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- Paper Pulp Mills - Uruguay
- Corporate Accountability and Human Rights
- Climate Change and Human Rights
IFC Leaves Argentine Stakeholders Waiting at Critical Launching of Consultation Meeting on Uruguayan Papermills
26th of January – Entre Ríos, Argentina. Nearly 800 concerned stakeholders were left anxiously waiting for IFC and MIGA staff to show up to the first IFC-organized consultation meeting to review rules of engagement in the IFC’s new Cumulative Impact Study on two pulp papermills to be constructed on the Uruguay River. The IFC/MIGA team never showed, and in fact, chose NOT to cross the border from Fray Bentos Uruguay, where they were meeting pro-mill and private sector Uruguayan stakeholders.
IFC delegation staff offered members of the Gualeguaychú Assembly questionable excuses such as that “their translator could not be present at the time of the meeting” which was scheduled for 8:30 pm. Later, a representative from the facilitating team, Consensus Building Institute, revealed that the IFC and MIGA team were afraid for their physical integrity, from a potentially violent crowd (see picture below of violent crowd). The 800 citizens of Gualeguaychú, who took time from their evening to come to hear the IFC and MIGA explain the engagement process, included women, children, elderly, schoolchildren, schoolteachers, merchants, the mayor of Gualeguaychú, and many other small interest groups and common citizens. (see picture below).
After waiting nearly an hour for the IFC team to show, the Assembly presented their one-page position of the consultation process, which expressed their concern for violations of IFC policy in how this consultation was taking place, lack of confidence in IFC and in the companies constructing the mills, and their continued and unwavering opposition to the installation of the mills in their community. The statement was followed by the collective singing of the hymn against the mills, and a quiet standing-ovation demonstration of solidarity holding up individual signs saying “NO to the Mills”. The crowed then quietly disbursed.
Violent Protestors that Scared off IFC/MIGA team
More Information
For more information please contact:
Daniel Taillant
Center for Human Rights and Environment (CEDHA)
Cel. Tel. 54 9 351 625 3290; CEDHA: 54 351 425-6278
Cel. in Washington DC 1 202 276 8517
jdtaillant@cedha.org.ar
