Get ANAM to respect Ngobe people's rights in Panama
Meanwhile, the area remains under siege. The Ngobe have no electricity, no cell phone reception, and no access to the Internet. Police prevent any outsiders from reaching the Ngobe communities. Even the UNESCO delegation that recently visited Panama to investigate the dam's environmental consequences was prevented from entering the zone. While Ngobe villagers are still free to leave and return, the trip out is arduous. The only way they know that supporters want to talk with them is if the outsiders risk arrest by approaching the police patrols. Ngobe villagers who witness these confrontations then know to send an emissary to a nearby town to meet with their supporters.
The courts in Panama continue to stall all action aimed at protecting the Ngobe. Most significantly, Panama's Supreme Court has still not ruled on whether it has jurisdiction to consider an amparo petition (similar to an American habeus corpus petition) that our on-the-ground partner, the Alliance for Conservation and Development in Panama (ACD), filed in December.
Efforts by Cultural Survival to persuade the AES corporation to adopt a more socially responsible approach have also been rebuffed. In February, Cultural Survival board and staff members contacted senior AES corporate officers and an AES board member, but in each instance we were dismissively redirected to the company's public relations bureau.
Lacking remedies in Panama and through the corporation, Cultural Survival and ACD have now taken the battle to the international arena. Last week we filed a petition with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, alleging violations of the Ngobe peoples' human rights. Along with that petition we appealed to the commission to go directly to the Inter-American Court of Human Rights for an order calling on Panama to halt all work on the dam until the Ngobe are properly consulted and their rights are respected. You can read that petition on Cultural Survival's website.
We also are launching a global letter-writing campaign to persuade Panama's environmental agency, ANAM, which commissioned AES-Changuinola to build the dam, to halt construction and set up a process that guarantees that the Ngobe peoples' human rights, now and in the future, are respected.
You can join this effort by sending letters or emails of concern to:
Dra. Ligia Castro de Dones
Administradora General
Autoridad Nacional del Ambiente
C-0843
Balboa Panamá, Rep. de Panamá
Tel: (011) 507-500-0814
PETITION LETTER:
Distinguished Administradora General:
The Ngobe villagers living along the Changuinola River in western Panama are suffering grave violations of their internationally recognized human rights as a result of construction of the Chan-75 hydroelectric dam.
Police have abused, injured, and arrested individual Ngobe for protesting the denial of their right to fully participate as a community in all decision-making relating to road and dam construction, and to the communities' future. Construction is now proceeding around-the-clock even though Ngobe lands have still not been surveyed, demarcated, or titled. Construction crews are indiscriminately bulldozing Ngobe homesteads and farms, and individuals who protest are hauled off to jail.
Until these human rights violations are addressed and the Ngobe villagers are given a fair and equitable voice in negotiations, dam construction must stop.
I urge you to use your authority to stop the construction and set up a process that guarantees that the Ngobe peoples' human rights are respected now and in the future.
Sincerely yours,
Meanwhile, the area remains under siege. The Ngobe have no electricity, no cell phone reception, and no access to the Internet. Police prevent any outsiders from reaching the Ngobe communities. Even the UNESCO delegation that recently visited Panama to investigate the dam's environmental consequences was prevented from entering the zone. While Ngobe villagers are still free to leave and return, the trip out is arduous. The only way they know that supporters want to talk with them is if the outsiders risk arrest by approaching the police patrols. Ngobe villagers who witness these confrontations then know to send an emissary to a nearby town to meet with their supporters.
The courts in Panama continue to stall all action aimed at protecting the Ngobe. Most significantly, Panama's Supreme Court has still not ruled on whether it has jurisdiction to consider an amparo petition (similar to an American habeus corpus petition) that our on-the-ground partner, the Alliance for Conservation and Development in Panama (ACD), filed in December.
Efforts by Cultural Survival to persuade the AES corporation to adopt a more socially responsible approach have also been rebuffed. In February, Cultural Survival board and staff members contacted senior AES corporate officers and an AES board member, but in each instance we were dismissively redirected to the company's public relations bureau.
Lacking remedies in Panama and through the corporation, Cultural Survival and ACD have now taken the battle to the international arena. Last week we filed a petition with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, alleging violations of the Ngobe peoples' human rights. Along with that petition we appealed to the commission to go directly to the Inter-American Court of Human Rights for an order calling on Panama to halt all work on the dam until the Ngobe are properly consulted and their rights are respected. You can read that petition on Cultural Survival's website.
We also are launching a global letter-writing campaign to persuade Panama's environmental agency, ANAM, which commissioned AES-Changuinola to build the dam, to halt construction and set up a process that guarantees that the Ngobe peoples' human rights, now and in the future, are respected.
You can join this effort by sending letters or emails of concern to:
Dra. Ligia Castro de Dones
Administradora General
Autoridad Nacional del Ambiente
C-0843
Balboa Panamá, Rep. de Panamá
Tel: (011) 507-500-0814
PETITION LETTER:
Distinguished Administradora General:
The Ngobe villagers living along the Changuinola River in western Panama are suffering grave violations of their internationally recognized human rights as a result of construction of the Chan-75 hydroelectric dam.
Police have abused, injured, and arrested individual Ngobe for protesting the denial of their right to fully participate as a community in all decision-making relating to road and dam construction, and to the communities' future. Construction is now proceeding around-the-clock even though Ngobe lands have still not been surveyed, demarcated, or titled. Construction crews are indiscriminately bulldozing Ngobe homesteads and farms, and individuals who protest are hauled off to jail.
