Colombia: U’wa Indigenous make formal declarations before the IACHR against the State for allowing oil and gas projects in their territory
![](https://media.business-humanrights.org/media/images/0226-victory-gas-project-in-.2e16d0ba.fill-1000x1000-c50.jpg)
Amazon Watch
"Indigenous community in Colombia gets its day in court over ‘ancestral land’", 01 May 2023
...The U’wa Indigenous community told the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACHR) that Colombia has repeatedly failed to recognise their ancestral lands and has threatened the group’s existence by polluting their territory with oil...
The members of the pre-Hispanic community consider themselves to be the guardians of Mother Earth and have fought against projects from oil multinationals, including Royal Dutch Shell and Occidental Petroleum. Despite their protests, legal battles and even threats to kill themselves en masse, the group has been unable to prevent oil and gas exploitation in what they say is their sacred land.
U’wa leaders say the Colombian government has permitted the construction of gas stations in their reserve without consulting them as well as oil pipelines which are frequently sabotaged by armed rebels, sending the tar-black liquid spilling into the local rivers and streams...
The U’wa say that the community’s reserves recognised by the country comprise only about a quarter of the group’s actual ancestral territory as demonstrated by colonial titles which predate the existence of the republic of Colombia.
As the national government has failed to act on a series of legal cases, the U’wa hope the IACHR will step in, forcing Colombia to recognise the lands they have inhabited for centuries and offer compensation for the damage caused. It remains unclear when the court will make its ruling...