A/HRC/41/54 Manifestations of racial discrimination 48. Within territories of extraction, indigenous peoples, small-scale farmers, rural communities, women, displaced persons, artisanal miners and fisherfolk, pastoralists, migrant workers, and poor and working-class communities experience the most acute human rights violations as a result of State and corporate conduct in the extractivism economy. For members of these groups, their race, national origin, ethnicity, nationality and gender are important factors in their political, economic and social marginalization in territories of extraction. Politically marginalized groups have few means of protection against extractivist projects that violate their rights or interests when confronted with the militarized States and corporate actors that are a mainstay of the extractivism economy. 49. The circumstances of indigenous peoples and people of African descent in different parts of the world are illustrative of the extreme human rights violations that racially or ethnically specified communities can experience in the extractivism economy, where these violations are fundamentally connected to their broader national political and socioeconomic marginalization. The Special Rapporteur received submissions from indigenous peoples from all over the world, all drawing attention to the examples of human rights violations discussed in this part of the present report. 50. In a comprehensive report on the human rights of indigenous peoples and people of African descent, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights highlighted the politically and economically marginal status of these groups as important in understanding the human rights impact of the extractivism economy on them. 71 The Commission documents the prevalence of extractivist projects in territories traditionally inhabited by indigenous peoples and people of African descent, with far-reaching human rights consequences for these groups. Through the extractivism economy, host Government and private corporate actors oversee the destruction of ecosystems, including through water pollution (e.g. mercuric and cyanide pollution), explosions, dust emissions, deforestation, the destruction of biodiversity and food security, and soil pollution. 72 Extractivist projects can threaten the very physical and cultural existence of these groups as peoples 73 and, on account of their devastating environmental impact, also result in gross violations of the rights to health and life, by causing illness and death. The recent collapse of a dam owned by an iron ore mining corporation, Vale S.A., in Brazil, in addition to killing hundreds and releasing almost 12 million cubic metres of mining waste, 74 also threatens the very existence of indigenous groups in the area.75 51. The Commission highlighted frequent violations of the right to consultation and to free, prior and informed consent in the implementation of extractivist projects in the region,76 some of which are approved in direct opposition to the development of indigenous peoples and people of African descent. 77 These projects profoundly affect the cultural identity and religious freedoms of these groups, including cases in which these projects cause the breakdown of the social fabrics of entire communities. When these communities lose effective control of their lands and territories due to extractivist encroachment and displacement, they lose their main sources of livelihood. Extractivist projects undermine and, in some cases, destroy traditional subsistence activities, including hunting, fishing and agriculture, violating, among other things, the right to food of affected groups. 78 This can be the product of restrictions imposed by Governments or corporations on land use, forced displacement or contamination of natural resources. It can also be the result of agricultural 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 14 www.oas.org/en/iachr/reports/pdfs/ExtractiveIndustries2016.pdf, paras. 16 and 249 (highlighting the marginalization, poverty and extreme poverty of indigenous and Afrodescendent communities, which then find themselves subject to the extractivism economy). Ibid., para. 17. Ibid., para. 251. The Commission notes that “in the most severe cases, impact can reach a total loss of their ethnic and cultural identity, as well as a serious deterioration of their institutions” (para. 264). www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/02/09/world/americas/brazil-dam-collapse.html. www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/02/brazil-pataxo-depended-river-turned-mud-190212165216265.html. www.oas.org/en/iachr/reports/pdfs/ExtractiveIndustries2016.pdf, para. 250. Ibid., para. 251. Ibid., para. 288. Submissions from the Sami on Norway and Finland raised these concerns, too.