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“Furukawa has always been locking us up and exploiting us because we don’t know how to do anything other than work in the fields, we are peasants. And, as peasants, it has always been a struggle to get ahead with our entire community.” With these words, Segundo Ordóñez received the annual award from the NGO Front Line Defenders for human rights activists at risk, this Friday in Dublin (Ireland). Furukawa Plantaciones CA, the Japanese company that this 57-year-old Ecuadorian farmer points to, is one of the largest abaca-growing multinationals in the world and the only firm that has faced a modern slavery lawsuit in the country. Both the firm, based on the Pacific coast of Ecuador, and the State have ongoing litigation. This award recognizes the trajectory of activists around the world who, in their struggle, risk their integrity.
The Japanese company arrived in the Latin American country six decades ago to dedicate itself to the cultivation of a plantation similar to that of bananas, from which paper money is made and which it exports to the United States and Europe. Furukawa, with a net worth of around 18 million dollars, was sued in 2019 by 106 workers who denounced inhumane treatment. “In there you could see everything: they paid us below the minimum wage, we worked for up to 15 hours in a row, and if someone was injured, no one would answer for us,” this activist explained to América Futura in February. Today, from Dublin, Ireland, he smiles with the statuette in his right hand: “My community and I are very happy.”
The smile fades quickly when he thinks about “what’s to come”: “I’m worried about what can happen from now on. I just want these lawsuits not to go unpunished, because we already have rights. We already know our rights. We have been in this fight for five years.” Patricia Carrión, a lawyer from the Ecumenical Human Rights Commission who accompanies him, believes that this could be a good opportunity to publicize “the violation of rights that take place in Ecuador, in companies, in the countryside, in agribusiness …”. And she adds, minutes after receiving the award: “It is a profound call for attention to the State; has the obligation to guarantee reparation and justice.”
The winners of the Front Line Defenders Award for Human Rights Defenders at Risk 2023, receiving their award in Dublin at @EPICMuseumCHQ:
Olivier Bahemuke Ndoole (DRC)@Hala_Deeb (Jordan)
Digital Security Lab Ukraine
Jeany Rose Hayahay (Philippines)
Segundo Ordóñez (Ecuador) pic.twitter.com/wVB8M4iosp—Front Line Defenders (@FrontLineHRD) May 26, 2023
Front Line Defenders has been awarding these awards since 2005 to honor the work of those who contribute “outstanding and courageous” to the defense and protection of human rights. Often taking a very high risk. “This morning we celebrate five inspiring human rights defenders from around the world,” Olive Moore, director of the organization, shared this Friday on her networks. “These activists are our best chance to resist, counter, and address the enormous challenges we face globally.” Moore also congratulated the four other awardees: Olivier Bahemuke Ndoole (Democratic Republic of Congo), Jeany ‘Rose’ Hayahay (Philippines), Digital Security Lab Ukraine and Hala Ahed (Jordan).
“We had no other”
Ordóñez arrived at the plantations to stay at just 11 years old. His mother had died three years earlier and he was the youngest of 11 siblings with hardly any resources to eat. Much less to go to school. “I gave him hours and hours every day, to earn 40 sucres [38 dólares la quincena]”, he counted. “There are people who were paid less and, since they did not know how to read or write, others were paid with a market.” Leaving the plantations was not an option either. According to what a dozen plaintiffs narrated, the company closed the removable door with a padlock from Monday to Monday. “We were there because we had no other,” he said then.
The decision to sue a company on which a large part of the Afro-descendant community in Esmeraldas and Santo Domingo depended was not an easy one. The first stone was laid by the Ombudsman’s Office when it detailed in 2019 “subhuman” housing conditions, child and adolescent labor and the absolute absence of labor rights from a census of 1,244 people, carried out by the former Secretary of Policy Management. Based on the report, the Prosecutor’s Office is investigating the company and representatives, whom they recently called for a criminal trial. In this litigation, there are 106 people who joined the accusation against the company, among which was Ordóñez. The farmer said his “little heart fluttered with joy” when he received the news that his lawsuit would be taken to trial. Today he has a similar feeling. Uncertainty also remains: “I hope they don’t forget about us. I hope they do justice after so much.”
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