Foreword

The academic work that I am honored to present is steeped in history, paradigms, realities, experiences, denunciations, questions and struggles, from the point of view of an outstanding group of professional specialists or activists committed to the defense, promotion and enforcement of the human rights of Indigenous peoples.

The compendium of writings collected in Indigenous Territorial Autonomy and Self-Government in the Diverse Americas is one more milestone achieved in this process of recovery of rights.

There are 22 authors, mostly women, and Indigenous women, who share the different experiences they have lived within the states of the region, in this rugged journey along the path towards the recovery of fundamental rights.

The book is organized in three sections, based on chapters written by the different authors. The first part, entitled “Post-multicultural Constrictum,” begins with a critical look at multiculturalism and Indigenous recognition policies. It addresses the advances, restrictions and setbacks that Indigenous autonomies have experienced in relation to the states. The second section, called “Possibilities: Recovering What Has Been Lost and Rebuilding,” identifies and describes certain spaces of openness in the exercise of Indigenous autonomy and self-government. In this area, the importance of the agency of the Indigenous peoples themselves in defending their rights to political autonomy is highlighted.

Finally, the third part, entitled “Autonomies as Emancipation: Own Paths,” presents various instances in which Indigenous peoples, regardless of official recognition by the states, have advanced in the exercise of their autonomous rights, as an emancipatory process expressed in self-determination.

Undoubtedly, this work constitutes an ample space for reflection that allows the reader to enter into the thinking and knowledge of the Abya Yala. A commendable effort that permeates not only the academy but the entire society and all democratic institutions and public policies aimed at making “the dignity of and for Indigenous peoples a custom.”

Our unique and diverse America has been the stage for a history of countless injustices, exclusions, dispossessions, inequalities, aggressions and even exterminations against Indigenous peoples, paradoxically the original ones. From the conquest to our times of supposed democracy, the value of Indigenous culture, their cosmovision and ancestral knowledge has been undervalued; they have been dispossessed of their lands, territories and natural resources, for which today they maintain their struggle to recover their autonomy, self-government and self-determination. And they continue to suffer exclusion and marginalization in conditions of inequality and discrimination.

International organizations in this quest for respect, promotion and protection of the human rights of Indigenous peoples have made significant progress, but we are still far from the legal and practical consolidation of their right to self-determination.

An important normative movement has been developing in a group of countries in our region, including the recognition of the autonomy of Indigenous peoples to decide on their own development processes, forms and rules of coexistence, self-government and autonomy, assigning it constitutional status. This raised great expectations of progress in these areas, but translating it into practices and actions continues to be a great challenge for the states.

Unfortunately, Indigenous peoples continue to face new forms of colonialism, restrictions to their rights, setbacks, confrontations and even the criminalization of their leaders for their struggles in defense of their lands, territories and natural resources.

This panorama is described from the diverse America, with the different approaches presented by the authors of the book; advances, regressions, contradictions in public policies and the search for new paths to build firm autonomies, among other aspects.

In addition to being inspiring, this book requires the IACHR, from the Rapporteurship on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, to reaffirm its commitment to accompany, monitor and defend their rights, in the context of the international obligations assumed by the countries of the region, employing all the mechanisms and tools available for this task

Finally, I would like to highlight my appreciation to the Indigenous peoples, as well as to all the national and international organizations that serve as a voice in accompanying the initiatives of these collectives to achieve their autonomy, self-government and self-determination. The work of the IACHR in these matters cannot wait.

Esmerelda E. Arosemena de Troitiño

Inter-American Commission on Human Rights/OAS

Commissioner Rapporteur for the Rights of Indigenous Peoples