Indigenous Peoples’ Right to Prior Consultation: Transforming Human Rights From the Grassroots in Guatemala

Abstract

This article studies the unexpected effects of international human rights instruments when appropriated by grassroots actors. International Labor Organization Convention No. 169 asserts that indigenous peoples have a right to consultation prior to approval of natural resource development projects that may affect them. In Guatemala, this right has become a crucial political tool for indigenous people, who make up half the population. Employing qualitative methods, this article analyzes how hundreds of indigenous communities in Guatemala have used a self-constructed legal and contentious political strategy to exercise the right to consultation, with little state support. The article argues that, although community consultations have failed to block any unwanted projects, they have altered indigenous peoples' conceptions of their identity, rights, and the state. The consultations have also transformed community governance practices but have led to new forms of social exclusion within communities, casting doubt on the democratic potential of the right to consultation. At the national scale, the consultations have helped unite an ideologically and spatially divided indigenous movement, potentially transforming postconflict Guatemalan politics. The article adds to our knowledge of how consultations unfold in practice and the social, political and cultural impacts they may have at the local and national scales.