Triple Alliance Needed to Address Latam Inequality

One of the biggest challenges for global economies is resolving prevalent conditions of inequality and poverty while, at the same time, implementing a transversal sustainable use of natural resources. For centuries, the methodical and practical theory of growth suggested that extracting and development industries use natural resources without limits, as if these resources were infinite. However, the exploitation of these resources by industries like logging, mining, water or agribusiness without any sense of responsibility and for extractive purposes are responsible for displacement of local communities and the killings of environmental leaders or defenders of territory.

It is important that the private sector and business leaders, and also the government, consider implementing a policy of social-environmental responsibility in their operations, development and decision-making. It is not just for the sake of reputation; within the framework of the social environmental challenges that we face as humanity, it is crucial to achieve a strong sustainable development that weaves a line of action between environment, social and economy.

The Business & Human Centre of Human Rights (BHCR) that tracks over 10,000 companies and helps to eradicate abuse mention that the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (2011) recognized that businesses need to communicate their human rights impacts, especially in response to stakeholder concerns, and that victims of harm seeking remedy have a specific right of access to information.

For example, in accordance with the nongovernmental organization Global Witness in its report, Last Line of Defense 2021, around the world (mostly in Latin America), 227 environmental and land defenders were killed, marking a new record related to industries previously mentioned. It is necessary to point out that the majority of cases are in countries where the principal economic drivers are primary products or raw materials, such as forestry or coal:  

However, we can also make a similar connection using the Gini coefficient (2021), which is a measure of statistical dispersion intended to represent the income inequality or the wealth inequality within a nation. It is also important to consider that not all the countries have an actualized Gini, for example, the last evaluation for Iraq and Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) was in 2012. In accordance with that, the maximum inequality is represented by the number 100 on the scale we use, and zero expresses perfect inequality.

We can see that countries with a Gini coefficient over the umbral of 40 represent 93 percent of the killings (212). In this case, we can observe that the more unequal the economy is, more murders there are. However, we can highlight the condition of Colombia, which is the second-most unequal economy (54.2) and the country with the most murders of land and environmental defenders (65) of the countries analyzed, compared to Canada, which is the most equitable economy in the Americas and only has one recorded murder.

Likewise, we also find that three of the four of leading countries in murder rates are in Latin America: Colombia, Mexico and Brazil that are among the biggest economies in the region, and where we know that economic growth is dependent on foreign investment and the sale of primary products and raw materials. Also, the contexts of insecurity and violence, corruption and limited transparency or accessibility to information is related to the attacks.

We can use other tools to observe the relationship between the killings and human freedom that represents rule of law, security and safety, freedom of expression and information, regulation and legal system and property rights. In this case, 10 represents greater freedom and 0 represents less freedom. The majority of the countries analyzed in the Global Witness report are democracies and are over 5 on the scale of human freedom standards. Nonetheless, we can ask ourselves, what is happening in Latin America if the results according to this index show the countries in the region over the middle of the scale?

We need to remember that internally in the countries, access to democracy is also unequal for all populations, and to be precise, it is necessary to understand that a third of these attacks targeted indigenous and afro-descendant people, and almost half were against small-scale farmers. In summary, populations that are historically victimized and are vulnerable in the face of industrial megaprojects.

One solution to create stronger regulations and provide equality is the initiative of the Escazu’s Agreement in Latin America (entry into force in 2021) that promotes the transparency and inclusion of indigenous peoples and local communities in decision-making related to natural resources through access to information, public participation and access to justice in environmental matters.

Finally, as the BHCR reminds companies and governments, “access to information is a necessary right to prevent and remedy corporate abuses of human rights.  Where harms have occurred, companies involved often have far more information about the processes, products and decisions that resulted in the harm, including scientific information about companies’ operations, contracts with business partners, and documentation of their decision-making.” 

It is important to incorporate a strong sustainable vision with a precise analysis of the human rights conditions within business models, hierarchizing the impacts on the environment and social sector. Why? Because the measures covered by Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) related to the biosphere are considered important for the achievement of other SDGs, since the biosphere underpins the future of humanity by providing resources (Folke et al. 2016).

Additionally, when promoting transparency and accessibility to information, in this case it is important to mention that Global Witness complained that the data on killings does not capture the true scale of the problem. In some countries, the context includes restrictions on a free press, or where the independent monitoring of attacks can lead to underreporting. Land disputes and environmental damage, two of the prominent underlying causes behind community activism, can also be difficult to monitor in parts of the world affected by conflict. (Global Witness, 2021).

To achieve the SDGs, we need to reinforce alliances among the private sector, government and civil society because the environmental risks and social challenges don’t end with a particular interest. They involve us all. If we want to reduce economic inequality and, at the same time, respond to environmental devastation or climate change, we can’t use the same formula of the last decades. The situation that is happening in the “last line of defense” should be of interest to all of us.

References:

Business & Human Centre of Human Rights. https://www.business-humanrights.org/en/big-issues/corporate-legal-accountability/access-to-information/

Cato. 2021. The Human Freedom Index. https://www.cato.org/sites/cato.org/files/2022-03/human-freedom-index-2021-updated.pdf

Expansión / Datosmarco.com. Índice de Gini. https://datosmacro.expansion.com/demografia/indice-gini 

Folke, C., R. Biggs, A. V. Norström, B. Reyers, and J. Rockström. 2016. Social-ecological resilience and biosphere-based sustainability science. Ecology and Society.

Global Witness. 2021. The last line of defence. https://www.globalwitness.org/documents/20190/Last_line_of_defence_-_low_res_-_September_2021.pdf