Justice validates indigenous consultation criteria applied in Neltume Project from Endesa
Plaintiffs alleged vices of illegality and arbitrariness in the process of environmental evaluation service that would not meet the provisions of Convention 169 of ILO.
Justice gave a boost to indigenous consultation mechanism that the Service Environmental Assessment (SEA) designed to comply with the provisions of Convention 169 of the International Labour Organization (ILO).
This because the Valdivia’s Court of Appeals rejected an appeal protection that a group of communities presented to challenge the procedure the authority established under the environmental assessment of Neltume’s Hydroelectric Project, from Endesa Chile, located in the Region Los Rios.
This initiative is the first from power type that was submitted by the authority to query for communities, peoples and groups within the area of influence of an investment initiative and are likely to be affected by it, according to the provisions of the international agreement that Chile has the force of law.
The presentation of the communities of Inalafken from Neltume Lake, Inocente Panguilef from Reyehueico and Parlamento Koz Koz from Panguipulli, alleged the existence of defects unlawfulness and arbitrariness in the process that the authority had carried out in June 2013, “because the three consistent elements, this is good faith, appropriate procedures and consult in order to agree or consent to the proposed measures, have been violated by the contested act, “says the text of the ruling.
The communities claim is based on the refusal of the authorities to implement the proposals that these groups performed to overcome the flaws that, in their opinion, had the mechanism implemented by the SEA, in which, these communities have not considered sufficient interference, given the informational purposes of the four meetings that had been made so far.
The appellate court in its resolution argues that the letter through which the regional SEA refuses the request to adjust the query “lacks the necessary ability to threaten any constitutional guarantee” because it “does not deprive disturbs or threatens the legitimate exercise of constitutional rights and guarantees precautionary by this action of constitutional protection, “poses the Valdivia’s Court of Appeals.
Environmental Assessment
At this time, the environmental assessment of this project has been suspended by order of the SEA since late last year, in order to have enough time to make the indigenous consultation.
Initially the Authority considered that this process could be completed within sixty days, period for which issued a first suspension of the assessment. However, this period was by extending new suspensions. The last one standing last week.
The initiative was presented to the system by Enersis’s subsidiary in December 2010 and since that time the services involved in the evaluation have sent to the Power Company 4 questions’s Sets, comments and requests for clarification of the elements of the initiative.
Source: Diario Financiero
