The Mayan Train could affect the rights of indigenous peoples in Mexico, experts warn

Nine special rapporteurs and a UN human rights working group* warned this Wednesday that the Mayan Train could endangering the rights of indigenous peoples and other communities to land and natural resourcescultural rights and the right to a healthy and sustainable environment.

The Mayan Train is a mega-project of the Mexican government with the participation of the private sector that includes 1,500 kilometers of railways laid across the Yucatan peninsula and the two states of the Tehuantepec isthmus, in the southeast of the country, and that seeks to reduce the times and costs of transporting goods and passengers to promote development and boost the tourism industry.

national security project

In a joint statement, the experts highlighted that, since the government has elevated the Mayan Train to the category of national security project, it can repeal the application of environmental and social safeguards, and affirmed that this classification does not allow Mexico to avoid its international obligations of respect for the human rights of affected people and protection of the environment.

“This decision not only has the potential to allow human rights abuses to go unaddressedbut also undermines the purpose of the project to bring inclusive and sustainable social and economic development to the five Mexican states involved,” said Fernanda Hopenhaym, chair of the UN Working Group on Business and Human Rights.

Hopenhaym added that the increasing participation of the army in the construction and project management also “raises great concern.”

The rapporteurs stated that the human rights defenders who have pointed out the negative impacts of the project, face threats and attacksand stressed that their access to an independent and impartial tribunal is limited.

indigenous participation

“As a state-directed project, the Mexican government should take additional measures to guarantee respect for human rights and the environment,” they stressed.

In this sense, they asked the government to guarantee the substantive participation of affected communities and they called for transparency in human rights and environmental impact assessments before making any future decisions related to the Mayan Train, with the intention of preventing any further negative effects.

The experts stressed that it should respect the free, prior and informed consent of indigenous peoplesand that the actual and potential cumulative impacts of the projects must be transparently assessed, as established by international standards on human rights and the environment.

The private sector cannot turn a blind eye

Regarding companies -some of them transnationals- and private investors in the $20 billion projectthe rapporteurs showed great concern about the lack of diligence regarding human rights and urged them to take provisions and exert their influence to guarantee the exercise of the fundamental guarantees of the inhabitants of the five states involved.

“The relevant companies and investors domiciled in Spain, the United States and China they can’t turn a blind eye before the serious human rights problems related to the Mayan Train project”, the experts emphasized.

* The special rapporteurs and independent experts are part of the Special Procedures of the Human Rights Council. Special Procedures, the largest body of independent experts in the UN human rights system, is the general name for the independent investigative and monitoring mechanisms established by the Council to address specific country situations or thematic issues around the world. Special Procedures experts work on a voluntary basis; they are not UN personnel.

The signatories of the statement are: UN Working Group on Business and Human Rights; Francisco Cali Tzay, special rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples; Saad Alfarargi, special rapporteur on the right to development; Alexandra Xanthaki, special rapporteur in the field of cultural rightsClement Nyaletsossi Voule, special rapporteur on the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association; Margaret Satterthwaite, special rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers ; Mary Lawlor, special rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders Irene Khan, special rapporteur on freedom of opinion and expression; Ashwini KP, special rapporteur on contemporary forms of racismDavid R. Boyd , special rapporteur on human rights and the environment.