“Human Rights and Chinese Business Activities in Latin America” 23 March 2022

As part of the 49th session of the UN Human Rights Council, more than 60 civil society organizations released a new report that evaluates 26 projects backed by Chinese companies and capital across nine Latin American countries. The investigation found a pattern of failure to comply with international standards on human rights and the environment by the Chinese government.

The report, Human Rights and Chinese Business Activities in Latin America, evaluates compliance with the recommendations adopted by China in its latest Universal Periodic Review (UPR) in 2018, based on the examination on violations of human rights and the rights of nature in 26 projects. The report implicated 23 consortiums and at least six banks that are involved in developing projects in the mining (12), hydroelectric (6), oil and gas (3), and other (5) sectors. The case studies serve as an external mechanism to point out that China has failed to implement its commitments.

The Chinese government has participated in three cycles of the Universal Periodic Review (2009, 2013, and 2018), and in the last one, the Collective on Chinese Financing and Investments, Human Rights and the Environment (CICDHA), which includes Amazon Watch as a member, prepared eight “shadow reports” on its extraterritorial responsibility regarding the activities of Chinese companies and banks in Latin America. 

In addition to the recommendations the CICDHA provides to China to correct and remedy rights violations, the collective also makes specific observations and recommendations to Chinese companies and entities, and to the governments that issued recommendations to China within the framework of the UPR.

[English translation provided by the Business & Human Rights Resource Centre]