Lima, Friday, 21 July 2017.- Guatemala, Nicaragua, the Dominican Republic and Peru all have regulations on access to information and transparency, but are these applied effectively? Occurrences of provision of data which is incomplete, untimely, hard to understand, (inaccessible due to cost), lacking intercultural approach, and even absence of information, seem to be the common denominator in these countries.
Edison Lanza, Special Rapporteur for freedom of expression of the Inter-American Commission of Human Rights (IACHR), noted that according to international case law access to information is a fundamental human right. For this reason, access to information should not be considered as a mere administrative procedure as it has important consequences for the States internally. Lanza participated in the event «Transparency and access to information as a human right in extractive industries: cases in Latin America and the Caribbean», held in Lima on 5 July 2017.
Lanza also added: «Access to public information does not merely consist of opening the door to a million records whereby the bureaucrat on duty tells me: “here is your information, look it up”. It also implies facilitating information into an easily digestible and assessable format for those who need it». Moreover, the Special Rapporteur affirmed his commitment of making progress towards constructing an instrument that systematizes the requests of civil society and vulnerable populations.
Photos: Annie Morillo / DAR
Extractive and environmental transparency in the region
During the meeting, Fernando Peña, director of the Dominican Observatory of Public Policies of the Autonomous University of Santo Domingo, Jurgen Guevara, Extractive Industries representative at the Humboldt Centre, Erick Cú Caal, representative of the Ancestral Authorities of the Q’eqchi’ Territory, Bernabé Impi, vice president of the Interethnic Association for Development of the Peruvian Jungle (AIDESEP for its acronym in Spanish), and Lizardo Cauper, president of the Regional AIDESEP Organization in Ucayali (ORAU for its acronym in Spanish) reported on the current situation of violations to the right of access to information in extractive industries. They also explained how these violations affect other fundamental rights in their localities such as the right to participation, healthy environment and the right to health.
On 18 March 2017, the three first cases were presented at the IACHR public hearing called «Right of access to information and transparency in the environmental management, granting, monitoring and control of extractive activities in Latin America and the Caribbean» (see report on the hearing here). Just as last March, the Rapporteur Edison Lanza was requested to visit areas affected by investment projects: the Sánchez Carrión province (Dominican Republic) and the departments of Chontales (Nicaragua) and Alta Verapaz (Guatemala). Peruvian indigenous organizations joined in this request.
In addition, the Special Rapporteur for freedom of expression was requested to draft a report to the Member States with recommendations on specific standards relating to access to information, transparency and environmental participation in extractive industries, the importance of which was also highlighted by David Lovatón of Due Process of Law Foundation (DPLF). Civil society committed to support the IACHR in this process by providing information. This type of documents would also be of use for the new Special Rapporteur on Economic, Social, Cultural, and Environmental Rights (ESCER).
Information needs
Access to contracts, tax information and, in particular, access to environmental impact studies (EIA) in the language of the affected indigenous communities are the main requests in Central America and the Caribbean. While on the Peruvian side, it is indeed possible to access some of these documents, it is also necessary to disseminate information relating to, for example, penalties, fines, impacts, commitments and socio-environmental payments of companies. Further, competent authorities should also publish all documents of the administrative proceedings relating to the EIA and the procurement processes.
All of the above should be complemented by ensuring effective participation of local communities and a better prior consultation procedure of indigenous peoples. This point of view was shared by Bernabé Impi AIDESEP and by Lizardo Cauper of ORAU. In relation to prior consultation, Omar Sar of the Department of Constitutional Affairs of the Ombudsman Office (Defensoría del Pueblo) stressed that if one wants to take this process seriously the information provided must be comprehensible.
The President of ORAU pointed out that information does not reach communities where extractive activities are implemented and in order to counter this, ORAU´s surveillance systems are used. However, its findings in relation to environmental impacts do not reach the competent authorities, because the State still does not formally recognize ORAU´s work in defending the environment. «Other institutions do not have all of the information we receive from our community brothers who partake in the control and territorial surveillance.»
Progress and challenges in the public sector
Patrick Wieland, head of the SENACE, a service responsible for the environmental evaluation of the detailed EIA in the sectors of mining, energy and hydrocarbons, noted that the service is «working on guidelines for the executive EIA summaries to be more user friendly». He also reaffirmed SENACE´s commitment to incorporate gender and intercultural approach in the EIA.
Meanwhile, Lillian Ynguil of OEFA announced the development of a digital repository including most requested user information. «In OEFA we want to ensure direct access to the monitoring records and to public reports, among other things». Another pending task to be finalized is the translation of the institutional website to native languages. On the other hand, Eliana Gonzales of the National Commission of Environmental Management within the Judiciary addressed the importance of environmental justice. «The judiciary will encourage the creation and preparation of more courts in this subject matter, notwithstanding budgetary concerns».
Vanessa Cueto, President of the organization Law, Environment and Natural Resources (DAR for its acronym in Spanish), stressed that it is crucial to involve all stakeholders and, in particular, indigenous peoples in order to allow intercultural and gender sensitive approach. In terms of building an environmental institutional framework, she highlighted civil society´s concern about the future of the Contributions by Regulation (APR for its acronym in Spanish), that is currently being decided upon by the Constitutional Court. «The role of the OEFA is very important for the country and OEFA needs the APR budget in order to be able to maintain its activities of monitoring environmental impact studies».
Finally, Vanessa Cueto stressed that at national level, it is important to generate proposals with a view of publication of the implementing regulation to the Legislative Decree No. 1353, a decree creating a national authority for transparency and access to public information. We should be mindful of the potential danger of restricting information by means of guidelines that each entity has to develop, pursuant to Legislative Decree No. 1353, classifying data as secret, confidential or reserved.
This event was organized by Law, Environment and Natural Resources (DAR, Peru), Observatory of Public Policies of the Autonomous University of Santo Domingo (ODPP – UASD, Dominican Republic), the Humboldt Centre (Nicaragua) and Due Process of Law Foundation (DPLF). It was made possible thanks to the support of the Ford Foundation, the Open Society Foundations and Oxfam.
COLLECTIVE PRESS RELEASE
Collected from DAR.