Until these human rights violations are addressed and the Ngobe villagers are given a fair and equitable voice in negotiations, dam construction must stop.
I urge you to use your authority to stop the construction and set up a process that guarantees that the Ngobe peoples' human rights are respected now and in the future.
Sincerely yours,
Administradora General
Autoridad Nacional del Ambiente
C-0843
Balboa Panamá, Rep. de Panamá
Tel: (011) 507-500-0814
PETITION LETTER:
Distinguished Administradora General:
The Ngobe villagers living along the Changuinola River in western Panama are suffering grave violations of their internationally recognized human rights as a result of construction of the Chan-75 hydroelectric dam.
Police have abused, injured, and arrested individual Ngobe for protesting the denial of their right to fully participate as a community in all decision-making relating to road and dam construction, and to the communities' future. Construction is now proceeding around-the-clock even though Ngobe lands have still not been surveyed, demarcated, or titled. Construction crews are indiscriminately bulldozing Ngobe homesteads and farms, and individuals who protest are hauled off to jail.
Until these human rights violations are addressed and the Ngobe villagers are given a fair and equitable voice in negotiations, dam construction must stop.
I urge you to use your authority to stop the construction and set up a process that guarantees that the Ngobe peoples' human rights are respected now and in the future.
Sincerely yours,
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Respect the rights of the people!
De nada vale que tengamos energía si no tenemos personas pues la destruccion creciente e indiscriminada de la naturaleza tendra repercuciones en los seres humanos porque este sistema es una cadena en la que estamos nosotros los humanos no como dueños y señores sino como administradores que a la larga sufrimos las mas grandes consecuencias. EL CREADOR NOS DEJO LAS AGUAS, TIERRA Y AIRE..... Y NOS PEDIRA CUENTA DE QUÉ ESTAMOS HACIENDO CON ELLOS...SOLO TU PUEDES RESOLVER LA GRAN PREGUNTA
Human rights must take precedence over property rights, and it is the responsibility of governments to protect the rights of all their peoples, certainly their indigenous populations. We strongly request that the government of Panama respect the rights of the Ngobe, and involve them in the decisions that impact their lives.
This is another sad history of my Panama. Graddy politics, graddy empresary want the money of anyway. He dont care play with the pain of another people!
Please respect the rights of the Ngode people.
Human Rights violations of the most basic kind - infringement on another people's living space - are unacceptable, coming from members of a society that considers itself "civilized"!
Please respect first world's rights!
Please don't allow the Ngobe people to lose their ancestral lands. 'Progress' should not be measured in acres of indigenous lands destroyed, but in the ways we successfully embrace our historic beginnings and meld them with our future.
Thank you.
Stop Construction of the Chan 75 hydroelectric dam. Instead construct turbine plants in the Pacific Ocean to generate electricity. Please instead investigate Ocean Power Technologies, Inc. in the United Kingdom, and Renewable Energy Holdings PLC in the United Kingdom.
Please stop the construction of the dam until the Ngöbe are properly consulted and their rights are respected
Construction of the dam will violate the Ngobe's people human rights
Please, do not allow this tragedy to happen to the Njobe people. Construction of the dam will impact us all because we live in a global world.
It has been proven over and over that construction of this kind of dam project leads to disaster down the road. Do not fall for this type of forced colonization of indigenous lands to fulfill your wealth dreams, it will not work and you will create a disaster for 1,000s of people. Sincerley, Zoe H. Armstrong
As a concerned global citizen, I urge you to take the above mentioned actions. The eyes of the world are upon your government, please do the right thing.
Those of us from the UK are in complete and total support of the Ngobe people's rights. We believe thier treatment is unnecessary and on a par with torture. This is a form of abusive treatment which we will not tolerate in Britain.
Dam construction is over done throughout the globe. There are more sustainable strategies!
Please protect native peoples!!!
We would never allow this in the United States... why let it slide elsewhere?
Please respect human rights and people over all! / Jessica
The Ngobe people have an innate right to keep their way of life. The Panama Government did not consult the Ngobe people before taking action on their land, land that they have inhabited for thousands of years.
Failure to consult the Ngobe people before forcefully and illegally seizing their land was a human rights violation; the continued construction disrespects the Ngobe, their land and harms their future.
Please halt construction and respect the rights of the Ngobe people!!
Without respecting the rights and cultures of Indigenous Peoples--everywhere--we degrade our own values and cultures. Let the Ngobe people retain their space and culture. Loren Kramer
We cannot afford to lose more indigenous knowledge and territory. Please stop this disastrous policy.
We cannot afford to lose more indigenous knowledge and territory. Please stop this disastrous policy.
Please respect the rights of the Ngobe people and stop moving them off their lands. The indigenous way of life is a value that should be factored into the project, and the Ngobe's point of view should not be--literally--bulldozed.
For much too long the rights of Indigenous people have been ignored. They are living, breathing human beings just as you are and have every right to live in their homeland without disturbance, and in peace. How could you rest peacefully and survive in happiness under the conditions you are putting these people in? It is high time that their lives and livelihood are respected and protected. I implore you to do the right thing and bring humanitarian awareness and action to all of your endeavors. Now is the time to right your wrongs.
AES Corporation should respect the rights of the Ngobe and their lands!
You need to let people in and out of the effected zone to investigate.
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