Ecuador Indigenous protester's demands and the State of Emergency.
Ecuador - The Fight for Indigenous Rights
A Resolution was adopted by the General Assembly on 13th September 2007 [without reference to a Main Committee (A/61/L.67 and Add.1)] 61/295 which was named United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples to protect the Indigenous people globally. A 29-page declaration with 46 Articles, promising to support the group, and retain its culture and heritage was passed, however, there are still countries wherein these groups face discrimination and fear of losing their identity, culture, heritage, and land’s natural resources.
As per Article 5 of the UN declaration, “Indigenous peoples have the right to maintain and strengthen their distinct political, legal, economic, social, and cultural institutions, while retaining their right to participate fully, if they so choose, in the political, economic, social, and cultural life of the State.”
The recent protests by the indigenous people and community of Ecuador raised questions about the status quo of the communities globally and why they participated in a large number to protest against the government. As per IWGIA, Ecuador has a vast population of Indigenous people composed of 14 indigenous nationalities which are over 1.1 million people. The Shuar is the largest indigenous community with a population of over 100,000 and has a dominant presence in three provinces. The current population of Ecuador as per the “World Population Review” website is 18,113,998. The population growth rate in 2019-2020 was 1.55% with a fertility rate of 2.44 births per woman. Ecuador’s 35% population directly falls under the category of poverty and many deals with malnutrition and other health issues.
Ecuador Population 2022 (Demographics, Maps, Graphs) (worldpopulationreview.com)
Due to fuel price hikes and the high cost of living, many protestors came to the streets with their children and raised anti-govt slogans for which they dealt with pellets and tear gas targeted by the riot police and soldiers. An emergency was declared by Ecuador President Guillermo Lasso to control the situation which now ended. The fresh protest started on June 13th, 2022, and ended on 30th June 2022, wherein a similar protest was observed in 2021. On 28th June the President survived an impeachment attempt amid unrest in the country where only 80 members out of 137 lawmakers voted against him as per the report published on Bloomberg. Ecuador President Survives Impeachment Attempt Amid Unrest - Bloomberg
On the other hand on 28th June the UN urged the Ecuador govt to stop violence against children. OHCHR
The protest ended on Thursday after an agreement between the govt and indigenous bodies that participated in the protest. Some of the key demands the protestors had were as follows:
Reduction in fuel price and price control policies
Renegotiation of debts for more than 4 million families
Fair price on farm products
Employment and Labor rights
Stop privatization of major sectors
Suspend further expansion of the extractive mining, oil frontier
The groups that participated in the 18-day protest included the CONAIE (The Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador) Ecuador’s largest Indigenous Rights Organization formed in 1986, The National Confederation of Peasant, Indigenous and Black Organizations (FENOCIN), and The Council of Evangelical Indigenous Peoples and Organizations of Ecuador (FEINE).