Last Thursday, May 7, the day on which the deadline granted by Decree 2691 of 2014 to submit to the Ministry of Mines and Energy requests for environmental protection measures by municipalities and districts expired, a small group of organizations was presented with the nullity lawsuit for unconstitutionality and the request for suspension of the aforementioned decree that they filed before the Council of State, National Forum for Colombia, Conciudadanía and the National Women’s Network, three allied organizations that implement the Democratic Dialogue Program for Environmental Security (PDDSA), and attorneys Laura Santacoloma and Rodrigo Negrete.
Some of the arguments are related to the violation of the constitutional principles of territorial autonomy, coordination and concurrence between the central and decentralized levels of the State and the fundamental rights to participation and to a healthy environment. In addition, the plaintiffs considered as a fact of gravity the disregard made by the Nation (represented in the ministries of mines, interior, agriculture and environment) to the ruling of Judgment C-123 of 2014 and the overreach of functions.
This ruling declares Article 37 of Law 685 of 2001 to be executory, but conditions that “in the development of the process by means of which mining exploration and exploitation activities are authorized, the competent authorities at the national level must agree with the territorial authorities concerned on the necessary measures for the protection of the healthy environment”. In order to do this, you must provide the opportunity to participate actively and effectively to municipal entities.
The decree was reduced to determining in procedural terms how the authorities must comply with a series of requirements -which modifies their functions and does not assign them economic resources- in order to request the Ministry of Mines the protection measures against mining impacts, and if compliance is achieved, the latter will make the final decision. This clearly shows a total absence of a mechanism that would lead the parties -nation and territorial entities- to a dialogue to reach a consensual agreement. In addition, the provisional suspension of the aforementioned decree is requested as a preventive measure to avoid its unconstitutional effects, pending the final resolution of the sentence.
Foro, Conciudadanía and the Women’s Network call on other civil society organizations to join efforts and generate strategies to stop the harmfulness of this decree and demand that the national government open a dialogue with municipalities and citizens regarding the extraction of non-renewable natural resources, since the decisions taken have a direct impact on Colombians, their livelihoods and territories.
