The Catholic Justice and Peace Networks of Latin America and the Caribbeans (LAC) and Europe have called on European and Latin American decision-makers to take meaningful actions “for a transition towards a sustainable and people-centred economy”.
The Commissions say this needs changing production, marketing, and consuming practices that harm eco-systems and people, notably indigenous communities and Afro-descendants in Latin America and the Caribbean.
The Summit of the EU and CELAC
The appeal was issued last week ahead of the EU-CELAC third regional summit on 17-18 July 2023 in Brussels, Belgium.
The meeting, co-chaired by Charles Michel, President of the European Council, and Ralph Gonsalves, President of CELAC, is intended to strengthen the EU-CELAC partnership, discuss fair green and digital transitions, and demonstrate a shared commitment to the international legal order.
It addresses climate change, global peace and stability, economic recovery, trade and investment, research and innovation, multilateral cooperation, justice and security for citizens, and meeting global climate targets.
Increased raw material demand
In their joint open letter to the European and LAC Heads of States and Governments, the Justice and Peace Commissions of the two regions raised worry over the social and environmental impacts of this strengthened relationship in Latin America and the Caribbean.
The EU plans to promote “global partnerships to mitigate supply chain risks, reduce strategic dependencies and improve its resilience” to ensure access to “secure, diversified, affordable and sustainable supply of critical raw materials” in light of the current geopolitical situation and global climate targets.
According to the Justice and Peace Commissions, increased European demand for raw materials will lead to more mining and extractive activities, which will damage eco-systems and local communities if unchecked and if private corporations are not held to environmental and social standards.
The Catholic Commissions say a recent EU proposal for a New Cooperation Agenda with Latin America and the Caribbean to seek “mutually beneficial partnerships” with “high social, environmental and governance standards” lacks “concrete details” on how these standards would be designed, safeguarded, and applied.
Corporate diligence
The Justice and Peace Commissions recognized “the much-needed and long-overdue” Corporate Sustainability. Due Diligence Directive The EU is negotiating a Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD) that requires firms to create due diligence procedures to address human rights and environmental consequences.
The Commissions also stressed that “just green transition” partnerships on raw materials and processes must “follow the premise of integral ecology and take into account all the related environmental, social, economic, human and cultural aspects” to be “genuinely mutually beneficial.”
“Besides the recognition of past injustices that in certain forms regrettably still keep perpetuating imbalances and inequalities in EU-LAC relations, this very much also implies listening to the experiences of local communities affected by mining and extractive activities in partner countries,” the document states.
Peace and Justice Commissions offer advice.
The first recommendation is to focus on production areas that pose “high risks for local communities and their environment,” such as open pit mining, drilling salt flats in high-altitude wetlands for lithium carbonate, fossil fuel extraction, and intensive agrochemical use in agriculture.
The Commissions request explicit timeframes and goals for transforming these production and extraction systems to gradually minimize the use of technologies and aggressive or polluting substances that harm people, the soil, water, and air.
Second, the open letter invites EU and CELAC decision-makers to convene and coordinate discussions with economic, social, and scientific actors to set transformation process criteria and reference bodies.
“To recognise the need for and to make a strong and concrete commitment to due diligence policies and to the Code of Conduct that companies will have to establish in line with the upcoming EU Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive” is the third Summit request.
It also requests that the future EU Directive’s system for reporting company due diligence violations in human rights and environmental protection “be accessible to any person, group of people or public or private organisation anywhere in the world”.
Finally, given that Latin American and Caribbean countries’ external debt often pressures them to accept agreements on the extraction and production of minerals, food, and fossil fuels for export and for obtaining foreign currency to pay this debt, the Justice and Peace Networks urge Summit participants to issue a declaration on the urgency and need to significantly reduce LAC nations’ external debt.
“A big step and hope”
The Argentine Episcopal Conference (CEA) Commission of Justice and Peace’s director, Humberto Podetti, told Vatican News’ Sebastian Sanson Ferrari that Pope Francis’ social Magisterium, particularly Laudato si’ and Fratelli tutti, inspired the J&S document.
The Argentinian lawyer called it a “very significant first step” at a critical time for climate, hunger, and marginalization. he stated.
