Exemplary Partnership Award

Instituto Internacional de Derecho y Sociedad/International Institute on Law & Society and Central Unica de Rondas Campesinas del Peru

Instituto Internacional de Derecho y Sociedad, in collaboration with Central Unica de Rondas Campesinas del Peru and indigenous organizations Pacto de Unidad de Organizaciones Nacionales de Pueblos Indigenas and Comunidad Nativa Tres Islas, provided pro bono legal defense for indigenous peoples in Latin America, including the countries of Peru, Chile, Colombia, and Guatemala. This collaboration empowered indigenous people to better protect themselves and their land. These achievements included: enforcing precautionary measures granted by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights for indigenous leaders from original peoples from Cajamarca (Peru) persecuted due to their opposition to an unconsulted mega mining project called “Conga”; achieving the first judgement from the Constitutional Tribunal in Peru that recognizes indigenous people’s autonomy; fulfilling legal recognition of indigenous people’s territorial autonomy demands; supporting indigenous people to elaborate a bill for the effective recognition of an indigenous legal justice system called “egalitarian legal pluralism”; organizing public hearings; organizing trainings for indigenous leaders in international laws and in strategic litigation matters; and finally, defending ordinances that recognize the legal personality of indigenous peoples in Peru before the Constitutional Tribunal.