Maloca Internationale 9th session of the Forum on Minority Issues - ohchr 24/25 November 2016 Unites Nations - Geneva 9 Minorities Forum, Geneva, 24 and 25 November 2016 Thank you very much, Mr. President. In addition to the 1992 Declaration, minority rights are enshrined in ILO Convention 169 on Indigenous and Tribal Peoples (1989). Fifteen of the countries that have been obliged to comply with the provisions of this Convention are in the Americas. In South America, the European Union participates in the financing of the Initiative for the Integration of Regional South American Infrastructure (IIRSA), which involves the intervention of the ecosystems of the Andes and the Amazon. On the Putumayo River, in the Colombian Amazon, the Siona town faces a potential situation of displacement, due to the plans of the oil exploitation of the company Amerisur. These plans are articulated with IIRSA in the Putumayo River, where the objective is to connect places for exploitation, such as the territory of the Siona people, with the world market. We call on the Secretariat of the Forum to remember that consultation with indigenous and tribal peoples, in the case of economic projects or legislative or administrative measures that potentially affect their territories, is a way to prevent humanitarian crises, such as the displacement of minorities and Ethnocide of their cultures. Thank you very much