Human rights and indigenous people in Latin America: ideological and political choices in the (des)construction of rights

• In Event: Human Rights, Governance and Indigenous Peoples

Abstract

The indigenous people’s rights were matter of debate since America’s Colonization, and the arguments of the Scholastic Philosophy are point out as the genesis of international human rights laws. Nevertheless the historiography of international law has overlooking the vision of the global South. This perspective has been changing with the criticism of some postcolonial studies that turn visible the importance of the South in the construction of the human rights doctrine. For native people of America, theirs rights were thought in the Sixteen Century with the ideological purpose of protecting and converting them to Christianity. Later on, the official indigenous policy prescribes rights in order to integrate them into National States. It was only in the 1980’s and 1990’s, due to indigenous movement’s demands, that Latin American constitutions recognized their multiethnic composition and there was a paradigm change to accept the right to be different and self-determination of indigenous people. Historically the indigenous people are not recognized as protagonists of international law, but they have an important role in the construction of the system of human rights. The currently proposal is to inquire how the new international paradigm for indigenous rights is in fact developing their participation and influence in Latin America´s politics, especially when related to their territory autonomy. Our aim is to reflect about the contradiction of the currently politics of neo extractivism in Latin America and the lack of realization of the international laws for indigenous people that assure their protagonist in the construction of their rights.

Authors

• Leticia Albuquerque, Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina

• Adriana Biller Aparicio, Universidade do Estado de Santa Catarina (UDESC)