Significant victory of the women of the Mexican indigenous community over a transnational company that violated their rights
On 3 June 2022, the Mexican authorities cancelled the electricity supply contract for the large-scale Gunaa Sicarú wind energy project that the transnational company Electricité de France (EDF) planned to build in Zapotec indigenous territory. For years, the community of Unión Hidalgo in Oaxaca, Mexico has has made public the violation of the rights of the community, which produced gender differentiated impacts.
The Zapotec territory of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec is one of the most favourable areas for the development of wind energy in the world due to its geographical conditions and has been one of the sites attracting important flows of foreign investment for the development of mega wind projects in the region. However, the so-called wind corridor of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec has been developed for decades at the expense of the rights of indigenous communities and the local population that lives in conditions of structural poverty and with limited access to public services.
The energy megaprojects installed in the region tend to socialize the social and environmental impacts without ensuring that the economic and energy generation benefits are shared with the local communities. In addition, the projects have eroded the social tissue and made the work of defending the lands and territories a dangerous activity, especially for indigenous women who have led the fight against these extractive projects.
Despite the importance for the entire globe of continuing to move towards a green energy transition, the development of this wind megaproject, which was one of the largest projects planned in the Latin American region, would have resulted in the deepening of the conditions of marginalization and violence that particularly affect Zapotec indigenous women and girls.
The Global Initiative for Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (GI-ESCR) had the privilege of collaborating with ProDESC, the local organization in Mexico that leads the litigation and advocacy strategy in defence of the Unión Hidalgo community. Together with ProDESC, we work to identify the accumulated and differentiated gender impacts of the Gunaa Sicarú wind project. This information was forwarded to the United Nations Special Human Rights Procedures. As a result, the Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, the Special Rapporteur on the right to development, the Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders and the Special Rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples sent letters of allegation to the Government of Mexico and France, as well as to the company EDF. These letters warned about the situation of violation of rights and requested additional information on the human rights impacts of the project. Likewise, the Rapporteurs made a particular call for the authorities and institutions responsible for supervising and carrying out the Gunaa Sicarú project to take measures to prevent the project from hindering the human rights of the represented indigenous women and their community.
The case of Unión Hidalgo is paradigmatic since it reflects the structural problems that are commonly present in energy transition processes. It is essential to move towards renewable energies, putting marginalized populations and communities at the centre of the debate and taking into account the perspectives, voices and experiences of women and girls in order to achieve a rapid and effective just transition with a gender perspective. Otherwise, the energy transition is delayed by social conflicts and the mistrust it generates within communities and does not help to move towards fairer and more sustainable societies that allow present and future generations to exercise their fundamental rights.
In the future, it would be convenient for any consultation process to ensure the participation of women, taking into account the specific obstacles they face, such as domestic and care workloads -which frequently impede their participation-, and to guarantee that their voices are taken into account in decision making. This is essential to prevent the development of energy projects from exacerbating gender gaps in access to natural resources, lands and territories, essential elements to sustain their quality of life and that of their families, as well as to protect their economic social and cultural rights.
We believe that one of the lessons that this case should leave us is that renewable energy projects must respect the rights of indigenous women from their conception. We urge the Mexican government to demonstrate its commitment to the human rights of indigenous communities, taking concrete measures in favour of a green and sustainable energy transition that respects the rights of communities. As an alternative, an energy policy largely dependent on fossil fuels cannot be reinforced. It is essential to strengthen the climate policy and meet the renewable energy development goals to urgently advance in the decarbonization of the national energy system. It is an urgent task to rethink the energy paradigm to promote a feminist energy transition with a human rights perspective that avoids replicating the extractive policies present in the fossil fuel industries while ensuring the effective fight against the climate emergency based on the perspectives and needs of historically marginalized populations.
Learn more about the report sent to the UN Special Rapporteurships on the differentiated gender impacts of the wind project at Gunaa Sicarú here.
You can also read the three allegation letters issued by the Human Rights Special Rapporteurships and sent to the governments of Mexico, France and the company EDF.