Summary

In the present report, the Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance, Tendayi Achiume, addresses the issue of racial equality and extractivism, explaining the pitfalls of an ahistorical, “colourblind” approach to the issue. She explains why the racial equality and non-discrimination obligations enshrined in the international human rights framework must be central to reform, regulation and evaluation of the extractivism economy. She develops (a) a structural racial equality analysis at a global level that highlights the racially subordinating effects of unequal distribution of power among States and between such States and transnational corporations; and (b) a more localized racial equality analysis at the national level that underlines the racially discriminatory human rights violations experienced by communities living directly on or close to territories of extraction. Finally, she formulates recommendations addressed to all stakeholders to ensure human rights protection in the extractivism economy, especially in tackling global structural racial inequality, which is rooted in persisting sovereign inequality.