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dam-l AAA Report on Pehuenche Human Rights Abuses in Chile
The American Anthropological Association Committee for Human Rights has
just released a report entitled "Violations of Human Rights in the Pangue
and Ralco Dam Projects on the Biobío River, Chile."You can access this
report on the web at <www.ameranthassn.org/chrbrief.htm>. I have also
attached the Executive Summary here.
Background on the report:
Ted Downing, an anthropologist hired by IFC to evaluate the Pangue social
impact and resettlement plans, contacted Barbara Rose Johnston-who was
coordinating a global research and advocacy effort through the Society for
Applied Anthropology-requesting advocacy assistance. He sought this
assistance because the independent review that he was hired to do by WB
President, Wolfensohn regarding the Pehuen Foundation was being suppressed
by the IFC, he was threatened with punative lawsuits if he circulated any
of his research findings, and more importantly, the Pehuenche poeple were
experiencing a number of human rights abuse problems and had no legal
avenue to persue.
Last November, Downing appeared before the American Anthropological
Association Committee for Human Rights to present his case. Also present
were representatives from IFC, the World Bank, and a Chilean anthropologist
(who is also half Pehuenche). The CfHR voted to persue an inquiry into the
case, examining the human rights implications tied to the Biobío dam
projects and also, the broader moral and legal ramifications of private
development bank funding. Following is the Executive Summary of the report.
As stated above, the full content of the report can be found on the web at
<www.ameranthassn.org/chrbrief.htm>.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Pehuenche, the World Bank Group and ENDESA S.A.
Violations of Human Rights in the Pangue and Ralco Dam Projects on the
Bío-Bío River, Chile
[When the Committee for Human Rights takes up a specific case of human
rights abuse, it may prepare a Briefing Document, written by one or more of
its own members, or commissioned from a knowledgeable colleague. The
briefing document is reviewed, perhaps edited, and adopted by the Committee
as a whole and then, together with recommended actions, transmitted to the
president of the American Anthropological Association. A Briefing Document
is not an official document of the Association, but provides essential
information supporting the action recommendations the Committee recommends
to the
Association president.]
Executive Summary
This report was prepared by the Committee for Human Rights of the AAA in
response to a complaint from a member of the Association, Dr. Theodore
Downing. Downing had served as consultant for the International Finance
Corporation (IFC) in an evaluation of the efficacy of the Pehuen
Foundation, an organization created to offset the socioeconomic impacts of
an IFC-financed project, the Pangue Dam, the first of a interrelated pair
of dams on the Bío-Bío River in southern Chile. This evaluation was
prompted by complaints of abuses perpetrated against Pehuenche Indians
through the Pehuen Foundation.
Downing found numerous grave abuses, but the IFC, together with the private
Chilean developer ENDESA, suppressed his report. This placed the
anthropologist in the professionally untenable position of being unable to
reveal to the Pehuenche information that directly affected their rights and
social welfare and the developing threat to their cultural survival.
According to Downing, the IFC failure to release Downing's 1996 report to
the Pehuenche in a culturally appropriate manner, as mandated in his
original contract, meant that the Pehuenche were asked to sign resettlement
agreements (exchanging ancestral land rights for land high in mountains,
several hours distant from their homes) without an understanding of the
effects of Pangue Dam development or the potential effects of the proposed
Ralco Dam development. Furthermore, they were not informed about how the
Pehuen Foundation is structured, what role it is supposed to play in
funneling income back into
the Pehuenche community, or of their constitutionally protected right to
participate in the decision to build a dam within their ancestral
territory. These and other actions that have accompanied the construction
of the Pangue Dam violated the human and constitutional rights of the
Pehuenche. The plan to immediately begin constructing the second dam,
Ralco, will, if no changes are made, result in a dramatically larger
violation of Pehuenche human rights.
The present Report of the Committee for Human Rights presents the evidence
this Committee's review and analysis of the evidence, leading to the twelve
recommendations for action listed in Part IV of this Report. We propose
that the American Anthropological Association, the International Finance
Corporation, the World Bank Group, ENDESA, S.A., and others take these
twelve actions on behalf of the Pehuenche, on behalf of the anthropological
consultant in this case, and on behalf of all anthropologists. These
actions address the roles that the IFC, the World Bank Group, ENDESA S.A.,
the Chilean Government, private banks and others played in this case, the
remedies required to restore Pehuenche rights on the Bío-Bío,
and the changes required to prevent these actors from setting in motion
future development projects that will violate the human rights of other
peoples in another places.
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Aleta Brown
Campaign Associate
International Rivers Network
1847 Berkeley Way
Berkeley, CA 94703 USA
Phone: 1.510.848.1155
Fax: 1.510.848.1008
email: aleta@irn.org
http://www.irn.org