Summary of the Request

The request describes the situation faced by communities located in the municipalities of Briceño, Ituango, Toledo, Peque, Sabanalarga, Valdivia, Caucasia, San Andrés de Cuerquia, and Sopetrán. The Ituango Hydroelectric Project, currently under construction, is located in this area.

The request alleges current and potential impacts in the construction and operation stages of the project related to the identification of the project’s area of influence and the affected population; the identification and management of social and environmental impacts; the increase in conflict, insecurity, and violence in the project area and gender-differentiated impacts; the absence of adequate public consultation and participation; and the lack of adequate resettlement or compensation plans for physical and economic displacement resulting from the project’s construction. The requesters also maintain that the emergency that began in April 2018 has worsened and led to additional impacts both upstream and downstream of the dam, and that the project's handling of its consequences and related information has been inadequate. 

The Request describes the situation faced by 480 people in various communities along the Cauca river canyon in the municipalities of Briceño, Ituango, Toledo, Peque, Sabanalarga, Buriticá, Liborina, Olaya and Santa Fe de Antioquia. The Ituango Hydroelectric Project, currently under construction, is located in this area.

They underline the situation of violence and reprisals against those who have shown opposition to the project, claiming death threats and homicides.

Regarding the MICI process, the Requesters have stated that they wish to resort to both the Consultation Phase and the Compliance Review Phase, in case their Request be declared eligible.

Recent actions

On October 10, 2023, the Board of Directors endorsed the findings contained in the Compliance Review Report and accepted the 16 recommendations made by MICI. For its implementation, the Board instructed Management to prepare an Action Plan in consultation with MICI, within a period of 90 days. On October 17th, MICI published the Report.

Past actions

2018

On June 11, 2018, the MICI notified the Requesters and IDB Invest Management of the registration of the Request.

The IDB Invest Management requested from MICI a 15 business days extension to the period established in the MICI-CII Policy to be able to send the Management's Response, because they are focusing their efforts on giving attention to the Project’s current situation. In view of this situation, and in accordance with paragraph 59 of the Policy, the MICI Director asked the IIC Board of Executive Directors to consider extending the deadline, which was approved by on July 13, 2018.

The new deadline to receive Management’s Response was August 1, 2018, and the issue of the Eligibility Determination Memorandum was August 30, 2018.

On August 30th, 2018, the MICI determined that the Request was eligible as it met the criteria established in the MICI-IIC Policy.

This excluded two specific topics:

• the recovery of bodies disposed of during the conflict period into the Cauca River, as no linkage of this issue could be established with an action or omission by IDB Invest in relation to its own environmental and social standards; and
• potential non-compliance of the Project with national environmental legislation, as this is an issue subject to a judicial process.

The Request was transferred to the Consultation Phase (Conflict resolution process) to initiate the assessment stage.

On November 16, 2018, the Consultation Phase Assessment Report was issued, which concluded that there were no conditions to initiate a dialogue process.

On December 7, 2018, the case was transferred to the Compliance Review Phase, which was notified to the parties on December 18, 2018.

On December 7, 2018, the MICI Director asked the IDB-IIC Board of Executive Directors for an extension to prepare the “Recommendation for a Compliance Review and Terms of Reference” (paragraph 59 of the Policy). The Board of Executive Directors approved the extension via short procedure. Therefore, the new deadline to issue the Recommendation was February 28, 2019.

2019

On February 28, 2019, MICI sent the Parties the draft of the Recommendation and Terms of Reference for a Compliance Review of the present case. As of this date, the Parties had 15 business days to comment on the document.

On March 4, 2019, IDB Invest Management requested MICI for a 16 business days extension to send its comments on the "Draft Recommendation and Terms of Reference for a Compliance Review" sent to the Parties on February 28th, 2019.

On March 13, the Board of Executive Directors approved this extension, so the new deadline for receiving comments from the parties was April 12, 2019.

On July 26, 2019 MICI distributed the Recommendation for a Compliance Review and its Terms of Reference (TOR) to the Board of Executive Directors of the IIC for consideration by Short Procedure. On July 31, 2019, the Board of Executive Directors interrupted the approval of the Recommendation, under Short Procedure, in order to consider the document in a Committee session.

On October 29, 2019, the Board of Executive Directors approved the Recommendation and Terms of Reference to carry out a Compliance Review. MICI anticipates that the investigation will last nine months from the date the investigation panel is formed. The panel consists of the Phase Coordinator and the experts.

2020

On February 18, 2020, Jay Paul Wagner (Canada), Luis Enrique Sánchez (Brazil), David Nyheim (Norway), Lorena Aguilar (Costa Rica) and Allan Lavell (United Kingdom) were hired as independent experts to conduct the investigation led by the Compliance Review Phase Coordinator.

On November 5, 2020, the Parties were informed that the investigation period was extended due to the impossibility of carrying out the field mission in 2020, because of the travel restrictions imposed by the pandemic. Once there is more information about the travel possibilities next year, MICI will specify the new deadline for issuing the Preliminary Compliance Review Report.

2021

The ongoing pandemic has made it impossible for the investigation experts to conduct their field visit, which had initially been scheduled for the second quarter of 2020. The phase has nonetheless made progress, analyzing the extensive case documentation and conducting multiple virtual interviews in anticipation of being able to complete the field investigation. 

2022

In June, the investigation team conducted a field mission and carried out multiple interviews with over 30 individuals, as well as meetings in Medellín with the requesters, project officers, people allegedly affected by the project who were not part of the requesters' group, and officers from international organizations such as the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. Additionally, it visited several communities surrounding the project, like Toledo, Ituango and Caucasia, it traveled along Cauca River and participated in Movimiento Ríos Vivos members assemblies.

2023

On March 21, 2023, the Mechanism sent the Preliminary Compliance Review Report to Management and to the Requesters to receive their comments within a period of up to 21 business days. The Parties requested an extension of that period, and in particular, the Complainants justified the need for a 4-month extension. On April 6, in response to the requests of the Parties, MICI requested the Board of Directors for an extension until July 31, 2023. On April 14, the Board approved this extension by short procedure.

On September 7, 2023, the Final Report was distributed to the Executive Board for their consideration. Previously, the Executive Board approved an extension of five-business days for MICI to send the final report.