Intercultural Disagreement: Implementing the Right to Prior Consultation in Peru

• DOI: 10.1177/0094582X19854098
• Date: 01 September 2019
• Author: Carmen Ilizarbe
• Published date: 01 September 2019
• Subject Matter: Articles

https://doi.org/10.1177/0094582X19854098

LATIN AMERICAN PERSPECTIVES, Issue 228, Vol. 46 No. 5, September 2019, 143–157

DOI: 10.1177/0094582X19854098

© 2019 Latin American Perspectives

143

Intercultural Disagreement

Implementing the Right to Prior Consultation in Peru

by

Carmen Ilizarbe

How do state and indigenous representatives process disagreement? What challenges

does cultural difference pose to intercultural dialogue? An analysis of the debates that

preceded the implementation of the right to prior consultation of indigenous peoples in

Peru points to the normative orientation toward consensus that informs the design of

processes of intercultural dialogue and concludes that the structure and foundations of

disagreement must be taken into account for fair, democratic dialogue to exist.

¿Cómo procesan el desacuerdo los representantes estatales e indígenas? ¿Qué retos

plantea la diferencia cultural al diálogo intercultural? Un análisis de los debates que pre-

cedieron la implementación del derecho a la consulta previa de los pueblos indígenas en

Perú apunta a la orientación normativa hacia el consenso que informa el diseño de los

procesos de diálogo intercultural y concluye que la estructura y los fundamentos del

desacuerdo deben tomarse en cuenta para que exista un diálogo justo y democrático.

Keywords: Intercultural dialogue, Peru, Indigenous peoples, Disagreement, Law of

Prior Consultation

On September 6, 2011, Peruvian President Ollanta Humala promulgated

Law 29785, the Right to Prior Consultation of Indigenous or Aboriginal Peoples

Recognized in International Labor Organization Convention 169, a landmark

piece of legislation that requires the state to consult with and seek informed

consent from indigenous peoples about legal and administrative decisions that

may have an impact on their collective rights, cultural identity, quality of life,

and/or social and economic development (El Peruano, 2011). This was an

important institutional step toward the democratization of state-society rela-

tions after two decades of internal war and a decade-long authoritarian govern-

ment at the end of the twentieth century. In the context of redemocratization

and the reconstitution of the social pact, Law 29785 granted indigenous peoples

the right and the means to participate in decision making from which they had

historically been excluded about matters that affected them directly. It seemed

oriented toward fulfilling an important promise of democracy for indigenous

groups: to institutionalize channels of communication and respectful relations

based on mutual recognition, opening up the possibility of concerted action. In

this context, intercultural dialogue was hailed as a crucial resource and made a

Carmen Ilizarbe is a professor of political science at the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú.

854098LAPXXX10.1177/0094582X19854098Latin American PerspectivesIlizarbe / Intercultural Disagreement In Peru

research-article2019