Washington, DC. March 16, 2015. Tomorrow, Tuesday March 17, 2015 the Due Process of Law Foundation (DPLF), Oxfam and allied organizations in Latin America will participate in a public hearing before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) on “Corporations, Human Rights, and Prior Consultation in the Americas.“

During the hearing the organizations will highlight that despite favorable progress in the  right to consultation, there are still challenges to make it effective, linked to the role of the Judiciary in determining the content of the right to consultation; budget shortfalls; lack of competence in  government agencies; lack of coordination between agencies responsible for its implementation; among other issues. In this instance, DPLF and Oxfam will present a comparative study on this right in six countries in the region: Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Guatemala and Peru

Many of the states in the region considered the issue resolved with the adoption of laws that recognize the right to consultation and have boasted of these developments in various international forums. But they underestimated the existence of important challenges for the law to be accessible and enforceable in the region.

Recommendations that the organizations will make during the hearing include: the need to align domestic law with international standards, change or eliminate legislative and administrative measures which impede the full realization of the right, and strengthen or create a state institution responsible for consulting indigenous Peoples.

The following panelists will participate in the hearing: Rocio Avila from Oxfam, Daniel Cerqueira from DPLF; Juan Carlos Ruiz from the Legal Defense Institute (IDL) and César Gamboa from Law, Environment and Natural Resources (DAR), both in Peru; Carlos Andrés Baquero from Dejusticia of Colombia; and Biviany Rojas from the Red de Cooperação Amazônica (RCA) in Brazil. Indigenous leaders participating in the hearing include: Plinio Pizango from the Interethnic Association for the Development of the Peruvian Amazon (AIDESEP); Francisco Mateo from Council of Western Peoples of Guatemala and Patricia Tobon of the National Indigenous Organization of Colombia (ONIC).

Hearing:
Date: Tuesday, March 17, 2015
Time: 5.45 – 6.45pm
Where: Salón Rubén Darío (8th floor) OAS building GSB:
1889 F St., N.W., Washington, D.C. 20006

The hearing will be broadcast live via the OAS web channel here

For more information on this hearing or an interview with one of the participants, please contact:

Daniel Cerqueira
Senior Program Officer
Due Process of Law Foundation
dcerqueira@dplf.org
Tel: (202) 462-7701