Ecuador
In 2021, several indigenous organizations promoted an action of unconstitutionality, seeking to expel from the Ecuadorian legal system Decree No. 95, known as "the oil decree", which proposes a transitional public policy in which the control and management of strategic sectors pass from the hands of the State to private capital, through participation contracts.
This transfer implies that the Executive Branch will review, expedite, and streamline several enabling processes that authorize the bidding and/or granting of oil blocks. The promoting organizations indicate that the issuance of the decree violates Article 57 of the Constitution, which recognizes and guarantees the right of indigenous communities, peoples, and nationalities to participate in decisions that concern them, since the government did not convene any public participation process to discuss and decide on hydrocarbon policy.
In that regard, the petitioners requested that the Decree be declared unconstitutional both in form and substance.
The challenged Decree implements a public policy that would allow the maximization of extractive activities, and in particular, activities derived from the extraction and transport of crude oil in the Ecuadorian Amazon.
The action refers to the deforestation caused by the projects promoted by the Decree, indicating that oil platforms cause deforestation, which is one of the main sources of greenhouse gas emissions.
By implementing the Decree, the Ecuadorian State would be failing to meet its climate commitments by collaborating in the production of fossil fuels from petro-derivatives, acting against the mitigation of climate change.
It would also fail to meet its international obligations arising from the commitments made in the Paris Agreement, which calls for strengthening the global response to address climate change through ambitious and progressive efforts to transition to a fossil fuel-free economy.
- Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador (CONAIE)
- Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of the Ecuadorian Amazon (CONFENIAE)
- A'i Cofán Community of Sinangoe
- Presidency of the Republic of Ecuador
Traditionally, oil exploitation in Ecuador has been concentrated in its Amazon rainforest. Both current and future bidding and awarding plans have been formulated around oil wells located in the Amazon. Within this natural area also live Indigenous communities—in contact, initial contact, and even in voluntary isolation—who have not participated in prior consultation and pre-legislative processes, in accordance with their collective rights, and there are no guarantees for the protection of these rights.
International:
- ILO Convention 169
- American Convention on Human Rights.
National:
- Constitution of the Republic of Ecuador.