A/HRC/41/54 industry was the sector with the most violations (A/71/281, paras. 36–37). He underscored that increasing conflicts over the environment stemmed from resource exploitation, which failed to address the legitimate concerns and demands of local communities, and highlighted the central role played by corporations and private security firms in restricting the legitimate activities of human rights defenders (ibid., paras. 41 and 45). 60. Racialized criminalization of indigenous peoples and people of African descent is now a commonplace strategy that Governments and corporate actors use to suppress and eliminate opposition to extractivist projects that are pursued without consultation or consent from the affected communities, and which violate their rights in the manner described above. The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights condemned cases of such criminalization in Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Guatemala, Mexico, Peru and Venezuela (the Bolivarian Republic of), among others. 108 One submission received from the Philippines reported torture, harassment, rape and murder of indigenous peoples by military and paramilitary forces tasked with protecting investment projects, seemingly at all costs. 61. Unsurprisingly, the extractivism economy has gendered effects, imposing and interacting with patriarchal power arrangements that marginalize and oppress women, in violation of their human rights. The Special Rapporteur received a number of submissions that highlighted the increased workload for women, diminished access to education for girls, greater risk of impoverishment for women, political marginalization, exclusion from consultations on extractive projects, and violations of sexual and reproductive health rights. 62. One submission highlighted that, within African countries, the communities in territories of extraction were often dominated by women peasant farmers who experienced the worst forms of land dispossession and were subject to the effects of pollution, violence and the deleterious effects on health associated with extractivist processes.109 Submissions from Latin America highlighted, among other things, the political marginalization and exclusion of women. In Guatemala, for example, indigenous Mayan women, despite their leadership in defence of their territories, have been excluded from negotiations concerning extractive activities by male community leaders, as well as State agents and company officials. 110 In another example, a mining company in La Guajira, (Colombia), did not acknowledge the indigenous woman who had been elected community representative and instead initiated talks with men from the same community. The local Government continued to ignore her even after community members complained. 111 Denial of access to formal education and language barriers also prevent indigenous women from participating in decision-making, including the use of technical language by corporations and State actors in their communication with communities. In Latin America, for example, indigenous women are more likely than their male counterparts to speak only their native language and not Spanish.112 63. Gender is also a salient axis of subordination and exclusion where labour rights are concerned. For example, women are responsible for about 80 per cent of the food crop production in Uganda.113 Women in the Albertine Graben Region of Uganda have indicated that access to agricultural land and crops had been affected by oil exploration activities. 114 Women face even more barriers than men in entering the workforce in the oil sector. Very few women have benefited from job opportunities in oil extraction, partly due to stereotypes that women are not capable of working in a physically strenuous industry. Oil companies themselves have reported that their contractors typically prefer to hire men over 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 18 www.oas.org/en/iachr/reports/pdfs/ExtractiveIndustries2016.pdf, para. 297. www.womin.org.za/images/WoMin_Newsletter_IssueSeptember_2018_English.pdf. www.awid.org/sites/default/files/atoms/files/whrds-confronting_extractive_industries_report-eng.pdf, p. 15; and https://urgentactionfund.org/in-our-bones. www.awid.org/sites/default/files/atoms/files/whrds-confronting_extractive_industries_report-eng.pdf, p. 14. https://fondoaccionurgente.org.co/site/assets/files/1175/b81245_6cc6d3d7edd447d0ab461860ae 1ae64f.pdf, p. 37. www.international-alert.org/sites/default/files/Uganda_GenderOilGas_EN_2014.pdf, p. 18. Ibid., p. 21.