Peru’s implementation of ILO 169 Convention in the peruvian andes: from a new participation space to a missed opportunity?

Abstract

The article analyses the first years after the Previous Consultation Law was passed and the difficulties confronted for the implementation of ILO 169 Convention in the Peruvian Andes. Based on a three level analysis (international, national and local), the main focus is to understand how an international piece of legislation becomes a euphemism at a local level. To do so, we have chosen the Cañaris case because it showed how the dynamics at the national level, where the decision of who has the right to be consulted is made, worked.

Previous Consultation will be defined as a new space of participation where different actors with different levels of power interact. The relationships among them will be analysed. Then, we will focus on the historic relationship between the State and the Andean populations to understand the discourse that tried to exclude them from this process. We will explain why Previous Consultation did not have any conditions for a successful new participatory governance space. Finally, we will consider the Previous Consultation Law as an ongoing process the might lead to changes of the political authoritarian habitus that exists in Peru.