Human Rights, Canadian Extractivism, and Water

The aim of this report is to complement the observations that Human Rights Organizations have made regarding the violations of human rights in the context of massive social protest in Chile since the 18th of October 2019, contextualizing the profound ecological crisis in the country and its various expressions in the protests, with a special emphasis on interests and actions of Canadian companies and state agencies such as the Export Development Canada. We present the water crisis in Chile and the role of privatization of water rights, as well as extractive companies, hereunder Canadian mining enterprises and sanitarian firms. We describe how socio-environmental demands have become widespread in the protests in urban spaces and how rural socio-environmental conflictivity have intensified, and point to some tendencies of militarization and human rights violations that have not been included in the official reports of human rights organizations, foregrounding the responsibility of Canadian companies in these. Lastly, we present our concerns regarding the obstacles that Free Trade Agreements, including those involving Canada, may pose to the constitutive process currently in course in Chile. We call for the ?Canadian Mision of Observation and Solidarity with Chile regarding the Human Rights Situation? to, along with transmitting and condemning the systematic violations of Human Rights in Chile, call for the Government of Canada to cohere with its commitment to human rights and democracy, and to break its silence on the critical Chilean situation.