141. Ecuador is a party to the 1989 International Labour Organization (ILO) Convention No. 169 concerning Indigenous and Tribal Peoples in Independent Countries. It also co-sponsored the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples adopted by the General Assembly in 2007, among other international instruments relating to the rights of indigenous peoples.
For some years now it has been part of the working group responsible for adopting the Inter-American Convention on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples within the framework of the Organization of American States (OAS).
142. The Constitution establishes the principle that Ecuador is a multicultural, multi-ethnic entity that recognizes the collective rights of indigenous peoples in the following areas: cultural diversity, identity, land rights, justice, official use of languages, health, education, economic rights, cultural heritage, indigenous women and indigenous peoples in border areas.
143. The rights of indigenous people are further promoted in subsidiary legislation, including the Organizational Act for Public Institutions of Indigenous Peoples Defining Themselves as Ancestral Nationalities, which entered into force in September 2007, and the Regulations for Indigenous Human Rights Promoters. Both of these comply with the recommendation issued by the
United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights and fundamental freedoms of indigenous people.
144. In February 2007 the Government established the Secretariat for Peoples, Social Movements and Citizen Participation to act as the lead body for public policies ensuring the right to citizen participation, in charge of designing and developing measures and actions to stimulate, channel and consolidate participation by peoples, social movements and citizens, such as indigenous people, in key decision-making that affects them. The institutions set up for this purpose include the Council for the Development of Ecuadorian Nationalities and Peoples (CODENPE), which was created in 1998 with a mandate to draw up policies and implement and propose comprehensive sustainable development programmes jointly administered by the State and indigenous nationalities and peoples.
145. Other institutions include in the Ministry of Education a National Indigenous People’s Education Department and a Bilingual Intercultural Education System, covering the ancestral wisdom and world view of the indigenous peoples, in the Ministry of Health an Indigenous People’s Health Department and in the Office of the Ombudsman the National Directorate of Indigenous Peoples. These institutions have produced programmes and projects that in some way address the social rights of indigenous people. It can be argued, however, that this effort has not been sufficient to address the historic demands and structural development needs of indigenous people.
146. When it assumed office in January 2007, the present Government stated that one of its priorities was to create an institutional framework for the effective management of indigenous people’s development, observing the principle of respect for multiculturalism and diversity, in order to foster broad social participation in decision-making and the implementation of plans and projects.
To that end, the right of indigenous people to be consulted on all aspects affecting their collective rights and quality of life will be guaranteed. The establishment of a new institutional framework governing indigenous people is part of the Ecuadorian State’s profound political and administrative restructuring process that is being carried forward by the Constituent Assembly.
147. CODENPE is currently implementing a strategic plan for the economic, social and cultural development of indigenous people. The components of the plan include: the promotion of economic activities to eradicate poverty and create jobs; social aid for access to vital basic services; the
promotion of culture; environmental development, with projects involving the rational and sustainable use of natural resources; and the strengthening of local governments in indigenous territories, with an emphasis on technical training, decentralization, programme and project
implementation, appropriate motivation, participation, follow-up and citizen oversight by social and indigenous organizations. In addition, a project on Strengthening Forms of Government of
Nationalities and Peoples and the Application of Techniques and Methodologies for Recovering and Conserving Natural Resources is currently being implemented.
II.4.1.1 Indigenous groups in voluntary isolation
148. In 2007 the Government declared the situation of indigenous peoples in voluntary isolation to be national policy, subject to observance of the principles of inviolability, self-determination,
reparation, pro homine, cultural diversity, prevention, equality and respect for human dignity, which essentially entails respecting their fundamental rights and guaranteeing their rights to life, physical integrity, culture, land, and social and collective rights, while ensuring their right to
self-determination and their desire to remain in isolation. The President of the Republic,
Mr. Rafael Correa, has issued an order delimiting the reserved, inviolable area where such groups have settled, which stretches over 758,000 hectares, and has ordered the transfer of US$ 740,000 to the Tagaeri-Taromenane people as part of preventive measures called for by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.
149. This comprehensive approach includes action strategies that ensure that the above principles are respected, through coordinated management by Government institutions and civil society.
150. Recent reports of the alleged deaths of indigenous persons who were not contacted within the inviolable area by persons involved in illegal lumbering were immediately investigated by the authorities and the police. Although the latter visited the place where the alleged murders took place, they have not, at the time of this report, found any supporting evidence.
