América Latina

Prior consultation: A fundamental right for indigenous peoples

Latinamerica Press

20/07/2011

Opinión

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Contenido

Latin America

Interview with Raquel Yrigoyen Fajardo, PhD in Law

Ecuador

Consultation or prior consent?

Colombia

Political will to apply consultation is lacking

Chile

Decree limits prior consultation

Latin America

Consultation and consent: an indigenous people’s right, a state’s duty

Guatemala

Communities reject initiative to regulate ILO Convention

Mexico

Indigenous communities without the right to consultation

Brazil

Big projects, big threat

Peru

The right to determine their development

Bolivia

Dilemmas and conflicts of prior consultation

Argentina

Court stops mining projects in indigenous territories

Why is prior consultation a fundamental right for indigenous peoples?

In Latin America, social conflicts related to the exploitation of natural resources on indigenous lands are becoming more frequent.

The revenue from natural resource exportation is an important factor in Latin American countries’ economic growth. In light of this “national interest”, states grant concessions on indigenous lands to extractive firms without taking into account how those activities affect their way of life.

States argue that investments in mining, petroleum, hydrocarbons, and timber bring development to the country, but this isn’t necessarily true, since the majority of the time development does not benefit the indigenous com-munities living on lands where the extractive activities are happening.

Not only do they not benefit, but their habitat is destroyed, the land that they consider their pharmacy, their market, their hardware store, their space to connect with their beliefs, spirituality and culture. Is it that national interest takes precedence over the right to existence of a human collective, an indigenous people? Or is it perhaps not the obligation of states to protect the existence of all of its inhabitants?

When extractive activities alter the way of life for indigenous peoples, it endangers their very existence, to the point that they feel it necessary to take dramatic measures in order to be heard and respected. Unfortunately, those measures sometimes turn into clashes with law enforcement and result in deaths or injuries.

In this context, free and informed prior consultation with indigenous communities, before taking any decision that would affect them directly, would avoid the proliferation of these conflicts, as well as so much death and resentment.

Prior consultation is one of the fundamental rights included in the international legal framework, such as the International Labor Organization’s Convention 169 concerning indigenous and tribal peoples — which has constitutional status in the countries that have ratified it — and the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

And prior consultation is fundamental in that it recognizes the right of a people to make decisions that could affect its existence. The communities have the power to say “we don’t want this activity that is going to affect our way of life and our basic rights, that is going to produce toxic waste, that is going to contaminate the water, that is going to flood our land.” No community is obligated to commit suicide in the name of “national interest.”

Likewise, a state does not have the authority to conduct an activity that will be at the expense of a community’s basic rights.

Recognizing the importance of the application of prior consultation with indigenous communities, Comunicaciones Aliadas, with the support of the American Jewish World Service, or AJWS, has prepared this special report that addresses the status of this right in nine countries in Latin America.

* Document in PDF

Latinamerica press special report, june 2011 - http://www.latinamericapress.org/

https://www.alainet.org/es/node/151355