Indigenous Peoples are consumers too

The Peruvian Institute for the Defense of Competition and Intellectual Property (INDECOPI) launches the opening of its new headquarters in the region of Cusco. Yet, since 1995, INDECOPI Cusco has provided to its citizens various consumers services.

This time and celebrating ‘consumer’s week’ it has published and made available the 'consumer Decalogue in Quechua', designed to promote and defend the rights of these indigenous peoples.

It is claimed that this step aims to promote and disseminate the top ten consumer rights, among people who speak Quechua, thus creating a healthy culture of respect for this people. INDECOPI informs that through this Decalogue it will guide and educate about a million Quechua-speakers of different communities living in the Cusco region, so that in addition to know and defend their rights, they will have access to satisfactory products and services.

Peru ratified ILO Convention 169 back in 1994 and while I can see this Decalogue as a way to integrate more the communities, I indeed believe that it is a good application of Article 4 – guaranteeing enjoyment of the general rights of citizenship without discrimination.

Ecuador, Chile, Colombia and Argentina have also ratified the Convention and have Quechua-speakers communities, but will they follow this initiative?

Another question that I might query is that INDECOPI Cusco claims that in 2011, attended 1,157 claims, having been solved 95% of them through the process of conciliation – very good indeed. But, will this initiative of bringing the Decalogue in Quechua also be extended to filing claims in Quechua? That would be the cherry on top of the cake.

The Aboriginal Embassy, Protests, Rights and the Constitutional Referendum

Sarah’s post about the protests in Australia around Australia Day – a day which several Aboriginal leaders refer to as “Invasion Day” – brings forth the issue of the relationship between indigenous peoples and settler societies. If, on the one hand, countries like New Zealand, Canada and the US have treaties whereby the indigenous peoples “ceded” their lands (the validity of that consent is the subject of much controversy), most countries in Latin America and Australia (as well as, to the best of my knowledge, Scandinavian countries) do not have such formal arrangements, and have attempted to establish their rapport with indigenous peoples in a more organic way as of late. Sure, followed by centuries of invasion, decimation and oppression, but now seemingly willing to genuinely achieve positive balance in indigenous peoples – settler societies relations in a non-assimilationist fashion.

But not all is this clear-cut, of course. Perhaps because Australia is the one English-speaking country where there are no Treaties, Aboriginal peoples have – and rightly so, I believe – chosen to treat the settler society as a guest in their country, or to see themselves as not Australians (to the extent “Australians” are the descendants of European colonizers). Hence the embassy, which has been around for 40 years. But a lot of this might change, should the referendum to amend the Constitution pass. Sure, Tony Abbott’s – the opposition leader in Australia – remarks were unfortunate, to say the very least, but there might be something to them. If the Australian Constitution aptly recognizes Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, then what role is there for an embassy, at least bearing the name of “Embassy”? Of course, the Aboriginal cause will not have achieved every single one of its goals with the mere passage of a constitutional amendment, but the core objective of its cause will need to be fundamentally reshaped, and it might be time to start considering that, while at the same time keeping putting on pressure for referendum.

Patrick Dodson’s (one of the members of the Expert Panel that produced the report released last week) op-ed piece published today (here) is a reminder of what is really at stake, and how one should not be detracted by the single violent incident of an otherwise remarkably peaceful and lasting protest – the Aboriginal Embassy.

Written by Lucas Lixinski