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The Politics of Localizing Human Rights: Chinese Policies and Corporate Practices in Latin America

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 November 2022

Roger Merino*
Affiliation:
Universidad del Pacifico, Lima, Perú
*
*Corresponding author. Email: ra.merinoa@up.edu.pe

Abstract

The ‘Going Out’ strategy that China began in 1999 escalated to a global level with the ‘Belt and Road Initiative’ in 2013. However, the lack of a clear international framework for corporate accountability accentuates the risks of human rights’ affectation by Chinese corporations, considering their controversial performance in Latin America. This article engages with the scholarly framework of international norm localization to analyze the enactment of Chinese business and human rights standards and their concrete application. This assessment relies on an extensive review of academic and policy research and the analysis of social conflicts around one of the largest copper mines in the region, Las Bambas, located in the highlands of Peru. The case shows that the main problem is not the lack of incorporation of business and human rights standards into national laws and the guidelines of companies’ home regulators, but the different ways they are interpreted by social actors on the ground. Local communities are not passive receptors of those norms but norm makers who appropriate them and provide new meanings in line with their self-determination. Chinese and national authorities and firms, therefore, need to engage with those norms from the perspective of local people.

Type
Scholarly Article
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press

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115 Ibid.

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124 Argentina, México, Antigua and Barbuda, Bolivia, Ecuador, Guyana, Nicaragua, Panamá, Saint Kiss y Nevis, San Vicente and Granadinas, Santa Lucía and Uruguay.

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129 Supreme Decree 009-2021-JUS, 11 June 2021.

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136 El País, ‘Un conflicto minero pone a prueba al Gobierno peruano’ (11 April 2019) (accessed 26 March 2021).

137 Coordinadora Nacional de Derechos Humanos, ‘La CNDDHH frente a la actuación del Estado por las protestas de las comunidades en Las Bambas’ (22 March 2019), https://derechoshumanos.pe/2019/03/la-cnddhh-frente-a-la-actuacion-del-estado-por-las-protestas-de-las-comunidades-en-las-bambas/ (accessed 26 March 2021).

138 Red Muqui, ‘Sentencia confirma inocencia de 19 comuneros que protestaron contra minera las Bambas en 2015’ (2020), https://muqui.org/noticias/sentencia-confirma-inocencia-de-19-campesinos-que-protestaron-contra-minera-las-bambas-el-2015/ (accessed 26 March 2021).

139 Jose Saldaña and Jorge Portocarrero, ‘La violencia de las leyes: el uso de la fuerza y la criminalización de protestas socioambientales en el Perú’ (2017) 79 Derecho PUCP 311–315.

140 OCMAL, ‘Las Bambas: El conflicto minero que pone a prueba a una inversión china en Perú’ (8 January 2021), https://www.ocmal.org/las-bambas-el-conflicto-minero-que-pone-a-prueba-a-una-inversion-china-en-peru/ (accessed 26 March 2021).

141 Frente único de Defensa de los interesesde la provincia de Chumbivilcas (FUDICH). Pronunciamientos de Las Comunidades Del Corredor Minero Sur (11 June and 17 August 2021).

142 Jose V Salcedo, ‘El fracaso del diálogo en Las Bambas: no hay acuerdos para contratar a empresas comunales’, Ojo Publico (12 December 2021), https://ojo-publico.com/3220/las-bambas-sin-acuerdos-sobre-montos-contratar-empresas-comunales (accessed 17 December 2021).

143 MMG, ‘Voluntary Announcement – Las Bambas Update’ (3 December 2021), https://www.mmg.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/e_2021-12-03_VA_Las-Bambas-Update.pdf (accessed 17 December 2021).

144 Ibid.

145 MMG, 2018. Report of Sustainability of Las Bambas, http://www.lasbambas.com/informe-de-sostenibilidad-2018/assets/pdf/informe_sostenibilidad_las_bambas_2018.pdf (accessed March 2020).

146 Thematic Report on Business and Human Rights: Inter-American Standards. Approved by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, on 1 November 2019 (OAS, Official Documents; OEA/Ser.L/V/II), Section H. Prior, Free and Informed Consultation and General Mechanisms for Participation.

147 Xu Ying, ‘The Interaction between Ecuadorian NGOs and Chinese Enterprises in Ecuador: Toward Better Corporate Social Responsibility’ in S Cui and M Pérez García (eds.), China and Latin America in Transition (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2016).