Chixoy Dam Case
Recent Events
1.3.6: A petition has been filed with the IACHR (see resources below), and the primary authors, COHRE and ADIVIMA are requesting interested parties to submitg amicus briefs to the IAC in support of issues raised in the brief, in particular, the admissability of IFIs issue.
Background
I have worked with Rights Action / Derechos en accion on the Chixoy Dam case, which is part of a much larger struggle for justice by a community in Baja Verapaz, Guatemala.
In the late 1970s the Word Bank, along with a consortium of other institutional funders, co-funded with the Guatemalan government a dam development project along the Rio Negro in Baja Verapaz, Guatemala. These are Guatemalan highlands. The dam became known as the Chixoy dam.
During the late 1970s and early 1980s, Guatemala had a series of military dictatorships. These governments waged a “civil war” against perceived enemeies of the government, including the usual suite of union organizers, members of the Catholic church, socialist and communist party members and in particular indigenous organizations, who were perceived to be either insurgents or supporting insurgents. All these terms should be clarified: under the name of fighting communism or anarchism, the government committed genocide against the indigenous Mayan population. The term genocide is the official finding of the U.N. mission in Guatemala that followed the peace accords of the early 1990s.
During construction of the Chixoy dam, the then military governments of Guatemala, through both the armed forces and the Ministry responsible for electric development employed military and paramilitary forces to kill, displace and otherwise harass Maya Achi residents of the dam site. The story of these communities is recorded and is one of the most violent episodes in modern Central American history. Even today the effects of these massacres and displacement is barely acknowledged. It took 15 years for some of the original victims to begin speaking about it, and forensic anthropologists are still exhuming mass grave sites and communities burying the long dead.
These atrocities have given rise to two main legal claims. The first is a case alleging genocide under the penal provisions of the Guatemalan civil code. This case is being spearheaded by the Centre for Human Rights Legal Action, CALDH. See also: Justice for Genocide.
The second set of legal claims that have arisen are reparations claims. A consortium of NGOs have worked together to combine community development and empowerment activities and claims for reparations. The reparations campaign is multi-faceted, including activities from direct action to negotiation to legal claims brought in different fora. Some of my work with these organizations has included research ways and means of holding the institutional funders accountable for their decision to fund the project, notwithstanding the human rights abuses related to the project, and for failing to make adequate reparations to the affected communities.
Quick Resources
Here, you can find a summary of developments from a research trip in 2004.
Here, you can find a basic summary of the facts of the Chixoy case.
Here, you can find a “Legal Rough Guide” to some of the legal issues involved in the Chixoy case.
Here you can find a paper on International Finanical Institutions and the development model.
There is a more comprehensive set of resources at the bottom of this page.
A list of key organizations involved in the reparations effort include:
Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions
At various times through the history of this case, other organizations have contributed to research and community work, including Witness for Peace, Amnesty International, Osgoode Hall Law School, Corner House (UK) and the Centre for Political Ecology, among others.
Recent Developments
A most recent development has seen COHRE submit a petition to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, asking it to take jurisdiction over some of the claims against the institutional funders. Here is a copy of the petition.
Further Resources
History of Guatemala
Schlesinger, S. and Kinzer, S. Bitter Fruit: The Story of the American Coup in Guatemala (Cambridge, Mass.: Doubleday, 1999).
Schirmer, Jennifer, The Guatemalan Military Project: A Violence Called Democracy (Philadelphia, Pa.: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1998) on the military regimes in Guatemala.
LaFaber, W., Inevitable Revolutions (1990) for a critical look at U.S. foreign policy in Latin America since Spanish colonization, especially the chapters on indigenous struggle and role of IFIs and overseas development corporations in financing military governments.
General Reports and Facts
Map of Genocide
The Peace Accords
Colajacomo, Jaroslava. 1999. ‘The Chixoy Dam: The Maya Achi Genocide. The story of a forced resettlement.’ In Indigenous Affairs, 3-4: 64-78.
International River Network’s report.
