Lithium Fever: Indigenous Peoples’ Rights Under Attack in Jujuy, Argentina

Lithium Fever: Indigenous Peoples’ Rights Under Attack in Jujuy, Argentina

The following report is structured in five parts. The first sets out the context of the lack of protection of indigenous land rights and the expansion of lithium extractivism surrounding the adoption of the reform of Jujuy’s provincial Constitution. The second part analyses how the reform’s approval procedure and its provisions on public lands, water, environment and social protest are incompatible with international human rights standards. The third part describes how indigenous peoples played an important role in the protests against the reform, by mobilising in defence of their rights to land and water. The fourth part contains cases documented by the mission involving the repression and criminalisation of protesters.
Finally, the fifth part sets out a series of recommendations addressed to the authorities, companies and international human rights organisations, which are intended to contribute to the effective guarantee of the rights of indigenous peoples and of freedom of peaceful assembly and social protest.