Indigenous Peoples in Colombia: The Threat of Armed Conflict and the Role of Canadian Mining Companies

By Alison Mintoff, 2L

In 2009, the Constitutional Court of Colombia (the Court) handed down a land-mark ruling in which it found that more than one third of the country’s Indigenous groups are threatened with “physical and cultural extermination.” The very survival of Indigenous peoples in Colombia has been threatened by the ongoing armed conflict plaguing the nation for decades. The statistics are staggering: of the over 100 Indigenous groups in the country, 66 have been formally declared as being at high risk of disappearance, and 36 are at risk of extermination by the armed conflict and forced displacement.

Colombian Deputy Justice Federico Guzmán Duque helped author the Court’s 2009 decision. On February 3, 2014, he spoke at the University of Toronto Faculty of Law about the crisis facing Indigenous peoples in Colombia, and Canada’s role as the home country for major mining companies operating in Colombia. Canada, Duque said, has an obligation to take action based on its close economic ties to Colombia. According to Duque, Canadian corporations benefit from the abuses inflicted on Indigenous peoples, including a systematic campaign to displace them and to grant mining concessions on their land.

Colombia is home to more than 100 different, culturally distinct Indigenous groups with a combined population of approximately 1.5 million persons. These groups have developed diverse and sustainable ways of living, sophisticated legal systems, and a long history of political organization and empowerment. Despite these strengths, Indigenous communities are vulnerable due to a “legacy of centuries of subjugation and dispossession, which continues today.”

In his presentation, Duque traced the recent history of the Colombian armed conflict, and painted a complex and violent picture of the abuses affecting Indigenous peoples in a disproportionately harsh manner. The parties to the conflict – namely, the Colombian armed forces, ultra-right paramilitary groups, and leftist guerillas (such as the FARC and ELN) – have all been involved in crimes against Indigenous peoples. The result has been violent incursions into Indigenous-owned land, forced internal displacement, kidnappings, targeting killings of Indigenous leaders, sexual violence against women and girls, and forced recruitment of children and youth by armed groups.

Duque pointed to four “war processes” which produce differential impacts on Indigenous communities. First, Indigenous-owned territory often serves as the “ideal,” remote place to conduct military opera- tions. Second, parties to the conflict often incorporate Indigenous peoples into the violence through, amongst other things, recruitment, selective murders, and use of communities as human shields. Third, resource-rich ancestral lands are threatened by the extractive economic activities related to the conflict, including mining, oil, timber, and agribusiness. And fourth, the conflict worsens the pre-existing poverty, ill-health, malnutrition, and other socio-economic disadvantages suffered by Indigenous peoples.

It is the third “economic war process” which is of particular relevance to Canada. Duque pointed out that non-Colombian companies may be associated with parties to the armed conflict. For instance, armed groups at times provide protection to those working on mining project sites. In addition, according to Duque, Canada plays a part “simply [by] profiting from the forced displacement and violence.”

Canada’s economic ties to Colombia are evident in the Canada-Colombia Free Trade Agreement (the CCOFTA), which was brought into force in August 2011. The Canadian Trade Commissioner Service stated in an overview of the CCOFTA on its website that “Canada already enjoys a significant presence in the Colombian mining industry” and that the trade agreement “will ensure that Canadian service suppliers in the mining industry will enjoy secure, predictable access to the Colombian market.” 

Interestingly, the human rights implications of their close economic ties were recognized by Colombia and Canada in the Agreement concerning Annual Reports on Human Rights and Free Trade between Canada and the Republic of Colombia. Under the Agreement, Canada and Colombia are required to produce an annual report on the effect of the CCOFTA on human rights. Despite this formal agreement, Duque maintains that Canada has remained silent on the issue of human rights abuses in Colombia. Canada’s first annual report, tabled in 2012, claimed that there was insufficient trade data to conduct a full analysis of the relationship between human rights and trade. The 2013 report was also inconclusive, stating that “[i]t is not possible to establish a direct link between the CCOFTA and the human rights situation in Colombia. There is no evidence of a causal link between reductions in tariffs by Canada in accordance with the CCOFTA, and changes in human rights in Colombia.” Duque and other human rights activists argue that these reports are not in the spirit of the CCOFTA. More action can, and should, be taken by Canada, he said.

Canada’s next annual report on human rights in Colombia is expected to be released by mid-June of this year. Undoubtedly, Duque, along with other human rights activists, are waiting and hoping for Canada to increase pressure on the Colombian government to address human rights abuses of Indigenous groups. Canada cannot ignore the bitter reality that its mining companies may be profiting from a conflict which has threatened the very survival of Colombia’s Indigenous population.