Report of the Commission for Historical Clarification, Guatemala Memoria del Silencio (Spanish) or Guatemala Memory of Silence (English)
Witness for Peace, A People Damned (Witness for Peace, 1996) early profile of the massacres and the role of the World Bank.
Legal Materials
The Working Group on Multilateral Institution Accountability Graduate Policy Workshop The Chixoy Dam And The Massacres At Rio Negro, Agua Fria And Los Encuentros: A Report on Multilateral Financial Institution Accountability (Woodrow Wilson School, Princeton University, 2000) on treating IFIs as U.N. agencies.
Reparations
Rodriguez Rescia, V., “Reparations In The Inter-American System For The Protection Of Human Rights” (1999) 5 ILSA J. Int’l & Comp. L. 583.
Orentlicher, D.F., “Addressing Human Rights Abuses: Punishment and Victim Compensation” in Heinkin, L. & J.L. Hargrove, eds., Human Rights: An Agenda for the Next Century (Washington, D.C.: American Society of International Law, 1994).
Steiner H.J. & P. Halston, International Human Rights in Context: Politics and Morals (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1996).
Minow, M. Between Vengence and Forgiveness (Boston: Beacon, 1998).
On Accountability of International Organizations
Kirgis, F., International Organizations in their Legal Setting 2nd ed., (West Wadsworth, 1993).
Sands & Klien, Bowett’s Law of International Institutions 5th ed., (London: Sweet & Maxwell, 2001).
**Hirsch, M., The Responsibility of International Organization Toward Third Parties: Some Basic Principles (Netherlands: Martinus Nijhoff, 1995).
**Clarke, D., “The World Bank and Human Rights: the Need for Greater Accountability” (2002) Harvard Human Rights Jour. 205.
Singer, M., “Jurisdictional Immunity of International Organization: Human Rights and Functional Necessity Concerns” (1995) 36 Va. J. Int’l L. 53.
Toth, A.G., “External Relations” in The Oxford Encyclopedia of European Community Law (Vol. I, Institutional Law, 1990) 265-66.
Shihata, I.F.I., “Role of Law in Economic Development: the Legal Problems of International Public Ventures” (1969) 25 Revue Égyptienne de Droit Internationl 119.
Sedl-Hohenveldern, I., “Piercing the Corporate Veil of International Organizations: The International Tin Council Case in the English Court of Appeals” (1989) 32 German Yearbook of International Law 43.
Amerasinghe, C.F., “Liability to Third Parties of Member States of International Organizations: Practice, Principle and Judicial Precedent” (1991) 85 American Journal of International Law 259.
Case-law on International Organization Liability
International Tin Council, [1990] 2 AC 418. Creditors tried to extract money from the members of the ITC: application of domestic law (UK), not entirely useful but often cited.
Westland Helicopter v. Arab Organization for Industrialisation, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Egypt and Arab British Helicopter Co., 23 ILM 1071 (1984); (Swiss Court) 28 ILM 687 (1989). Liability of the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Egypt for debts of Arab Industrialization Organization: separate legal entity issue, “who are the parties” issue. Swiss court and arbitrators came to separate conclusions.
Bankovic v. Belgium and 16 Contracting States Claim that member states of NATO violated ECHR, deemed inadmissible, impugned actions of the contracting states did not engage their obligations under the ECHR: jurisdiction issue. A unanimous and sad decision.
On Rights of Indigenous Peoples
ILO169
Draft Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples
Proposed American Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples - Its legal effect
Awas Tingni v. Nicaragua (IACHR)
Mabo (No. 2)
Delgamuukw v. British Columbia
Key Organizations
World Bank Inspection Panel
World Bank Policies and Procedures
World Bank/IBRD
IADB
News About Access to Information in International Financial and Trade Institutions
Bretton Woods Project
Bank Information Centre
World Commission on Dams
General Activism
Probe International (Bond Boycott)
International Centre for Transitional Justice
Campagna Per Riforma Della Banca Mondial/Reform the World Bank Campaign Italy: see http://www.unimondo.org and search “campangna”.
Centre for International Environmental Law