A/HRC/45/44/Add.1 Environment and Water, and there is no rural development policy that would benefit the Afro-Ecuadorian population. 35. For Afro-Ecuadorians, their relationship with the land must be redirected. Land is a precious resource. In many ways, they are the land that they till and on which they labour, with hardly any respite. But the acute imbalance in land ownership prevents them from owning land. Notably, their social, economic and political standing is intimately tied to the land. To break the cycle of poverty and raise the quality of their lives, their land rights must be respected. They have a right to own the land directly or collectively. Land ownership must be equitably diffused. The land must be redistributed and allocated to them, as a way to realize their economic, social and cultural rights, as well as their civil and political rights. A. Environmental racism, insecurity and lack of access to protection and justice 36. The Working Group was informed and saw first-hand the environmental racism,8 insecurity, poverty and violence at the northern border, which disproportionately affect communities of African descent, and learned of the displacement from ancestral AfroEcuadorian territory.9 37. The Working Group heard testimonies of serious violations of the right to a safe, clean, healthy and sustainable environment. 10 The environmental impact of mining and other extractive industries is significant. The communities most affected are in the Cantons of Eloy Alfaro and San Lorenzo, which are located in the north of the Province of Esmeraldas. The rivers are contaminated by the presence of heavy metals such as arsenic, mercury and aluminium, affecting the biodiversity of the area. The health of the inhabitants has also deteriorated and it is estimated that mining has destroyed approximately 15,000 hectares of land. 38. During its visit, the Working Group saw the pollution caused in the dying, toxic Santiago River in Esmeraldas Province. The watershed of this river affects the whole province of Esmeraldas. Communities of African descent who drink from the river, bathe in it or wash their clothes in it end up suffering skin rashes, genital infections and other serious illnesses. Water is life: their human rights to life and to the highest attainable standard of health have been seriously compromised by their constant exposure to the hazardous substances in their water. There has been inefficient public management to regulate resource extraction in Afro-Ecuadorian areas and achieve environmental remediation and reparation for the population affected by the years of contamination. 39. In violation of constitutional guarantees of the right to territory, Afro-Ecuadorians report that thousands of hectares of ancestral lands have been given to extractive industries,11 including the timber industry, oil-palm agro-industry and gold mining industry. There has been a widespread failure to respect the right of communities of African descent to prior consultation on decisions that may affect them. The policy decisions taken by the 8 9 10 11 8 Robert D. Bullard. “Environmental justice in the 21st century: race still matters”, Phylon, vol. 49, No. 3/4 (Autumn–Winter 2001), pp. 151–171. María Moreno Parra, “Racismo ambiental: muerte lenta y despojo de territorio ancestral afroecuatoriano en Esmeraldas”, Íconos, No. 64, May 2019. Human rights obligations relating to the environment include the following: procedural obligations of States to assess environmental impacts on human rights and make environmental information public, to facilitate participation in environmental decision-making, and to provide access to remedies for environmental harm; substantive obligations of States to adopt legal and institutional frameworks that protect against environmental harm that interferes with the enjoyment of human rights, including harm caused by private actors; and non-discrimination and other obligations of States relating to the protection of members of groups in vulnerable situations, including women, children and indigenous peoples. See A/HRC/37/59, annex. John Herlyn Antón Sánchez and Fernando García Serrano, “La presión sobre el derecho al territorio ancestral del pueblo afroecuatoriano: el caso de la Federación de Comunidades Negras del Alto San Lorenzo”, Revista Colombiana de Sociología, vol. 38, No. 1 (January–June 2015).