Amicus Brief: Environmental and Human Rights Impacts of Mining

Dear SHARE community,

We continue our support of the anti-mining groups in El Salvador. Many of our delegations have witnessed first hand the health risks, human rights violations, and environmental impacts that mining can cause. We realize the importance this issue has to our base of supporters and would like to share with you all what could be a very helpful case against mining in El Salvador.
(If you would like to read this and other articles in Spanish, please visit our Spanish Blog)

Amicus Brief Highlights the Environmental and Human Rights Impacts of Mining in $77 Million Investment Arbitration Case

Washington, DC: On March 2, 2011, the Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL), on behalf of civil society organizations of the Mesa Nacional Frente a la Minería Metálica (Mesa), filed an amicus curiae brief in the Pac Rim Cayman LLC v. Republic of El Salvador case, currently being heard at the International Center for the Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID). The Mesa is a coalition of human rights and environmental organizations working to ban metals mining in El Salvador.



The amicus curiae brief emphasizes the devastating impact on the local environment and on the human rights of the people that depend upon that environment. Moreover, the investor failed to adequately assess the environmental impacts of the mine. Widespread community opposition to mining has led the government of El Salvador to recognize the destructive environmental and social impacts that metals mining poses. This recognition has spurred the country to impose a moratorium on new mining permits.

The ICSID Tribunal will decide whether the government of El Salvador will be forced to pay $77 million to an investor for denying a permit for its El Dorado Mine. Pac Rim Cayman LLC, a U.S. subsidiary of a Canadian mining company, filed claims against El Salvador under the Dominican Republic-Central American Free Trade Agreement (DR-CAFTA).

The amicus brief notes that the Canadian Pacific Rim company relocated its subsidiary from the Cayman Islands to Reno, Nevada, to bring the claim after the permit was denied. According to Saúl Baños from FESPAD in El Salvador, “This relocation fundamentally invalidates the company’s claim.”

The amicus brief points out that the case does not involve a “legal dispute” under the ICSID Convention, or a “measure” under DR-CAFTA, but rather simply reflects the investor’s dissatisfaction with the democratic political process concerning mining’s deleterious impacts and sustainable development in El Salvador. “Pac Rim is trying to dictate El Salvador’s environment and social policy using CAFTA’s arbitration mechanism,” said CIEL’s Dr. Marcos Orellana, “Pac Rim’s claim amounts to an abuse of process.”

The civil society member organizations of the Mesa that filed the amicus brief include: Asociación Amigos de San Isidro Cabañas(ASIC); Asociación de Comunidades para el Desarrollo de Chalatenango (CCR); Asociación de Desarrollo Económico Y Social (ADES); Asociación para El Desarrollo de El Salvador (CRIPDES); Comité Ambiental de Cabañas (CAC); Fundación de Estudios para la Aplicación del Derecho (FESPAD); Unidad Ecológica Salvadoreña (UNES); and Movimiento Unificado Francisco Sánchez 1932 (MUFRAS 32).

About Mesa

The Mesa Nacional Frente a la Minería (known as the National Roundtable on Mining) is a broad-based coalition of community-based organizations, research institutes, environmental and faith-based groups at the forefront of a national campaign to ban metals mining in El Salvador. In 2005, after learning about the negative impacts of mining to communities in Honduras and Guatemala, communities from Cabañas and Chalatenango organized themselves as the "Mesa" against the Canadian mining corporation, Pacific Rim. Local and national environmental, religious, legal, and grassroots organizations have joined as they became aware of the environmental degradation, health problems, and labor rights abuses that come with mining. As a result of their fight against mining in El Salvador, the Mesa members have received violent threats, some resulting into death, in order to stop their activism.

About CIEL

Founded in 1989, the Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL), www.ciel.org, is committed to strengthening and using international law and institutions to protect the environment, promote human health, and ensure a just and sustainable society. With offices in Washington, DC and Geneva, CIEL’s staff of international attorneys work in the areas of human rights and the environment, climate change, law and communities, chemicals, trade and the environment, international environmental governance, biodiversity and wildlife and international financial institutions by providing legal counsel and advocacy, policy research and capacity building. CIEL also directs a joint research and teaching program with The American University’s Washington College of Law, focused on international and comparative environmental law, as well as offering internships and fellowships to educate the next generation of international environmental advocates.

Contact: Dr. Marcos Orellana, Center for International Environmental Law, (202) 742-5847, or morellana@ciel.org.