Indigenous Political Representation: Latin America and International Human Rights Law

Abstract

Indigenous peoples claim greater control over and participation in decision-making over their lives. A lack of such control and participation has been identified as a significant problem and impediment for achieving indigenous peoples’ human rights. As a result, indigenous peoples claim substantive rights to political participation and representation for the group, not just for the individuals within it. Moreover, such participation and representation is not merely in respect of indigenous territories, but within the mainstream state. As control is exercised from the top, they argue that they need to be participating in the decisions at the highest political levels. From the perspective of self-determination, this needs to be a guaranteed feature of the constitutional and political landscape and not one left to the whim of non-indigenous voters. Such participation thus needs to be enshrined in constitutional legislation as guaranteed political representation.