Download This PaperEcuador's Oil Region: Developing Community Legal Resources in a National Security Zone
Third World Legal Studies: Vol. 14 , Article 12, 1997
39 Pages Posted: 23 Mar 2020 Last revised: 14 Sep 2020
Date Written: 1997
Abstract
This early "business and human rights" paper was published several years prior to the launch of the UN Global Compact and a decade before the UN Secretary General appointed the Special Representative on Business and Human Rights. It describes the methodology and challenges involved in developing community legal resources in Ecuador’s oil region. The author discusses the severe legal constraints that local communities face and describes several proposed legal tools developed by local organizations and their national and international partners for responding to such constraints. The author also discusses the general role of the community legal educator in the Ecuadorian Oriente region. The author concludes that the viability of legal capacity-building in the region depends largely on finding meaningful legal tools in Ecuadorian law and international human rights law. How these tools are used must be adapted to fit the local context on a case by case basis. To be effective, community legal educators must work closely in collaboration with local organizations towards the broad dissemination of such tools. The article contributes to the larger debate about the human rights impacts of oil development in Ecuador’s Amazon region. The article is the direct result of participatory action research carried out in Ecuador by the author in collaboration with Ecuadorian human rights and environmental organizations.
Note: While the publication date for this article is listed as 1997, in fact, it was published in 1999-2000.
Keywords: Multinational Enterprises, Transnational Corporations, Community Legal Education, Business and Human Rights, Indigenous People, Ecuador, Oil Development, Human Rights, Environmental Law, Human Rights & the Environment
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