The Amazon's Rivers Got a Hearing at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva

The Pan-Amazonian Ecclesial Network (REPAM) was founded in September 2014 by CELAM, CLAR, Caritas Latin America and the Brazilian bishops' Amazon commission, and works across the Amazon countries of South America. Over the last twelve months its human rights and international advocacy team collaborated on the UN Special Rapporteur's report on aquatic ecosystems and the human rights to water and sanitation in the Amazon, channelling input from territories in Brazil, Peru and Ecuador. The report grew out of the first Amazon Water Summit in Iquitos, Peru, in October 2025, and was presented to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva on 15 October 2026. It names five threats to Amazon waters (mining, oil and gas, missing water and sanitation services, agribusiness and deforestation, and large dams and waterways) and makes seven recommendations to governments, including keeping oil in the ground.