Misreading Peru's Law on the Right of Indigenous Peoples to Prior Consultation

On 6 September 2011, Peru’s President, Ollanta Humala, signed into law landmark legislation on the right of his country’s indigenous peoples to consultation (Ley del derecho a la consulta previa a los pueblos indígenas u originarios, reconocido en el convenio 169 de la Organización Internacional del Trabajo (OIT)).

Article 3 of the new law sets forth the aim or objective of consultation:

The objective of the consultation is to reach agreement or consent between the State and the indigenous or native peoples regarding legislative or administrative measures that directly affect them, through intercultural dialogue that guarantees their inclusion in the State's decision-making processes and the adoption of measures respectful of their collective rights.

Set against Article 3 is Article 15, which among other things says:

The final decision on the approval of the legislative or administrative measure belongs to the competent state agency. … If no agreement is reached, it is the responsibility of the state agencies to take all the measures that are then necessary to guarantee the collective rights of the indigenous or native peoples.

Some early commentators have read Article 15 as contradicting Article 3 and so either have gone on to assert that Article 15 runs afoul of international law on the right of indigenous peoples to free, prior, and informed consent and then suggest that it should be downplayed in favour of Article 3 or - wishing to avoid drawing attention to it - have noted Article 3 without mentioning Article 15.

Likely unawares, these commentators have inflated the international legal principle of free, prior, and informed consent into an indigenous veto or its like and thus have fallen into a trap similar to one fallen into earlier by the Chief Justice of Canada, albeit to opposite effect. As I note in my previous post on Consultation and Free, Prior, and Informed Consent, drawing from the analysis of James Anaya, United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms of Indigenous People, there is no contradiction between saying, on the one hand, that the state should seek and even in some cases must obtain the free, prior, and informed consent of indigenous peoples before deciding to go ahead with plans and projects inimical to their rights and, on the other, that the decision is the state’s to make, even if sometimes it must, normatively speaking, result in a “No”.

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Here is the Spanish text on which the above translations are based:

Artículo 3. Finalidad de la consulta

La finalidad de la consulta es alcanzar un acuerdo o consentimiento entre el Estado y los pueblos indígenas u originarios respecto a la medida legislativa o administrativa que les afecten directamente, a través de un diálogo intercultural que garantice su inclusión en los procesos de toma de decisión del Estado y la adopción de medidas respetuosas de sus derechos colectivos.

 ...

Artículo 15. Decisión

La decisión final sobre la aprobación de la medida legislativa o administrativa corresponde a la entidad estatal competente. Dicha decisión debe estar debidamente motivada e implica una evaluación de los puntos de vista, sugerencias y recomendaciones planteados por los pueblos indígenas u originarios durante el proceso de diálogo, así como el análisis de las consecuencias que la adopción de una determinada medida tendría respecto a sus derechos colectivos reconocidos constitucionalmente y en los tratados ratificados por el Estado peruano.

El acuerdo entre el Estado y los pueblos indígenas u originarios, como resultado del proceso de consulta, es de carácter obligatorio para ambas partes. En caso no se alcance un acuerdo, corresponde a las entidades estatales adoptar todas las medidas que resulten necesarias para garantizar los derechos colectivos de los pueblos indígenas u originarios.

Los acuerdos del resultado del proceso de consulta son exigibles en sede administrativa y judicial.