Abstract

An analysis of five lawsuits against the infringement of the rights to participation illustrates that effective compliance with free prior and informed consultation and popular consultation on extractive projects in Ecuador is compromised by state institutional fragility. While suits on the rights to participation have served as strategies to halt extractive projects that lack prior consultation, extractive activities continue to present great risks to territorial defense and the good-living agenda.Un análisis de cinco demandas contra la violación del derecho a la participación ilustra que el cumplimiento efectivo de la consulta previa, libre e informada y la consulta popular sobre proyectos extractivos en Ecuador se ha visto comprometido por la fragilidad institucional del Estado. Si bien las demandas en torno a los derechos de participación han servido como estrategias para detener los proyectos extractivos que carecen de consulta previa, las actividades extractivas siguen presentando grandes riesgos para la defensa territorial y la agenda del buen vivir.

Highlights

  • Un análisis de cinco demandas contra la violación del derecho a la participación ilustra que el cumplimiento efectivo de la consulta previa, libre e informada y la consulta popular sobre proyectos extractivos en Ecuador se ha visto comprometido por la fragilidad institucional del Estado

  • Because free prior and informed consultation and popular consultation are channeled through frameworks controlled by weak state institutionality where there is a clear conflict of interest, decisions about extractive activities, the guaranteeing of rights, and, democratic practice—all founding principles of buen vivir—are significantly compromised

  • This study illustrates that participation in extractive policy is subject to uncertain bureaucratic procedures, political pressures, and conflicts of interest that compromise state institutionality, compliance with participation rights, democratic practice, and the constitutional commitment to buen vivir in Ecuador

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Summary

Consultation in Ecuador

An analysis of five lawsuits against the infringement of the rights to participation illustrates that effective compliance with free prior and informed consultation and popular consultation on extractive projects in Ecuador is compromised by state institutional fragility. In Latin America, participation in extractive projects has been framed in terms of the right to free prior and informed consent, which is the result of historical demands for self-determination of indigenous peoples (Hansen and Stepputat, 2006; Leifsen, Sánchez-Vázquez, and Reyes, 2017; McNeish and Logan, 2012; Potes, 2006). This framework is presented as part of an issue of local sovereignty over ancestral territories and decisions about the use of natural resources (McNeish, Borchgrevink, and Logan, 2015).

Free Prior and Informed Consultation
Popular Consultation
Government in Transition and State Institutionality
Lawsuits for Breach of the Right to Consultation
Consultation denied twice
Waorani of Pastaza
Consultations and Obstacles to Political Participation
The Political Conjuncture and the Role of the State in Participation
Participation Rights and Territorial Defense
Findings
Conclusions
Full Text
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