Prior Consultation as Arena of Negotiation: The Impact of ILO Convention 169 in the Production of Inequalities in Colombia

• In Event: Understanding Global Inequalities through Local Arenas of Negotiation: The Contentious Politics of Nature

Abstract

The late twentieth and early twenty first centuries witnessed the expansion of prior consultation in Latin America as inclusion mechanism for ethnic groups in the state decision-making process. Prior consultation processes are often the arenas in which ethnic groups are able to negotiate with the State and (trans)national firms tension-causing issues on their lands. Debating on conflicts concerning exploitation of natural resources, use of water, mega-projects (highways, dams, etc.) or agribusiness, for example, involve negotiations on the distribution of (environmental, economic and social) costs and benefits, and therefore participation and voice in such processes are crucial; as a result, non-ethnicized local actors are widely excluded. In both senses, prior consultation is essentially an arena of negotiation of inequalities. In Colombia, the current tensions between peasants and ethnic groups and the ongoing legislative reforms to prior consultation procedures illustrate the ambivalent role of prior consultation as mechanism of inclusion and exclusion. This study examines the legal and organizational strategies of Afro-Colombians, indigenous groups and non-indigenous peasants to counteract transnational dynamics aiming to gain access and control of natural resources in their territories.

Author

• Manuel E Gongora-Mera, Lateinamerika-Institut / Freie Universität Berlin