A/HRC/45/44/Add.1 State for this province are discriminatory. Highly polluting natural resource extraction activities are allowed to operate, unregulated or supervised by any institution of the State, leaving people of African descent in the middle of toxic and poisonous waste that poses a serious threat to their health, life and dignity. The judgment on precautionary measures, issued by the courts of justice and designed to safeguard the lives of Afro-Ecuadorian populations,12 is violated or breached by ministries and State institutions, and the courts themselves are indifferent to the fulfilment of their legal sentences. 40. In the Province of Esmeraldas, gold mining contaminates water and soil with heavy minerals that are toxic to health. These processes expose the local population to daily environmental threats that they cannot control and that compromise their health in the short and long run. In addition, in the northern area of Esmeraldas, the provision of infrastructure and basic services such as access to clean water and electricity is limited and deficient. 41. The Working Group expresses serious concern about the inaction by the State owing to interference and lobbying by exporters and other groups and individuals seeking to continue the operations of these industries. The Working Group noted the insufficient action and indifference on the part of the Ministry of the Environment and Water, the Mining Regulation and Oversight Agency and the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock. 42. The Working Group is also deeply concerned by the racialized criminalization of human rights defenders and people of African Descent as a strategy to suppress or even to eliminate opposition to extractive projects. 43. One emblematic case is the Uimbí community of African descent, which has taken an active role in the defence of its territory as the community lands were under pressure from oil-palm and gold mining companies. According to the information received, the conflict goes back to an informal adjudication on ancestral lands, which passed into the possession of a community member who then sold it to an investor from Quito. Subsequently, the lands were transferred to the company Energy & Palma, which currently holds the title of ownership of the 1,200 hectares in dispute. Conflicts began shortly after the adjudication and illegal sale of land. In 2016, Energy & Palma filed a lawsuit against four leaders from Uimbí on charges of illegal use of land. The conflict escalated with an attempted eviction of local people in November of that year. A police squad used a mechanical digger to destroy crops and fences in the disputed lands. Several members of the community came out to stop the eviction and the machinery being brought in by the company. Subsequently, the company sued community leaders for the theft of machinery. In August 2017, the company and Uimbí leaders reached an agreement whereby the community returned the machinery and the company withdrew the charges of theft. However, the trial for illegal use of land continues. The leaders of Uimbí have been criminalized as thieves and invaders of their own territory; however, they continue to fight for their ancestral right to it. The leaders of Uimbí and other communities in the north of Esmeraldas requested precautionary measures, which were initially rejected by the legal authorities of the Canton of San Lorenzo. 44. In 2011, the communities of Esmeraldas, with the support of the Ombudsman’s Office, managed to obtain precautionary measures to prevent the violation of rights, but the competent authorities did not comply with the measures. In 2018, the measures were expanded, dictating that all mining activity in the northern area of Esmeraldas should stop until the environment was restored and the inhabitants received reparations. 45. On 10 April 2019, the communities affected by mining pollution in the Cantons of San Lorenzo and Eloy Alfaro, with their lawyers and in the company of the Ombudsman’s Office, filed with the Constitutional Court an action of non-compliance with the judgment on precautionary measures No. 08256-2011-0058. This case in the Constitutional Court has been assigned No. 0018-19-IS, although no action has been taken. 12 Judgment on precautionary measures No. 08256-2011-0058, awarded in November 2017, by the Court of Justice of Esmeraldas in favour of Afro-Ecuadorian communities in La Chiquita and Awá de Guadualito in a case of environmental pollution generated by the companies Palmeras de los Andes and Palmar de los Esteros (No. 08100-2010-0485). 9