The right of indigenous peoples to free, prior, and informed consent in relation to development, infrastructure, and resource extraction projects is critical to the realization of all indigenous rights connected to the preservation and control of their territories. In a legal argument regarding this right, Mónica Yriart, an attorney in constitutional law, human rights and the rights of indigenous peoples, asserts that national political powers have no intention of conceding the right of consent to indigenous peoples, and that it is now essential to trace a carefully planned, and well timed strategy, from the first step to the last, and to “accept no failure.” Especially in the light of the current conflicts around the Tía María mining project and the plans of 20 hydroelectric dams on the Marañón River in Peru, the right of indigenous peoples to free, prior and informed consent is of vital importance.
June 15, 2016 | Servindi
Indigenous Peoples Right to Free, Prior and Informed Consent
The Peruvian case
By Mónica Yriart
The vital need to engage in concerted action now to implement the indigenous right of free, prior and informed consent
 “It is an unpostponable, historic necessity to convene concerted activities to promote the implementation of the right to free, prior and informed consent”, asserts Mónica Yriart, an attorney who specializes in constitutional law, human rights and the rights of indigenous peoples.
This is a right that is critical to the realization of all indigenous rights connected to the preservation and control of their territories.
In a legal argument regarding this right, she asserts that national political powers have no intention of conceding the right of consent to indigenous peoples, and that it is now essential to trace a carefully planned, and well timed strategy, from the first step to the last, and to “accept no failure.”
According to her view, the legal right to free, prior and informed consent “does not have a legally ensured future,” and it is critical to take advantage of this legal, and temporal moment, in order to undertake an historic challenge of national and international dimensions.
Mónica Yriart is an Attorney, specialist in Constitutional Law in the Americas, International Human Rights, the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Juris Doctor, George Washington University School of Law, Washington D.C.; Bachelor of Arts, Anthropology, Swarthmore College, Swarthmore, P.A., U.S.A.