II.4.2 Rights of Afro-Ecuadorians
151. Ecuador has made significant efforts to look upon the Afro-Ecuadorian population as an important sector to be included in the country’s socio-economic development. In 2005 the
Corporation for Afro-Ecuadorian Development, CODAE, was established as a body attached to the Office of the President of the Republic, in charge of defending and promoting the rights of the Afro-Ecuadorian people, advocating policies for their comprehensive development and combating racial discrimination. In addition the National Department for the Defence of Afro-Ecuadorian People’s Rights operates under the Office of the Ombudsman. At the local level, the Quito
metropolitan district municipality has established an Afro-Ecuadorian People’s Development Unit and a Metropolitan Social Council for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. While Ecuador has seen more participation by Afro-Ecuadorian people in national politics and in central, provincial and local government positions, progress has still not been sufficient.
152. Through the National Human Rights Plan, the State of Ecuador has made an effort to
implement public policies, for which it has designed a sectoral operational plan on the rights of the Afro-Ecuadorian people. CODAE has also drawn up an institutional operational plan that
introduces a hierarchy of economic, social and cultural rights of the Afro-Ecuadorian people and establishes policies for their integration in socio-economic, labour, education and health terms.
For the 2007-2010 National Development Plan, which has a large component of policies in favour of the development of the Afro-Ecuadorian people, the main challenge has been securing sufficient budget resources for implementation.
153. Through the Act on the collective rights of Afro-Ecuadorian people that has been in force since 2006, efforts are being made to incorporate Afro-Ecuadorians in the country’s economic and social development, to recognize their collective land ownership and the dissemination of their cultures, to respect their ancestral medicine and to ensure that their ethnic identity is taught in school.
154. As part of the Durban Plan of Action, whose degree of implementation will be assessed this year, Ecuador has facilitated the establishment of territorial units specifically for the
Afro-Ecuadorian community in the northern part of the country. A system of indicators known as
“Afro-Ecuadorians in Figures” is being set up to overcome the invisibility and historic exclusion in which this group has lived and to show current trends in the areas of health, education, social welfare, employment and international migration which will make an important contribution to the country and to the region.
155. While progress has been made in some respects, the State and civil society still have a long way to go in promoting the rights of the Afro-Ecuadorian people. The national Government is studying alternative ways of strengthening the bodies responsible for promoting the development of Afro-descendent people and for better implementing comprehensive public policies. The
Government’s concern has been reflected in the allocation of substantial financial resources for social welfare, which will make it possible in the medium term to reduce the indices of unsatisfied basic needs (UBN) currently reflecting the situation of Afro-Ecuadorians.
II.4.3 Right to a healthy environment
156. The 1998 Constitution establishes the people’s fundamental right to live in a healthy
environment, compatible with sustainable development, while at the same time ensuring the right of every community to participate and to be informed, as well as to express opinions on the
implementation of State decisions that may affect the environment. This concern for guarantees has inter alia been reflected since 1999 in the Environmental Management Act, and subsequently in the Unified Text on Subsidiary Legislation of the Ministry of the Environment, which entered into force in 2003, and in implementation strategies involving public development policies based on sustainable use of natural resources and the conservation of biodiversity, thanks to which Ecuador has become the leading mega-diverse country in the world.
157. The Ministry of the Environment, as the national environmental authority and the body responsible for policy, legal and administrative coordination in this field, carries out and promotes the implementation of functional plans and programmes, such as the National Decentralized Environmental Management System, the National Protected Areas System and mechanisms for the decentralization and devolution of competencies to local governments.
158. The projects implemented with international support include the establishment in 1999 of the National Climate Committee, which set up basic institutions responsible for addressing climate change in Ecuador. Activities have included some 50 studies and research projects on ways of reducing greenhouse gases and adapting to climate change; the comprehensive PATRA project, which was the first environmental management project in Ecuador to implement basic
environmental principles and policies in 2001; sustainable development programmes on the southern border; and programmes for the institutional strengthening of environmental administration and sustainable development in the Ecuadorian Amazon.
159. Similarly, pursuant to the Stockholm Convention, and with support from the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), Ecuador in 2002 carried out a national implementation plan for the management of persistent organic pollutants. Current projects include those addressing
adaptation to climate change through effective water management in Ecuador, management to improve air quality, protection of the Cuyabeno-Yasuní Forests and a regional programme for the social management of Andean forest ecosystems (ECOBONA).
160. With regard to promoting rights and responsibilities for environmental protection and conservation, Ecuador’s active participation in the relevant international conventions has made it possible to strengthen national policies and increase public awareness and involvement. Thus the Ministries of the Environment and Education launched the 2006-2016 National Environmental Education Plan for children and adolescents with the aim of training youngsters to feel solidarity with and protective towards their environment. Similarly, the Ecuadorian authorities are providing training to ensure that local authorities foster equity in the distribution of their localities’ natural resources.
161. Ecuador is now facing the challenge of raising public awareness of third-generation rights and of establishing mechanisms to improve observance of the right to a healthy environment, in a context where society and the State share responsibility for effective enjoyment thereof.