The Digest of Latin American Jurisprudence on the rights of indigenous peoples to participation, prior consultation and community property compiles and analyzes judicial decisions made by the high Courts of nine Latin American countries: Argentina, Bolivia, Colombia, Chile, Ecuador, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Panama and Peru.

The number of social conflicts related to land rights, territory and natural resources of indigenous Peoples has increased considerably over the last few years. In the midst of these conflicts, some Latin American judges and courts have carried out the important and little known work of adopting landmark decisions that recognize the rights of indigenous Peoples, often times in adverse political contexts. These judicial decisions represent, without a doubt, an important contribution to the validity of the rights of indigenous Peoples in Latin America.

The Digest of Latin American Jurisprudence on the rights of indigenous peoples to participation, prior consultation and community property lays out the debates and judicial challenges these judges have had to resolve and shows the different ways in which international norms -like ILO’s Convention no.169 or the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples- have been interpreted and applied in different judicial, political and cultural contexts.

The Digest also includes a prologue written by James Anaya, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and an epilogue written by Humberto Sierra Porto, President of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights.

DPLF hopes that this publication contributes not only to the dissemination of the judicial decisions included in this complication, but also to the discussion and debate on these issues.