Govt assures it will work with Chinese Landing community to find solutions

– permission sought from Toshao to field inter-agency team

While its efforts to ensure the concerns of residents at Chinese Landing were addressed did not always meet with success in the past, the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) Government is assuring that it will work along with residents to ensure mutually agreeable solutions can be found.
The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) recently issued Resolution 41/2023, through which it granted precautionary measures in favour of members of the Indigenous Carib Community of Chinese Landing, who it said are currently at “serious, urgent risk of suffering irreparable harm to their human rights”.

In the wake of this decision, the PPP/C Government has announced that a team would soon be sent to the Region One (Barima-Waini) community to meet with residents there. In a statement, the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs and Governance further said that they will work with residents to find solutions.
“A new multisectoral fact-finding team is being assembled of Government officials to be deployed into Chinese Landing to further assess the social and environmental issues which need to be addressed based on the IACHR summary of its decision and guided by the terms of reference for the team. This team will report directly to the high-level committee coordinated by the Minister of Parliamentary Affairs and Governance,” the Ministry said.
“Upon the completion of the fact-finding mission, the high-level committee will invite representatives of the Chinese Landing Village Council, the mining company, and miners operating in the area as well as relevant agencies to engage in discussions about mutually beneficial and amicable measures which can be adopted in the interest of protecting fundamental human rights of all concerned. This is in keeping with the precautionary measures issued which stipulate that the State must consult and adopt measures.”
According to the Ministry, it will also submit a formal response to the IACHR, informed by the results of the fact-finding mission, consultations, and further investigations. It was pointed out by the Ministry that after it submitted a response to the IACHR on April 17, 2023, the complainants made a further submission that IACHR did not give the PPP/C a chance to respond to. Instead, precautionary measures were issued afterward.
The Ministry assured that the relevant authorities will conduct further scientific studies to ascertain the environmental impacts of the mining. These studies will, according to the Ministry, be informed by consultations with the community and relevant experts. However, the Ministry also revealed that despite requesting permission to send the fact-finding mission to their lands, Toshao Orin Fernandes has yet to respond.
Notwithstanding this, the Ministry was hopeful it could also work with the community to develop a permanent system of monitoring and reporting on any issues that arise, which could threaten their livelihood.
“This mechanism will allow for reports to be recorded, dispatched to the relevant authorities and acted upon in a timely manner. Any reports of infringements on human rights in contradiction of the Constitution and legislation of Guyana will be investigated and acted upon accordingly,” the Ministry said.

Previous efforts
Meanwhile, the Government made it clear that efforts have been made by the State over the years, through regulatory agencies such as the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission (GGMC), to address the concerns of the Chinese Landing community about the work of the miner in question, Wayne Vieira.
“The medium-scale mining concession in question was granted to Vieira in 1995 in an area of the land known as Tassawini. This granting of the concession in 1995 predated the Amerindian Act of 2006 which is now the principal legal authority requiring consent of the Village Council and the miner to carry out mining activities and for the Village Council to receive royalties directly from the miner.”
“Noteworthy is that Mr Vieira and the Chinese Landing Village Council entered into an Agreement on July 19th, 1998. This agreement was not renewed by the Village Council after the passage of the Amerindian Act. On July 27, 2011, the Village Council formally wrote to the GGMC that it had decided not to renew the agreement with Mr Vieira.”
The Ministry noted that the Village Council’s decision not to renew Vieira’s license was backed up by the Ministry of Amerindian Affairs and the GGMC, which issued a cease work order in 2010 since he had no formal agreement with the Village Council.
“Vieira then moved to the courts, bringing a claim against the validity of the CWO issued by GGMC which he won in 2012. The GGMC did not renew Mr Vieira’s license. This resulted in two other cases which were brought in 2013,” the Ministry said.
“This case made its way through the domestic judicial system, and in December 2017, the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ), Guyana’s apex court, ruled in favour of Vieira, thereby rendering the CWO void. In keeping with the principles of respecting the rule of law, Mr Vieira’s mining permits were renewed on April 17, 2018.”
Since then, a new case against Vieira and the GGMC was brought in 2021. While this case was also dismissed, it is now being appealed. Meanwhile, the Ministry noted that one of the problems with Chinese Landing is that formal reports were not being made to the relevant local authorities, and as such, there were no records to allow legal proceedings against alleged perpetrators. Additionally, efforts to find the alleged victims have proven unsuccessful.
At his press conference on Thursday, Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo had meanwhile revealed that there is a division within the Chinese Landing community with some for and against the mining. Additionally, he said that there are reports of other illegal miners, which further complicates the issue.
The IACHR is a principal and autonomous body of the Organisation of American States (OAS), whose mandate stems from the OAS Charter and the American Convention on Human Rights. The Inter-American Commission has the mandate to promote the observance and defence of human rights in the Region and acts as an advisory body to the OAS on the matter.