Ahead of the United Nations’ Universal periodic review on November 10, 2023, a delegation composed of Indigenous leaders, local communities, and Latin American civil society representatives will travel to Geneva for the UPR pre-session from August 28 to September 1, 2023 to expose the predatory modus operandi of Canada’s extractive sectors operating in Latin American and the Caribbean.

Amazon Watch was joined by more than 50 civil society organizations to compile three critical reports – covering Regional, Amazonian, and Oil and Gas – under the campaign Unmasking Canada: Rights Violations Across Latin America. These documents collectively demand accountability for corporate abuses linked to 37 Canadian projects across nine countries in Latin America and the Caribbean.

The Amazon Report Canada, specifically documents abuses and rights violations linked to 7 mining and 4 oil extractive projects in Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru, controlled by 16 Canadian companies and supported by Canadian banks, and causing severe damage to biodiversity, forests, and waterways. In addition, 10 of the projects directly affect Indigenous peoples from at least 16 ethnic groups, as well as traditional peoples such as riverine communities and the protected areas, land reform settlements, and rural communities they inhabit. Together, these four countries account for 85% of the Amazon, a tropical forest with the greatest biodiversity in the world and which plays a key role in containing the climate crisis, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

Among the violations found in the operations of Canadian companies in the Amazon rainforest of these four countries are violations of:

• Indigenous peoples’ rights
• The right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment
• Civil and political rights
• Economic, social, and cultural rights