Abstract
This chapter scrutinizes norm contestation over the right to prior consultation and free, prior and informed consent (FPIC) and argues that the lack of a shared understanding of this norm substantially contributes to the widespread non-compliance with this right. The analysis focuses on the contested social practices with regard to the regulation and implementation of the consultation and consent right in the extractive industries. The paper’s theoretical framework draws on and contributes to debates on norm contestation and norm compliance led by scholars of international relations and on the practice of human rights led by legal anthropologists. As Bolivia, Colombia and Peru are the Latin American countries that have implemented prior consultation processes with indigenous and African-American communities in their extractive industries most systematically, the chapter is mainly based on empirical data from these countries. This study finds that divergent claims of authority, territorial control and decision-making coexist within the analysed domestic contexts and that these divergences lie at the root of the fierce contestations over indigenous participatory rights. In addition, such divergent claims or competing resource sovereignties are embedded within power asymmetries that clearly work in favour of strategic economic interests to extract natural resources and disadvantage strong indigenous and participatory rights. I argue that the contestations concerning the right to prior consultation and FPIC are so profound that under current conditions the emergence of a shared understanding of this norm is very improbable.
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Notes
- 1.
Risse and Ropp (2013), p. 10.
- 2.
See UN Office of the High Commissioner of Human Rights, Statement of Ms. Victoria Tauli-Corpuz, United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples at the Tenth session of the Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, Tenth Anniversary of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. 12 July 2017, http://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=21889&LangID=E (last accessed 1 October 2018).
- 3.
Risse and Ropp (2013).
- 4.
Risse and Ropp (2013), p. 36.
- 5.
- 6.
Global Witness, Defenders of the Earth. Global killings of land and environmental defenders in 2016. 2017, https://www.globalwitness.org/en/campaigns/environmental-activists/defenders-earth/ (last accessed 1 October 2018).
- 7.
Doyle (2014).
- 8.
See the chapter by de Casas in this volume.
- 9.
Rodríguez et al. (2010).
- 10.
Szablowski (2010), p. 127.
- 11.
Szablowski (2010).
- 12.
Szablowski (2010).
- 13.
See, for instance, Flemmer (2015); Flemmer and Schilling-Vacaflor (2016); Bebbington (2012); Pellegrini and Arismendi (2012); Rodríguez GA, De La Consulta Previa Al Consentimiento Libre, Previo E Informado a Pueblos Indígenas En Colombia (From the Prior Consultation to the Free, Prior and Informed Consent of Indigenous Peoples). 15 April 2015, https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2592988 (last accessed 1 October 2018); Weitzner (2017).
- 14.
- 15.
- 16.
- 17.
- 18.
De Sousa Santos (1987), pp. 297–298.
- 19.
Sieder (2011).
- 20.
- 21.
Merry (1992), p. 369.
- 22.
Wilson (1999).
- 23.
Scott (2008).
- 24.
Wiener (2014).
- 25.
Wiener (2009).
- 26.
Taylor (1993), p. 57.
- 27.
Goodale (2007).
- 28.
Goodale and Merry (2007), p. 24.
- 29.
Wilson (1999).
- 30.
Wiener (2009).
- 31.
Zürn (2002).
- 32.
Risse and Ropp (2013).
- 33.
Finnemore and Sikkink (1998), p. 914.
- 34.
Jetschke (2011).
- 35.
Liese (2009).
- 36.
Wiener (2009), p. 201.
- 37.
Wiener (2009).
- 38.
Article 6, ILO C169.
- 39.
Article 15, ILO C169.
- 40.
Barelli (2012), p. 11.
- 41.
Article 3, UNDRIP.
- 42.
Article 10, UNDRIP.
- 43.
Article 18, UNDRIP.
- 44.
Article 19, UNDRIP.
- 45.
Article 32, UNDRIP.
- 46.
