Ecuador: Mujeres Amazónicas Defensoras de la Selva

Mujeres Amazónicas Defensoras de la Selva - THe ecuadorian amazon

Women from the Kichwa, Shuar, Achuar, Waorani, Zapara, Andwa, Shiwiar, Cofán, Siona, Siekopai, and Kius peoples have challenged the extractivism that is destroying their homes for decades.

Since the 1980s, the Cofanes and Waoranis peoples have campaigned against the American company Chevron-Texaco as a consequence of the environmental damage and degradation caused in their ancestral land.

In their fight for the land and the environment, Ecuadorian Amazon women became activists, but such empowerment led them to connect another issue; indigenous women's rights. Their bodies, as well as their land, are constantly harassed and abused by oil extraction, mining, deforestation, cattle ranching, large scale mono-crops, and hydropower. Women and their families are displaced from their sacred land. Thus, Defensoras Amazónicas became a community seeking environmental justice and social change.

Mujeres Amazónicas

This grassroots organization seeks to address and expose human rights violations in Ecuador, the militarization of the land and the harm caused by companies to the natural world, and how the inaction of the national government threatens the survival of indigenous communities in the Amazon Basin.

Since 2013, when Mujeres Amazónicas started to expose violations to their rights and lands, the women have been attacked, threatened, harassed and criminalized, including being sued for exercising their right to peaceful protest. However, solidarity, partnerships and a strong conviction continue to bond these incredible women. 'Mujeres Amazónicas' gather members from all seven peoples of the Ecuadorian Amazon.

The organization has also exposed that in Ecuador, except for the Ombudsman, the authorities have largely failed its obligation to protect human rights defenders. As stated by Amnesty International, the levels of impunity are alarming and highlight the lack of willingness of the national government to address these issues, as well as the weakness of the criminal justice system.

Main leaders criminalized:

Patricia Gualinga

Nema Grefa

Margoth Escobar

Salomé Aranda

Strategic Litigation

In 2012, after 10 years of struggle, the Sarayaku people won a case before the Inter-American Court of Human Rights against the State of the Ecuador for granting access to oil and gas companies to operate in indigenous land. As per the ruling, the national government unconstitutionally provided security schemes to oil companies to conduct seismic studies in Sarayaku land, it also violated the right to free, previous, and informed consultations aimed at the protection of indigenous peoples.

The fight is not over!

Social protests calling on the government to protect indigenous and land rights are routinely met with attacks, threats, and harassment.

Moreover, the extractivist policies from the current Ecuadorian government is moving forward without prior informed consent from local communities, disregarding the right to self-determination of indigenous peoples, continuing to endanger the Amazon Basin.