- The National Coordinator for Human Rights claims that the incorporation of the National Institute of the Development of Andean, Amazonian and Afro-Peruvian Peoples (INDEPA) changes the nature of this entity.
Servindi, October 25, 2010 - The management of the institutional framework published on indigenous peoples by the current government was once again severely questioned today.
The criticism is made with respect to the decision to incorporate, in other words eliminate, INDEPA into the Vice-Ministry of Interculturality, which forms part of the newly established Ministry of Culture.
A communiqué released by the Working Group of Indigenous Peoples of the National Coordinator for Human Rights claims that this measure "changes the nature of this entity and constitutes a new attack on the indigenous institutional framework."
One of the main arguments is that the sphere of competence of the Ministry of Culture, to which this body will report, only relates the cultural heritage that the indigenous peoples contribute.
Therefore, the authority to defend the rights of the indigenous peoples held by INDEPA, as per its founding law, is cast aside.
Likewise, the autonomy once enjoyed by INDEPA, its transectoral character and Board of Directors, which included indigenous representation, disappear.
The communiqué notes that INDEPA, due to its nature, "should form part of the Office of the Prime Minister, as it was intended, where the State-Indigenous Peoples relationship would be clearly established". As a result, it should not "belong or form part of a particular sector".
Another impact has to do with the fact that the policies, plans and programs related to the indigenous peoples will be subject to the program areas of the Ministry of Culture.
These areas are namely as follows: a) cultural heritage of the nation, whether tangible or intangible; b) creation of contemporary culture and living art; c) cultural management and cultural industries; d) ethnic and cultural diversity of the nation.
New Decision without consulting Indigenous Peoples
The working group also indicated that the incorporation of INDEPA into the Ministry of Culture was approved without consulting the indigenous peoples, in spite of being the institution in charge of formally promoting and defending the rights of the indigenous peoples.
Therefore, Articles 6, 7 and 15 of Convention 169 concerning Indigenous and Tribal Peoples of the International Labor Organization (ILO), which have been mandatory for Peru for more than 15 years, were not complied with.
The communiqué presents a brief timeline demonstrating how INDEPA has lost its functional autonomy and its transectoral character.
First, it was transferred from the Office of the Prime Minister to the Ministry of Women's Promotion and Human Development (PROMUDEH). Now it reports to and has been incorporated into the new Ministry of Culture, specifically the Vice-Ministry of Interculturality.
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Traducción de Sylvia Fisher para Servindi