## URGENT ACTION

### TWO INDIGENOUS ACTIVISTS FACE LIFE IMPRISONMENT ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

In June 2005, South Korean steel company POSCO signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Government of Odisha to invest in a project consisting of iron ore mines (an integrated steel plant) and a captive port, in Jagatsinghpur district of Odisha. Much of the land that was proposed to be used for the project is common land – village property that falls under the authority of local bodies – containing betel vineyards that many families depended on for their livelihoods. Local activists say that state authorities have consistently failed to recognize local communities’ individual and community rights over common lands, as recognized under the historic Forest Rights Act 2006. Many villagers said that they had submitted forest rights claims to local authorities, but these claims km2) were not processed. According to PPSS, the local resistance group, 2000 acres (8 of common land were forcibly taken over by the km2) government in 2011. In 2013, an additional 700 acres (2.8 of common land were taken over in Dhinkia village. Residents were not consulted or given adequate notice, and those who refused compensation had their land seized without their consent. Since the MoU was signed, the project has faced staunch resistance from local communities’ as well serious questions from human rights and environmental groups on its social and environmental impacts. Village assemblies in the affected areas have passed numerous resolutions prohibiting the use of land for the POSCO-India project. In June 2013, a report by ESCR-Net highlighted several human rights abuses linked to the project, and called for it to be suspended. In October 2013, eight independent UN human rights experts, including the UN Special Rapporteurs on adequate housing, the right to food, the right to health and freedom of peaceful assembly, called for a halt to the project, citing serious human rights concerns, including the impact of forced evictions on livelihoods, access to natural resources, and fabricated criminal charges. In 2015, following an international outcry over the environmental and human rights risks of projects run by POSCO, Norges Bank decided to exclude the company from the investment universe of the Norwegian Government Pension Fund Global. In March 2017, POSCO stated that it was withdrawing from the project and requested the Odisha government to take back the land transferred to the company. However an Indian steel company, JSW Steel Limited, shortly afterwards announced its plans to open operations in the area. Local resistance to the proposed plans are mounting following the ongoing construction of a boundary wall for the new project, without the settling of forest rights claims to the lands. Local activists fear that the arrests of Judhishtira Jena and Babula Samal, citing old cases from the POSCO era, will be first in a series of a tactics to quash future peaceful protest.

Name: Judhishtira Jena and Babula Samal Gender m/f: m

UA: 3/18 Index: ASA 20/7690/2018 Issue Date: 18 January 2018

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