US Department of State, Announcement of U.S. Support for the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. 12 January 2012, https://2009-2017.state.gov/s/srgia/154553.htm (last accessed 1 October 2018).
- 47.
UN Human Rights Council, Report of the Special Rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples, James Anaya Anaya. Extractive industries and indigenous peoples, UN Doc. A/HRC/24/41, 1 July 2013.
- 48.
UN Human Rights Council, Report of the Special Rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples, James Anaya Anaya. Extractive industries and indigenous peoples, UN Doc. A/HRC/24/41, 1 July 2013.
- 49.
CEPAL, CEPALSTAT Database. Export of primary export as a share of total exports. http://interwp.cepal.org/sisgen/ConsultaIntegrada.asp?IdAplicacion=6&idTema=119&idIndicador=1910&idioma=I (last accessed 21 June 2016).
- 50.
UNDP, Regional Human Development Report for Latin America and the Caribbean Multidimensional progress: well-being beyond income. 2016, http://www.latinamerica.undp.org/content/rblac/en/home/library/human_development/informe-regional-sobre-desarrollo-humano-para-america-latina-y-e.html (last accessed 1 October 2018).
- 51.
Burchardt and Dietz (2013), p. 189.
- 52.
Svampa (2015).
- 53.
Bebbington and Bury (2013b), p. 11.
- 54.
McNeish (2017).
- 55.
APG (2008).
- 56.
Nolte and Schilling-Vacaflor (2012).
- 57.
Pérez (2012).
- 58.
Domínguez (2015), p. 56.
- 59.
De Almenara and Linares (2017), p. 87.
- 60.
For an overview see Rodríguez (2015), pp. 102–103.
- 61.
According to international human rights standards, prior consultation and FPIC processes have to be carried out whenever legislative or administrate measures may affect indigenous peoples directly. Hence, indigenous peoples have to be consulted on laws and decrees affecting their rights, with the aim of reaching an agreement and/or their consent. In particular, the lack of prior consultation and consent processes concerning laws and decrees that regulate the right of consultation and consent has been criticized vehemently by indigenous organizations in many Latin American countries.
- 62.
Domínguez (2015), p. 46.
- 63.
See, for instance, Weitzner (2017).
- 64.
Herrera and García (2012).
- 65.
Howland et al. (2013), p. 26.
- 66.
Howland et al. (2013), p. 26.
- 67.
Schilling-Vacaflor et al. (2018).
- 68.
Schilling-Vacaflor and Flemmer (2015).
- 69.
Flemmer and Schilling-Vacaflor (2016).
- 70.
De Almenara and Linares (2017), p. 87.
- 71.
The Bolivian government has released four supreme decrees (SD) that are directly related to extraction projects and indigenous rights, all of which have been vehemently opposed by indigenous organizations. SD 2195, from November 2014, established upper limits between 0.3 and 1.5% of the investment sums of hydrocarbon projects for compensation payments to the inhabitants of collective lands according to different project types. SD 2298 states that prior consultation processes should not surpass a maximum duration of 45 days; SD 2366 authorizes hydrocarbon activities in protected areas; and SD 2368 declares that gas ducts are of national interest. The three last decrees were adopted in May 2015. Schilling-Vacaflor (2017a).
- 72.
VII Comisión Nacional de la elaboración de la ley de consulta. Anteproyecto de Ley de Consulta Previa Libre e Informada [Proposal of the Law on Free, Prior and Informed Consultation]. La Paz, 2013.
- 73.
Interview with staff from the corporation Gas Trans Boliviano GTB, Santa Cruz, 18.11.2014.
- 74.
De Almenara and Linares, Buenas prácticas de las defensorías del pueblo de Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador y Perú en procesos de consulta previa. 2017, https://www.business-humanrights.org/sites/default/files/documents/GIZ_BuenasPraGestion_16082017BAJA.pdf (last accessed 1 October 2018).
- 75.
Schilling-Vacaflor and Flemmer (2015).
