Corporate Accountability & Access to Justice
Supporting communities in investigating and understanding the companies affecting their territories, the supply chains of which these companies are part, and the potentials and challenges of corporate accountability frameworks and mechanisms in upholding rights and access to justice.
Large-Scale Agribusiness - "The Green Monster"
I coordinated and was principal co-author of a joint research project between the Palenke Alto Cauca -PCN and the Forest Peoples Programme analyzing the impacts of large-scale sugarcane monoculture and related infrastructure on the rights and ancestral territories of Black Communities living in northern Cauca, Colombia. Entitled "The Green Monster: Perspectives and Recommendations from the Black Communities of Northern Cauca", our joint study led to a series of recommendations for diverse actors on how to address current rights violations, with a view to aligning ‘development’ activities affecting Black Communities with their concept of Buen Vivir-ubuntu, namely living well.
In August 2021 we presented "The Green Monster" to Colombia's Truth Commission, the Comisión de Esclarecimiento de la Verdad (CEV), who integrated the report into their official database for future reporting.
Funded by the Norway’s International Climate and Forest Initiative (NICFI).
Conducted with The Forest Peoples Programme.
“For us to hold the land, to keep the l, and, to work the land, is to generate the political, economic, and social control of Black People. Today we have none of that. Because we lost the land with the massive arrival of sugarcane. Since the ‘green monster’, as some people here call it, burst in from then on, everything was lost....First, we no longer control our food. Second, we no longer control our natural resources. Third, we no longer control the economy. Fourth, we no longer control our own cultural practices... When you lose control of the territory, you lose everything.”
---Afro-Descendant leader, Puerto Tejada, Cauca, 2020
Extractives - Evaluation of CSR instruments for upholding Indigenous and Black Peoples' rights
In collaboration with the Resguardo Indígena Cañamomo Lomaprieta and the Palenke Alto Cauca-PCN, I produced an evaluation of Corporate Social Responsibility standards encouraged for extractives companies operating in Colombia, through the lens of Indigenous and Afro-Descendant Rights. Based on interviews with diverse actors from industry, state agencies and the community level, the evaluation led to recommendations for increasing corporate accountability, access to justice and state protections for upholding ethnic rights.
Funded by the International Development Centre of Canada and the Ford Foundation.
Conducted with The North-South Institute.
Mining - Conflict & Security Impact Assessment
I produced a brief to complement the materials submitted to a Compliance Advisor Ombudsman (CAO) Investigation Panel struck to investigate the International Financial Corporation (IFC)’s investment in Greystar Resources’ (now Eco Oro Minerals) Angostura Project in Colombia, with a focused analysis of the security and conflict-related issues at stake. Entitled "Lessons from Angostura: Putting Conflict-Related and Security Impacts Centre-Stage", the brief reflects on some of the missing pieces that should have been considered prior to investment, and considers implications and learning for the future.
Conducted pro-bono for MiningWatch Canada.
