History

Due to the prevailing legal crisis in Latin America, norms and rules for the protection of water are not applied. It causes multiple ecological problems that result both in the emergence of water transmittable diseases and the loss of ecological sustainability. This phenomenon causes insecurity for large population groups in Latin America that lack access to drinking water. It also threats the availability of water for future populations.

In view of this situation, the Latin American Water Tribunal, officially established in 1998, organized its first session in San Jose, Costa Rica in 2000. Initially, the tribunal’s actions were centered in the Central American region, an area with an increasing deterioration of the water systems as a result of the expansion of monoculture farming, mining activities and economic policies that favor foreign investment and led to the establishment of a number of megaprojects that contained high risks for the aquatic environment. Almost seven years later, the tribunal had its first Public Hearing covering the whole of Latin America; cases were presented from Mexico, Central America, Ecuador, Bolivia, Brazil and Chile.

Following these events, new commitments and consults were made proofing the need to follow up on the different water related problems that affected not only the urban citizens of Latin American, but also the farmers and indigenous peoples that inhabit the vast rural regions of the subcontinent. The worrying water related situation in countries like Mexico or El Salvador was revealed, as well as the vulnerability of the Andean Glaciers that supply important South American cities with water and that are being threatened by the phenomenon of climate change.

Many well-known cases refer to water conflicts that affect indigenous communities in Latin America. By carrying out research, field visits and assessments, it was found that this kind of conflicts require specific treatment. Activities of that kind made it possible that the experiences of the indigenous people, to develop a culture and a way of living based on the respect for ecological balance, were shared and diffused internationally. They also demonstrated that the sustainability of these lands and territories and the survival of the ancestral indigenous cultures are at grave risk today, due to transnational economic expansion and an increasing demand for natural resources.

The TLA organized a number of hearings, forums, workshops and field visits to countries like Mexico, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Colombia, Peru, Argentina, Brazil, and others. These activities were accompanied by additional research and documentation activities, newspaper publications and radio programs.

Then, after a period of more than ten years of constructing knowledge about water related conflicts in Latin America, the TLA moved on to deal with water related conflicts in other continents. With the support of the Heinrrich Böll Foundation the TLA celebrated a Public Hearing in the city of Istanbul, Turkey. Cases of great geopolitical importance for Turkey, Mexico and Brazil were presented during this hearing.

The current TLA-interaction-Water Tribunal proposal follows a model of exigent ethics and alternative jurisprudence that applying rigorous scientific and technological principles acts in response to the socio-environmental crisis as perceived in different regions of the world.