In contrast to neighbors like Colombia and Peru, Ecuador does not carry a high profile in human rights circles. In fact, Ecuador has been called an island of peace and receives relatively little attention from international human rights monitors. Nonetheless, the country suffers from both civil and political and economic, social and cultural rights violations and a disparate set of non-governmental institutions and movements has developed to confront these issues. The state has ratified all of the relevant treaties and is active on the international human rights front. However, domestically, human rights have only recently surfaced as a priority for the government.
Ecuador's human rights movement is comprised of small, relatively unsophisticated NGOs with fairly recent roots and weak ties to the international human rights movement. In the past, these organizations have almost exclusively focused on civil and political rights (CPR) and are only recently beginning to broach economic, social and cultural rights (ESCR). More important actors in terms of ESCR include social movements tied to particular issues (labor, indigenous, womens' rights), who are just beginning to identify themselves with the human rights movement.
Some basic facts about the country are relevant to an understanding of the human rights context. Ecuador is a small country, with a population of 12 million, and three distinct regions – the coast, the sierra and the Amazon. Between 35 and 45% of the population is indigenous and another 10% is afro-ecuadorian. The country has a relatively short and chaotic democratic tradition, beginning most recently in 1979 when power was restored from the military. The President shares power with a 121-member Congress, made up of 17 political parties. The military is still a dominant force, along with the Catholic Church. The country has the highest per capita debt in South America and relies heavily on petroleum and a handful of other export crops. Globally, Ecuador ranks somewhere in the middle in terms of human development, but land and wealth are greatly skewed, with close to 70% of the population living in poverty.
While many reports describing CPR violations from NGOs, governments, and international bodies are available, far fewer exist with reference to ESCR, and only a handful of brief published analyses of the human rights movement in Ecuador were found. Accordingly, the first two sections of this study rely principally on published materials, and the third section relies almost entirely on interviews with the key human rights actors in Ecuador.