Luis Hallazi is shown here on left during the presentation of a report indicating the Peruvian government needs to work to comply with international accords with the International Labor Organization. Photo courtesy Luis Hallazi
Oct. 23 (UPI) -- Peru's government is failing to assure the rights of indigenous communities to clean land and water in part because of constant oil spills that have created health issues, a representative of a human rights organization said.
Luis Hallazi, who coordinated work for an annual report for the National Human Rights Coordinator of Peru, told UPI on Tuesday that Peru previously agreed to a framework of accords with the International Labor Organization, or ILO, to protect indigenous lands and their right to clean waters. But, Hallazi said, this is not currently happening.
The report, prepared in coordination by some 15 specialized agencies and already submitted to the ILO, a United Nations agency, pointed to a series of spills caused by maintenance problems in a crude oil pipeline owned by state oil company Petroperu that was built in the 1970s and has reportedly suffered multiple spills, with a spike in recent years, Hallazi said.
"There have been thousands barrels of crude oil spilled that have altered the lifestyle and health of communities," he said. There are multiple cases between 2014 and last year, he said.
In addition, legislation that Peru approved in 2011 that was originally intended to give communities a say over whether or not to allow extraction activities in lands where they live has not had that effect, Hallazi said. Instead, it has become in many cases a "simple, quick, bureaucratic process," Hallazi added. Projects will be approved even if communities object, he said.
Petroperu, which owns the only crude oil pipeline in the Amazon that has caused the spills, has blamed most of the incidents on the action of "third parties."
"Between 2016 and 2018 there were 22 incidents, 16 caused by third parties, four by geodynamic failure and 2 over technical aspects," Petroperu said on its website. It added that over 40 years of operations there have been 108 incidents, 68 of them blamed on third parties.
Hallazi said multiple civilian organizations have not determined reports of sabotage were credible. He said the result of the spills is that Amazon rivers end up polluted, adversely affecting the native population's health.
Medical help for thousands of people, if present, is insufficient, he said.
Petroperu states on its website that "it is not possible" to verify a relationship between hydrocarbons in the soil and impacts to health.
There are an estimated 350,000 Peruvian native populations that live in the Peruvian Amazon.
