Ruling for the Latin American hearing of the PPT on Canadian Mining
On December 10th, 2014, International Day of Human Rights, the jury of the Permanent Peoples’ Tribunal released its ruling for the hearing on Canadian mining in Latin America.
Following two days of testimony in Montreal this past May, the PPT jury determined that five Canadian mining companies and the Government of Canada were responsible for multiple cases of human rights violations. These include labour rights violations, denial of indigenous self-determination rights, environmental destruction, targeted assassinations and criminalization of dissent, among others.
- Read the executive summary
- Read the complete verdict
Full press release below.
Read moreCanadian Mining Company Infinito Gold Seeks to Extort $1 Billion from Costa Rica
Thursday, October 10, 2013
As organizations in Canada and Quebec, we are appalled that Calgary-based Infinito Gold has decided to sue the Government of Costa Rica for $1-billion under the Canada-Costa Rica bilateral investment treaty. This is just the latest - and arguably most disturbing - attempt by Infinito management to intimidate the people, court system and government of Costa Rica over their rightful decision not to approve the controversial Crucitas gold mine near the San Juan River system.
Permanent Peoples' Tribunal
Over the past few years, the Polaris Institute has become increasingly involved in various hearings of the Permanent Peoples’ Tribunal (PPT). The Permanent Peoples' Tribunal is an independent body that examines cases of human rights violations upon request from individuals or civil society organizations. PPT sessions focus on situations where national and international justice systems are found to be incapable of ensuring that rights are respected. Since 2012, Polaris has been involved as jurors with the Mexican Chapter of the PPT on Free Trade, Violence, Impunity and Peoples Rights, as part of the coordinating committee on the Canadian chapter on the Canadian Mining Industry (first hearing in May 2014, Montreal) and the June 2014 Geneva hearing of the PPT on the crimes and human rights abuses of transnational corporations.
More information on the PPT...
Au cours des dernières années, l'Institut Polaris s'est impliqué auprès de plusieurs audiences du Tribunal permanent des peuples(TPP). Le Tribunal permanent des peuples est un organe indépendant qui examine des cas de violations de droits humains après la demande d'individus ou organisations de la société civile. Les séances du TPP se penchent sur des situations où les systèmes de justice nationaux et internationaux sont incapables d'assurer que les droits sont respectés. Depuis 2012, Polaris fut impliqué comme membres de deux jurys pour la Séance mexicaine du TPP sur le Libre échange, la violence, l'impunité et les droits de peuples, comme membre du comité de coordination du Chapitre canadien sur l'industrie minière canadienne (première audience en mai 2014 à Montréal) et la Séance du TPP à Genève en juin 2014 sur les crimes et violations de droits humains commis par des compagnies transnationales.
Plus d'informations sur le TPP...