Waorani sentence for the other nations. As Nenquimo stated, “they also went to deceive and lie to other nations. In 2019 we won this historic ruling but we see that with this oil round there is no guarantee. It is in your hands. The Ecuadorian State must respect us. Our territory is not for sale, we demand to be heard and respected.”
During the meeting the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of the Ecuadorian Amazon, CONFENIAE, PAKKIRU and the Federation of the Shuar Nationality of Pastaza – FENASH-P presented themselves as amicus curiae – groups with a strong interest in a legal matter – in support of the Waorani cause. At the end, Silvana Nihua, president of the Waorani Organization of Pastaza informed that the judges were invited to hold the hearing in the territory and that they will remain vigilant.
“All peoples and nationalities are different but we have the same threats. Any project plan can come but with only the consent of the communities. Without consent it is null and void,” said Silvana Nihua.
In 2021, the Constitutional Court held a hearing in the A’i Cofán community of Sinangoe, which resulted in a ruling that developed standards for compliance with the obligations to respect, promote and guarantee the right to free, prior and informed consent of Indigenous communities, peoples and nations in the context of extractive plans and projects.
Angel Gonzalez, a human rights defender and lawyer for Amazon Frontlines explains that in this case, in addition to establishing special protections given to recently-contacted peoples such as the Waorani, “we are seeking that Court should link the right to consent with self-determination, identifying that each people can establish its own procedures and ways of being, thinking and acting. A specific and not homogenizing process should be established. A Waorani is different from a Kichwa or a Shuar and that should be established in the judgment of the Constitutional Court.”
Leonidas Iza, president of CONAIE said that “the Indigenous peoples of the world are threatened by the aggressiveness of the implementation of extractive policies. We are in danger. The territories of Indigenous peoples cannot be disposable territories. They are territories of life that contain the forest, the water, and the ecology that has allowed for the regulation of life not only for Indigenous peoples, but for all humanity. We are at a disadvantage but the struggle must continue in unity”.
80% of the territory of the province of Pastaza is Indigenous territory and they are the best preserved forests in Ecuador. Strengthening the autonomy of Indigenous peoples is key to the conservation of the Amazon rainforest and with the constant threat of new oil and mining bids, the Court’s pronouncement is increasingly urgent.
