The Prior Consultation law will require that indigenous people be consulted before any mining, timber or petroleum projects are begun on their traditional lands. Private companies will have to seek agreement with rural communities for projects that affect them or their ancestral territories, but it does not give the communities the right of veto.
"What we want to do with this law is to have the voice of indigenous people be heard, and have them treated like citizens, not little children who are not consulted about anything," said Humala after signing the law, according to Yahoo News.
A similar law was repeatedly blocked by the previous president Alan Garcia, arguing that it would deter investment and benefits for all Peruvians. But President Humala is looking at a bigger picture, one that includes reducing social conflicts, ensuring respect for all Peruvians’ human rights and introducing the indigenous worldview into Peru’s body of legislation.
This is just the latest step of a worldwide movement fighting for the rights of indigenous peoples, following Bolivia’s Law of Mother Earth signed early this year by indigenous president Evo Morales.
The movement got a major boost on September 2007, when the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples was adopted by the General Assembly of the United Nations, by a majority of 144 states in favour, 4 votes against and 11 abstentions. The four countries that voted against it were the United States of America, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. Since its adoption all of them have reversed their position and endorse the Declaration.
cc Adam Jones Ph D
Nevertheless the voting is telling, as the Wikileaks cables show. In this cable titled “Evo Morales is our president: the Anti-System” written by Deputy Chief of Mission at the US Embassy in Peru, James Nealon, the indigenous peoples defending their lands in Peru are described as “anti-system radicals”, and it continues expressing concern over protests which urged stopping a “planned hydroelectric project, repealing a new water law and ending concessions relating to mining and other extractive industries.”
The cable released by Wikileaks on August 30th 2011 expresses a concern about an important shift of growth paradigm: “…But if these kinds of structural factors have played a role in recent protests (refs), so has a radical anti-system political project that is seeking to take political advantage of them to undermine Peru's progress, weaken the government and lay the groundwork for a more systematic assault on the pro-growth model. Public and private statements by the diverse and not necessarily unified leaders of the anti-system movement paint a compelling portrait of their real aims, which can be summarized in the words of one Peruvian indigenous leader that "Evo Morales is our President."”
cc US Mission Geneva
At another cable released on August 30th, 2011 the US also expresses alarm over the right for the Indigenous to be consulted on any law pertaining to them. This is now known as the "right to free, prior and informed consent," as stated in the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, which is also the right protected by the new law in Peru. The cable is from the US Embassy in La Paz, Bolivia, dated Jan. 28, 2008.
"Although most indigenous leaders seem to view the UN Declaration as a 'feel good' document that will give them more inclusion in the public sector, some leaders are citing the Declaration in support of concrete aims like self-governance and control over land and resources," states the US Embassy in La Paz, Bolivia. "Post will watch for further developments, particularly with regards to property rights and potential sovereignty or self-rule issues."
Is the US Government worried about indigenous peoples attaining “self-governance”, “property rights” or “sovereignty” over their ancestral lands? Aren’t all men created equal as stated on the US Declaration of Independence?
cc Luna sin Estrellas
Confronting worldviews are behind this issue. On one side, there is the Western civilization view of progress and unstopped growth. On the other, there is the evidence that continue growth is taking humanity to a point of no-return, and that the planet won’t be able to resist if every country follows that same path. Hence, the green movement around the world, the back to basics attitude, and the return to old values eradicated by the industrialized era.
"We indigenous people can contribute to solving the energy, climate, food and financial crises with our values." said Bolivian Foreign Minister David Choquehuanca. Maybe is time we start taking a deep look at those values.
