Indigenous Consultation: Lessons on Legitimacy from Mexico

• In Event: Democracy’s Legitimacy at Risk: Critical Perspectives from Mexico

Abstract

The relationship between indigenous peoples (IPs) and the State is of continuing importance in many parts of the world, particularly in Latin America, where over 40 million citizens form part of the indigenous population. In the 1990s, integrationist policies were reviewed at the formal level, with a wave of constitutional reforms sweeping through the region that both acknowledged the presence of IPs and offered basic protection for their collective human rights. Of particular importance in this process was Covenant 169 of the International Labour Organization (C169), which was adopted in 1989 and is is binding for ratifying States, which include the majority of those found in Latin America.

One of the key rights formulated in C169 is IPs’ right to consultation, meaning that culturally-appropriate participative processes must take place before the adoption of any legislative or administrative measure that could affect IPs. According to regional jurisprudence, these processes should be free (from manipulation), prior (to the measure in question) and informed (taking into account linguistic differences). Prior consultation rights have become a key political tool for indigenous movements in Latin America, particularly in the face of extractive projects seeking to exploit prized natural resources often found within IPs’ territories.

This paper takes a bottom-up approach to the study of consultation in practice, acknowledging the proliferation of participatory processes in the region that are presented as instances of consultation. Taking an ethnographic approach (observation, field interviews and secondary documents) it analyses three consultations in practice in the case of Mexico. While these processes should be considered far from perfect from the perspective of international legal standards, they appear to be opening up unprecedented spaces for dialogue, debate and contestation between the State and IPs. Consequently consultation processes in practice gain legitimacy when they offer an opportunity to redefine indigenous citizenship beyond the formal recognition offered at the legal level.

Author

• Claire Wright, Universidad de Monterrey