Brussels, 16/01/2014 (Agence Europe) - As free-trade negotiations resume with the EU, the International Federation for Human Rights, FIDH, denounces the widespread crackdown on civil society organisations in Ecuador.
“Freedom of expression and freedom of assembly are essential conditions for trade and investment”, the FIDH points out in an open letter to EU Trade Commissioner Karel De Gucht. Talks between the EU and Ecuador resumed this week in Brussels with a view to the Andean country's accession to the three-way trade agreement concluded in March 2010 between the EU, Colombia and Peru. The agreement took effect during 2013 for the latter two countries.
The FIDH is mainly concerned about the closure, on 4 December last, of the Pachamama Foundation, an environmental organisation that took the side of the Indians and protested against mining and oil projects in areas of the Ecuadorian Amazon populated by indigenous peoples. The FIDH has called on European leaders to condemn the dissolution of that organisation.
“The ongoing trade negotiations should generally be used to promote human rights and, in this regard, it should terminate the application of anti-terror laws against indigenous Ecuadorian people”, the FIDH underlines in its letter which is also addressed to EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Catherine Ashton, to member state ambassadors and MEPs.
In July 2009, Ecuador suspended its participation in trade talks begun in February 2009 with the EU by three of the four countries of the Andean Community (Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru). The EU and Ecuador, after resuming contact in 2010, have managed to find common ground for initiating a process aimed at Ecuador's accession to the multipartite trade agreement. Talks will cover access to the markets for goods, services and public procurement.
EU exports to Ecuador were worth €2.3 billion in 2012, and its imports from that country - essentially farm produce and raw materials - amounted to €2.4 billion. (EH/transl.jl)