By Sovereign Hager
Impunity Watch Reporter, South America
CHACO REGION, Paraguay-Brazilian cattle-ranchers working for Yaguarete Prora S.A. reportedly have plans to “bulldoze” land where un-contacted indigenous people live. The company is a member of the UN “Global Compact” which must operate under ten universally accepted principles dealing with human rights, labor, the environment, and anti-corruption.
Protesters of the controversial plan say that Yaguarete should be expelled from the UN “Global Compact” because they will destroy land belonging to the Ayoreo-Totogeigosode tribe “in flagrant violation of both Paraguayan and international law.” An independent media outlet reports that Yaguarete ownes 78,549 hectares of the tribe’s ancestral land and intends to leave only 16,784 hectares of it as “continuous forest.”
Two specific principles of the global compact are reportedly being violated: 1) that “businesses should support and respect the protection of internationally proclaimed human rights and 2) ensure that the company is not complicit in human rights abuses. A legal claim based on destroyed forest was submitted by the Totobeigosode in 1993.
UN President Ban Ki-Moon is head of the UN Global Compact and rights groups have solicited him directly to expel Yaguarete from the group. The Director of Survival International said that “Yaguarete cannot be said to be committed to aligning their operations with human rights. We urge the Compact to blackball Yaguarete from the initiative now – if it doesn’t, it runs the risk of losing all integrity.”
For more information, please see:
Ekklesia-UN Urged to Ditch Cattle-Rachers From Human Rights Board-31 March 2010
Scoop World-Brazilian Ranchers on the UN Global Compact-30 March 2010
Survival-Ban Ki-moon Urged to Remove Brazilian Ranchers From U.N. Global Compact-29 March 2010
