The Sarayaku Community Case in Ecuador: Community Involvement in Resource Exploitation

In April 2012, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights issued a judgment in the case of the Sarayaku Community v. Ecuador. In this case, the State of Ecuador was charged with violating the rights of members of the Sarayaku people for allowing indiscriminate oil exploitation in their territory, at the expense of their ancestral lands, including spaces of memory, mourning and ritual.

This was the first time the Inter-American Court sent a delegation to an indigenous community for fact-finding and to conduct hearings. A video (in Spanish) produced by Olger Ignacio Gonzalez (here), a lawyer at the Court’s Secretariat, documents the work of the delegation and the testimonies given to the Court. During those hearings, Ecuador acknowledged their responsibility for violating the rights of the Sarayaku community, including their right to Free, Prior and Informed Consent.

The video is particularly powerful in showing how the Sarayaku live, and how they were affected by the oil exploitation on their lands. But it is also a stark reminder of what many have referred to as “strategic essentialism” (which has been the object of discussion in this blog in the past). One can see how the Sarayaku members giving testimony struggle to package and frame their grievances in terms understandable to their audience, and easily translatable into human rights claims. However salutary the effort of the Inter-American Court (and Ecuador’s acknowledgment of responsibility), it is also somewhat worrisome that, in an era where pluralism is flagged as the word of the day, and constitutions across South America claim to be multi- and / or intercultural, that this problem in translation is still so acute.

Post written by Lucas Lixinski.

What do you prefer: traditional medicine or chemical one?

BBC news report that a hospital in Riobamba, Ecuador, is offering patients “traditional indigenous Andean medicine alongside Western treatments”.

‘Hospital Andino’ gives the opportunity to patients to choose, according to their belief, what type of treatment they wish for: natural treatment or chemical treatment. If the patient does not choose a conventional doctor/medicine he will be referred to a "yachak" (shamans) who will run a diagnostic of the patient. According to yachak Mariano Atupana, the patient usually needs and/or comes for a spiritual cleansing and thus, the yachak would clean the patient's aura leaving the patient energetic by taking away the patients’ negative energy. Patients will leave feeling renew.

Certainly the Hospital is given the chance to people and more importantly to indigenous peoples who are often doubtful of chemical medicines (Western medicine). Finally, the report asserts that indigenous peoples are “more willing to take other medication if it goes alongside what the shamans say.” Ecuador ratified ILO Convention 169 and this example given by the Hospital is a clear commitment that the Ecuadorian country is in the right path.

The Inca Route as heritage: keeping an eye on the prize

News recently came out that Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru are ready to submit their joint application for adding the Inca Route – Qhapaq Ñan – to the World Heritage List.

What is so special about it?

Well, for one, it is the most multinational nomination to ever be presented to UNESCO’s World Heritage Committee. Secondly, and most importantly, it is a testament to the achievements of the Inca civilization, which pre-dated European conquest in the Americas, and, even though they were ultimately defeated by the Spaniards, mainly via warfare and disease-spreading , their culture still finds resonance amongst indigenous peoples in these countries.

The nomination, with the assistance of UNESCO, is being prepared for some 10 years and is now about to see the light of day. The Qhapaq Ñan is likely to be nominated as a cultural landscape, due to the connections between nature and man-made elements throughout its six thousand kilometres. A cultural route such as Qhapaq Ñan (a prominent European example being the Camino de Santiago de Compostela) is but a succession of landscapes, and, there lacking a specific category for cultural routes in the World Heritage List, it is appropriate that it be nominated as a cultural landscape.

Another reason why it is appropriate that it be nominated as a cultural landscape is that this category is the one through which intangible cultural heritage elements seep most strongly into the World Heritage System. Given the surviving connections between the Qhapaq Ñan and indigenous peoples in these countries, it is important that the living culture (that is, the intangible) aspects of this heritage also be acknowledged, even if it is very unlikely that communities along the route will have much of a say in the nomination process, let alone the actual management of the route.

It is cause for concern that communities be excluded from international heritage processes, seen as they are the ones who will most likely be impacted by the elevation of their heritage to “international status”, and the ones to whom any economic benefits arising from the exploitation of this heritage should return. But the World Heritage system is not the only one to exclude communities – all UNESCO regimes for the protection of heritage do so. One exception on paper is the system of the Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage (2003), which has language on community involvement, and even specific programs for that purpose now in its implementation phase. However, these are little more than lip service as they stand, seen as communities are not given a voice directly before UNESCO, only at the national level, which means states are the only ones who still get to speak before the international community about heritage and its importance, getting to ultimately decide what heritage is for international safeguarding purposes.

While an overhaul of the UNESCO system, while much desired, would be unlikely to come before the Qhapaq Ñan is added to the World Heritage List, it is essential that communities, national authorities and (most importantly for the purposes of inscription on the List and subsequent management) UNESCO and the international community keep their eyes set on what really matters: that the living heritage of the Incan Route be preserved and enhanced, and not replaced by a folklorized version of the Inca culture that caters to European tourists, or that favors the monumentality of the route as opposed to the rich multiplicity of the many small nuances and textures of the cultural fabrics that compose this amazing route, and make it a true testament to mankind.

Written by Lucas Lixinski.