- 76.
Schilling-Vacaflor (2017b).
- 77.
Schilling-Vacaflor (2017b).
- 78.
Howland, Uprimny and Barsanti, Voces y Palabras Mayores de los pueblos étnicos de Colombia sobre el derecho a la consulta y al consentimiento previo, libre e informado. Oficina en Colombia del Alto Comisionado de Naciones Unidas para los Derechos Humanos. April 2013, http://www.acnur.org/fileadmin/scripts/doc.php?file=fileadmin/Documentos/Publicaciones/2013/9171 (last accessed 1 October 2018).
- 79.
The Rrom (or gitano) people, in English also referred to as Romani, have migrated to Colombia from Northern India over 1000 years ago. In the decree 2957 from 6 August 2010, the Colombian state recognizes the own ethnic identity of the Rrom people.
- 80.
Domínguez (2015).
- 81.
Fontana and Grugel (2016).
- 82.
Flemmer and Schilling-Vacaflor (2016).
- 83.
Riaño DMM, Revisión crítica del derecho a la consulta previa de proyectos y sus procedimientos. Semillas, 55/56, http://www.semillas.org.co/es/revisi (last accessed 1 October 2018), pp. 54–26; Guzmán-Gallegos (2017); Schilling-Vacaflor and Eichler (2017).
- 84.
UN Human Rights Council, Report of the Special Rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples, James Anaya. Extractive industries and indigenous peoples, UN Doc. A/HRC/24/41, 1 July 2013.
- 85.
For instance from the CCC, see Col. Sentencia T-129 de 2011.
- 86.
Referred to as “corporate science” by Kirsch (2014).
- 87.
See Leifsen et al. (2017).
- 88.
Flemmer and Schilling-Vacaflor (2016).
- 89.
Howland T, Uprimny M and Barsanti P, Voces y Palabras Mayores de los pueblos étnicos de Colombia sobre el derecho a la consulta y al consentimiento previo, libre e informado. Oficina en Colombia del Alto Comisionado de Naciones Unidas para los Derechos Humanos. April 2013, http://www.acnur.org/fileadmin/scripts/doc.php?file=fileadmin/Documentos/Publicaciones/2013/9171 (last accessed 1 October), p. 22.
- 90.
Colombian presidential directive 001 (2010).
- 91.
CCC, Ruling T-769.
- 92.
See paper “La jurisprudencia de la CC de Colombia y el TC del Peru en casos con referencia al derecho a a la Consulta Previo de los PP II” presented by René Kuppe at the “Extracting Justice?” project meeting, Santa Cruz-Bolivia, 11.11.2015.
- 93.
Ruling of Peru’s Constitutional Tribunal, 00025-2009-PI/TC.
- 94.
CCC, Ruling Col SU-039 from 1997.
- 95.
Doyle (2014), pp. 146–148; The CCC argued: “On the one side there is the prior consultation entailing the right to veto […] on the other side there is the prior consultation consisting primarily in the provision of information. According to the court’s perspective, the criteria that permits the reconciliation of these extremes depends on the grade to which the communities would be affected” (Col. Sentencia T-129 e 2011).
- 96.
Interestingly, with a critical stance towards such discriminatory interpretations, the CCC argued the following: “In the case of a conflict between the general interest and another interest that is constitutionally protected, […] this is a conflict between two collective interests and not between one particular interest and the general interest. […] The interest of the indigenous community possesses a major legitimacy when it is based on fundamental rights that are comprehensively protected by the Constitution.” (COL T-428 de 1992).
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Schilling-Vacaflor, A. (2019). Norm Contestation and (Non-)Compliance: The Right to Prior Consultation and FPIC in the Extractive Industries. In: Feichtner, I., Krajewski, M., Roesch, R. (eds) Human Rights in the Extractive Industries. Interdisciplinary Studies in Human Rights, vol 3. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-11382-7_12
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