Indigenous peoples will ask for guarantees of participation at the first meeting of the Conference of the Parties

It was announced through a statement that the Coordinator of Indigenous Organizations of the Amazon Basin (COICA), through the Program for the Defense of Indigenous Defenders (PDDD), requires countries to implement mechanisms that guarantee the effective participation of indigenous peoples in the negotiation process in the first meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP1) to the Regional Agreement on Access to Information, Public Participation and Access to Justice in Environmental Matters in Latin America and the Caribbean “Escazú Agreement”,

This year the event will be held in Santiago, Chile from April 20 to 22 and will hold bilateral meetings, panels, work tables and conferences. On this occasion, representatives and leaders from 24 countries that signed the agreement Latin America and the Caribbean will attend.

It should be noted that this agreement seeks to “guarantee the rights of: access to environmental information in a timely and appropriate manner, the meaningful participation of civil society in environmental decision-making processes that affect the lives of people and their environment, and access to justice in environmental matters when these rights have been violated”.

As for the representation of the indigenous communities of the Colombian Amazon, as part of a strategy of these populations, the National Organization of the Indigenous Peoples of the Amazon of Colombia (OPIACO), is part of the organizations of more than 511 Amazonian indigenous peoples, COICA.

It is important to remember that OPIACO in Colombia exercises the representation of the Indigenous Peoples of the Colombian Amazon policy, which requires that they be taken into account. And that in recent days he has asked the corresponding entities to monitor the situation of the municipality of Leguízamo (Putumayo) in the El Remanso village, where the massacre occurred by the Colombian Army.

“Escazú became the first Agreement to recognize, protect and promote the rights of defenders and human rights in environmental matters, including indigenous defenders who fight daily for the protection of collective, territorial and environmental rights in the Amazon basin, so that they can act without threats, restrictions and insecurity”,

“Escazú became the first Agreement to recognize, protect and promote the rights of defenders and human rights in environmental matters, including indigenous defenders who fight daily for the protection of collective, territorial and environmental rights in the Amazon basin, so that they can act without threats, restrictions and insecurity”,

They also emphasized that in this Escazú Agreement they identify that “indigenous peoples have our own worldview that interconnects spirituality, the word of life, culture and territory, and corresponds to the exercise of autonomy and self-governance, in order to ensure mechanisms for participation effective and full participation of indigenous representatives in the decision-making processes of this COP, from COICA we propose”.

OPIACO joins the call COICA for their recognition and participation in the Conference of the Parties and with the more than 511 peoples ask that in order to ensure mechanisms for the effective and full participation of indigenous representatives in the decision-making processes of the Conference of the Parties, they propose:

1.Incorporation of an indigenous representative in the Bureau of the COP of the Escazú Agreement.

2. Implementation of an Indigenous Caucus for the Escazú COP.

3. Establishment of a specific subsidiary body for the implementation of the Escazú Agreement on indigenous issues.

4. Incorporation of an indigenous representative on the Presiding Officers of the Committee to Support the Implementation and Compliance of the Escazú Agreement.

5.Adoption of a Work Plan on the mechanisms to be developed to promote the implementation of the Agreement in favor of the rights of Indigenous Peoples.

It should be noted that, through its delegation, COICA announced that, through its delegation, the indigenous peoples of the nine countries of the Amazon basin: Bolivia, Ecuador, Peru, Colombia, Brazil, Venezuela, Guyana, French Guiana and Suriname, will be present at COP1.

“To demand that effective mechanisms are in place for indigenous peoples' participation in the prior and negotiation processes of the COP and implementation of the Escazú Agreement, to promote the effective protection of the Amazon, recognizing our fundamental contribution to the protection of mother forest through the knowledge and ancestral knowledge”, is the message that will be given by the Amazonian indigenous communities of nine countries, who inhabit areas of the Amazon.

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