Observation (CEACR) - adopted 2007, published 97th ILC session (2008)

Indigenous and Tribal Peoples Convention, 1989 (No. 169) - Peru (Ratification: 1994)

1. The Committee takes note of the Alternative Report of 2006 sent by the General Confederation of Workers of Peru (CGTP) on Peru’s compliance with the Convention, received on 17 October 2006 and sent to the Government on 17 November 2006. The abovementioned report was prepared with the participation of the Working Group on Indigenous Peoples of the National Coordinating Committee on Human Rights and the following organizations: Interethnic Association for the Development of the Peruvian Rainforest (AIDESEP), the Farmers’ Confederation of Peru (CCP), the National Agrarian Confederation (CNA) and the National Coordinating Committee of Communities affected by Mining (CONACAMI). The Committee also notes a communication from the General Union of Wholesalers and Retailers Grau Tacna Commercial Centre (SIGECOMGT), received on 30 July 2007 and sent to the Government on 20 August 2007.

2. The Committee notes that on 20 August 2007 the Government sent a letter indicating that the severe earthquake in Peru on 15 August 2007 has seriously affected facilities at the Ministry of Labour’s headquarters, bringing activities to a standstill and preventing a timely response to the Committee’s requests. The Committee understands the reasons cited by the Government and expresses its solidarity towards those affected by such a major natural disaster. It will examine the abovementioned communications in detail together with the Government’s next report and any comments the Government may wish to make.

3. The Committee invites the Government to provide detailed information on the following:

(a)   Article 1 of the Convention: The peoples protected by the Convention: the steps taken, including legislative measures, to ensure that all those referred to in Article 1 of the Convention are covered by the Convention, regardless of the term applied to them, bearing in mind that the Convention’s concept of “indigenous peoples” is broader than the community of which such peoples are a part.

(b)   Articles 13(2) and 15 of the Convention: Consultation and natural resources: the measures adopted in consultation with, and with the participation of, indigenous peoples, particularly through their representative institutions, in order to establish or maintain appropriate procedures for consulting indigenous peoples in order to determine whether and to what extent their interests will be affected, before undertaking or authorizing any programmes for prospecting or using natural resources in the case of subsurface resources belonging to the State or other resources over which the State has rights and which are located in the lands and territories defined in Article 13(2) of the Convention.

(c)   Articles 2, 7 and 33 of the Convention: Coordinated and systematic action with the participation of indigenous peoples: the measures adopted to expand the institutional basis for indigenous participation in public policies affecting indigenous peoples in accordance with Articles 2, 7 and 33 of the Convention. Please report on progress made in this respect.

4. The Committee invites the Government to provide the abovementioned information in its next report together with the information requested by the Committee in 2005, particularly in respect of the application of Article 14 of the Convention (lands).