2013 IACHR Hearing on Impact of Canadian Mining in Latin America

On 1 November 2013, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) held a hearing involving delegates from Honduras, Colombia, Peru, Chile and Brazil regarding the impacts of Canadian mining activities in the region, including testimony from the Honduran Centre for the Promotion of Community Development (CEHPRODEC) on the San Martín mining project. The hearing was part of the Commission’s 149th Regular Period of Sessions and focused on the responsibility of “home states” – that is, the originating states of mining corporations operating in Latin America, such as Canada. The delegates raised particular concerns “about how Canadian government representatives have intervened in the creation or reform of laws in other countries without respect for what mining-affected communities have been calling for” (MiningWatch Canada, 2013). Following the hearing, the Working Group on Mining and Human Rights in Latin America (a group comprised of seven NGOs) released a report stating that “Canadian firms are exploiting weak legal systems in Latin American countries and Canada itself, as well as failing to respect indigenous peoples’ rights, international human rights and social responsibility principles, and supposedly ‘protected’ areas” (Guardian, 2014).