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Parliamentary question - E-004797/2014Parliamentary question
E-004797/2014

VP/HR — Colombia — Indigenous people at risk of disappearance

Question for written answer E-004797-14
to the Commission (Vice-President/High Representative)
Rule 117
Jürgen Klute (GUE/NGL) , Norbert Neuser (S&D) , Raül Romeva i Rueda (Verts/ALE) , Izaskun Bilbao Barandica (ALDE) , Catherine Grèze (Verts/ALE) , Helmut Scholz (GUE/NGL) , Martin Häusling (Verts/ALE) , Willy Meyer (GUE/NGL) , Andrés Perelló Rodríguez (S&D) , Linda McAvan (S&D) , Gesine Meissner (ALDE) , Ana Gomes (S&D)

As the Colombian Constitutional Court proclaimed in its 004 Ruling of 2009, the Awá community, present in southern Colombia and Ecuador and with a population of 45 000 people, is one of the 34 indigenous peoples of Colombia at imminent risk of cultural, spiritual and physical disappearance. The Ruling requires the Colombian Government to take measures to protect this community and draw up the ‘Awá Safeguard Plan’. According to information received, even though a proposal was made by the Awá peoples, five years after the Ruling, the Colombian Government has not fulfilled this constitutional order.

A representative of the Awá community informed us of the serious risk that this indigenous people faces, stressing in particular the fact that they are targeted by all armed groups, both legal and illegal; that they suffer from the presence of landmines in their territory; that there is no respect for the free, informed and prior consultation required by the Colombian Constitution and international standards; that the territory has been contaminated by crude oil spillage from the Transandino pipeline, which transports oil to the port of Tumaco, from where it is shipped overseas, and by aerial spraying of illicit crops, which affects the whole territory. According to the representative, at least 17 members of this people were killed in 2013.

1. How have the European External Action Service and the delegation of the European Union included this issue in the agenda of the human rights dialogue with Colombia?

2. How is the delegation supporting indigenous peoples and the Colombian Government in order to ensure urgent implementation of the Constitutional Court orders regarding the safeguard plans?

3. Taking into account that the UN declared that ‘in the case of groups at risk of extinction, the right to prior consultation constitutes a veto mechanism to guarantee their survival,’ how does the European External Action Service ensure that European companies and companies that export to Europe comply with this right?

OJ C 402, 13/11/2014