Nanaimo filmmaker Paul Manly has been visiting communities and hearing from individuals affected by mining projects in El Salvador and the tactics of Investor State Dispute Settlements (ISDS) used by mining companies
On September 10, 2014, dozens of organizations from Canada, El Salvador and around the world confronted Canadian-Australian mining company Oceana Gold, whose subsidiary is suing the nation of El Salvador for $301 million (USD). El Salvador’s offence was refusing to a grant a permit to a gold mine that would contaminate 60 per cent of the population’s drinking water.
The Council of Canadians, the Latin American Solidarity Network, the Mining Injustice Solidarity Network and others planned to descend on the company’s Toronto headquarters to present a letter from people affected by the decision. The letter demands that the company withdraw the lawsuit.
The court case was heard on Monday, September 15 at the International Centre for the Settlement of Investment Disputes in Washington, D.C. The court date coincided with El Salvador’s Independence Day, an irony that was not lost on the groups protesting.
Council of Canadians board member arrives in San Salvador
Council of Canadians Board member (and Nanaimo filmmaker) Paul Manly arrived in San Salvador on Sunday September 14, 2014. “I’m representing The Council of Canadians and taking part in an international delegation that is examining the situation in El Salvador,” he wrote.
“Over the next week I will be traveling throughout the country, visiting communities and hearing from individuals who have been affected by mining projects in El Salvador and the bully tactics of Investor State Dispute Settlements (ISDS) used by mining companies. …Investor State mechanisms have no place in so called ‘Free Trade’ agreements. I will be returning to Canada with evidence of how this destructive process has worked in El Salvador.” –Paul Manly
Investor State Dispute Settlements (ISDS)
Dan Ikenson writes in a Forbes.com article that “Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) provisions enable foreign investors to circumvent domestic legal processes and sue host governments in third-party arbitration tribunals for unfair or discriminatory treatment – described hyperbolically by those fanning the flames of opposition as ‘running roughshod over domestic laws, regulations, and sovereignty.'”
Ikeson argues that “multinational corporations want access to ISDS, but they don’t need it.” He suggests that ISDS should be removed from current trade negotiations—or the agreements themselves may be at risk of not being completed.
While in El Salvador, Paul Manly was interviewed by a local television station about the Council of Canadians’ view of the OceanaGold investor-state challenge against El Salvador. Manly notes, “I told them that the Council is opposed to Investor State provisions in trade agreements, that the Pacific Rim case in the ICSID should be dismissed and that it is shameful that a Canadian mining company is suing the government of El Salvador for protecting the environment and the water supply for 60% of the countries inhabitants.”
Human rights abuses alleged
A group called International Allies Against Mining in El Salvador states that, after the lawsuit against El Salvador was initiated, the mining company led “a disastrous community relations campaign in Cabañas that engendered deadly conflict in the communities surrounding its El Dorado mining project. At least five anti-mining activists have been assassinated since 2009 whose murders have not been adequately investigated. Many other environmental defenders currently live under continuous death threats against their lives and the lives of their families.”
“The state of insecurity generated in Cabañas prompted the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) to issue precautionary measures ordering the Government of El Salvador to ‘adopt the measures necessary to guarantee the life and personal integrity of the beneficiaries, and to inform the IACHR about any actions taken to investigate the facts.'”
“The case threatens the sovereignty and self-determination of peoples,” says Hector Berrios, coordinator of MUFRAS-32, a local organization in Cabañas that is a member of the National Roundtable against Metallic Mining. “The majority of the population has spoken out against this project and gives priority to water. The water crisis will be aggravated even further if the mining company comes, because the operations will use our already scarce resources and pollute the water. For us it is essential to ensure life for present and future generations. The people have already expressed their rejection to the presence of this company in their community.” —Mining company must respect the people of El Salvador’s rights, Oxfam America, Sept. 12, 2014
We’re joined in the studio by Nanaimo-based filmmaker and Council of Canadians board member Paul Manly, who has just returned from El Salvador.
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