Indigenous Peoples and Borders in the South American Context

Abstract

This chapter provides a detailed analysis of international human rights laws and institutions and the relationship between Indigenous Peoples in South America and colonial borders. This chapter argues that advancing self-determination for transborder and transnational Indigenous Peoples requires transborder mechanisms to enhance dialogue between states and Indigenous Peoples. Grounded in a historical perspective, this chapter documents violations of the fundamental rights of Indigenous Peoples related to state borders, including internal displacement, assimilation, and isolation, often as a result of large-scale infrastructure development in borderlands. Infrastructure development and resource extraction projects push Indigenous Peoples across borders and sever relationships between Indigenous communities. This chapter presents these conflicts as being unfit for existing dialogue mechanisms and requiring the creation of new frameworks for conversation between states and Indigenous Peoples.