In Peru alone, five human rights defenders have been assassinated from April to September of this year.
Leaders of indigenous communities in the Amazon region called for attention to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) to intercede with the Governments of Peru, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador and Brazil, and they take action against violations of human rights are reported in their territories.
During the 177th session of the IACHR, the Coordinator of Indigenous Organizations of the Amazon Basin (Coica), which represents the indigenous peoples of the nine countries of the Amazon basin, issued an alert call for the murders, threats and violations of human rights suffered by members of indigenous communities.
The vice president of the Inter-ethnic Association for the Development of the Peruvian Jungle (Aidesep), Richard Rubio, expressed in the meeting with the IACHR that from April to last September 11, five human rights defenders have been murdered in Peru.
In addition, he declared that in this situation “coordinated measures in a multisectoral manner are urgently needed” and that the Peruvian State must give priority to the approval of the ratification of the Escazú Agreement “in a timely manner.”
The Escazú Agreement was signed by Peru on September 27, 2018 with provisions for the protection of individuals, groups and organizations that promote and defend human rights in environmental matters, which it has not ratified.
The situation in Colombia was also presented to the IACHR. In the South American nation, at least six people have died in recent days during a confrontation between two illegal armed groups in an indigenous reservation in the department of Nariño (southwest), which also left two wounded and two missing.
Similarly, the leader of the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of the Ecuadorian Amazon (Confeniae), Andrés Tapia, denounced before the IACHR “the frequent processes of persecution and criminalization” suffered by indigenous leaders of his country.
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