Globalized industrial resource extraction is unsustainable from an environmental and social perspective, and Indigenous peoples are often on the front lines of alerting humanity to the resulting harms. Community members and their allies become environment and human rights defenders (HRDs) when they publicly allege harms on the part of state or company actors. As extraction intensifies around the world, so has the criminalization, threats, attacks, and even killings of HRDs. International bodies now regularly refer to this situation as a global crisis.
In 2017, while working as Latin America Program Coordinator for MiningWatch Canada, Canadian Jennifer Moore collaborated with local organizations to screen a documentary film among original Quechua communities affected by the Constancia Mine, located in southern Peru and owned by Canadian company Hudbay Minerals Inc. The documentary presented critical community and expert testimony about Hudbay’s operations across the Americas. In the midst of the film screenings, Peruvian authorities detained Moore, banned her from re-entering the country, and labelled her a threat to national security. Moore was narrowly able to flee the country. In 2019, 2020, 2021, and 2022, the Peruvian courts found that Peru’s actions violated Moore’s human rights. The courts also made findings that Peruvian police were biased against Moore in part because of their services contract with Hudbay, and that the officers involved should be investigated.
Read the executive summary here.
Read the full report here.
Report by: Charis Kamphuis, Charlotte Connolly, Isabel Dávila Pereira, Mariela Gutiérrez, Sarah Ewart, and Danielle Blanchard.