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NGO Rejoinder

15 Mar 2022

Author:
ProDESC

ProDESC's rejoinder to EDF response to attack on Oaxaca wind farm opponent

The organisations that have been accompanying the advocacy and legal actions of the community of Unión Hidalgo since 2015 thank the Business and Human Rights Research Centre for the opportunity to provide more information on its website about the serious situation of risk faced by defenders in the community, and to outline some reflections on the appropriate actions expected of companies to respect human rights in contexts of violence.

Although we welcome the company's communication of knowledge of the incident with the defender Edgar Martin Regalado, we would like to clarify that it is an insufficient response, as the company has not communicated whether and how it is concretely mitigating the potential negative impacts on human rights that result from the development of its Gunaa Sicaru project.

We would like to underline that the increase in violence about which the company expresses a delicate concern is connected to the presence of large-scale wind projects and foreign and national investment in the region, and has been a constant and growing dynamic that civil society organisations stressed time and again over the last years...

Finally we would like to reiterate that although the company maintains in its communication that its objective is to develop low-carbon energy projects for the benefit of local families in the Isthmus of Tehuantepec (which currently hosts 31 large-scale wind farms), the energy poverty of Unión Hidalgo and many Isthmian communities remains since local populations have not benefited from more affordable energy prices or access to reliable and sustainable sources of electricity. Hence, while over 50% of the population of Unión Hidalgo lives in poverty and 11% lives in extreme poverty, households and small businesses still have intermittent access to electricity as well as to technology and other electrical appliances...

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