KAIROS urges Canada to halt free trade negotiations with Ecuador
On November 25, KAIROS sent a letter to the Prime Minister urging Canada to halt the proposed free trade agreement with Ecuador, which is currently being fast-tracked. The expectation is that negotiations will wrap up at the end of 2024.
In the letter, KAIROS’ Executive Director, Leah Reesor-Keller highlights concerns that the agreement is negotiated without the Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) of Indigenous peoples in Ecuador, and that Canada has included investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) provisions that will allow Canadian companies to sue Ecuador for strengthening its environmental and human rights protections.
ISDS will make matters worse for Indigenous and rural communities in Ecuador already impacted by the existing 15 Canadian mining projects in their territories. Many of these companies face allegations of serious and ongoing human rights and ecological abuses, including contributing to ecological collapse in the Ecuadorian Amazon.
“Measures that undermine UNDRIP, national laws and efforts to improve human rights and ecologies fly in the face of Canada’s pledge to secure an inclusive trade deal respecting democracy and human rights,” writes Reesor-Keller in the letter.
The letter also highlights the gendered impacts of resource extraction. It was sent on International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women (November 25), and follows up on the Why We Say No Tour, which took place in Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal in early autumn. KAIROS, Amnesty International Canada, Mining Watch and other civil society organizations, sponsored and accompanied four women rights defenders from Ecuador, two of whom are Indigenous. They were here to speak out against the trade talks that excluded their voices and experiences and that aim to expand Canadian resource extraction projects in their communities, which are in ecologically vulnerable regions.
