Alirpaq Policy Paper · 2025 · Full text in Russian

Peru’s prior consultation (consulta previa) mechanism, established by Law 29785 in 2011, represents a landmark in the recognition of Indigenous collective rights under ILO Convention No. 169. Over a decade later, a persistent gap remains between procedural compliance and substantive rights protection.

This policy paper analyses 23 completed consultation processes (2013–2024), identifies systemic failure patterns, and proposes a pathway toward consent-based governance in Peru’s extractive industries — a country holding approximately 10% of global copper reserves and significant deposits of zinc, silver, gold, and lithium critical to the global energy transition.

Key findings:

  • Only 4 of 23 consultations produced legally binding outcomes. The remaining 19 — concentrated in hydrocarbons and mining — show patterns of implementation delay, commitment withdrawal, or contested results.
  • The Vice-Ministry of Interculturality (VMI), responsible for consultation oversight, receives less than 0.5% of the national budget and faces persistent staffing shortages.
  • Between 2012 and 2014, MINEM issued at least 159 exploration and 69 extraction permits without any prior consultation, using biased anthropological reports to classify Quechua-speaking communities as “non-indigenous.”
  • 78% of Peruvians express low or zero trust in the mining regulatory body; 67% distrust mining companies.
  • At least five documented cases involved state-validated community “waivers” of consultation rights — standardised templates suggesting a corporate legal toolkit designed to circumvent FPIC obligations.
  • Peru’s framework mandates consultation but does not require consent, transforming the mechanism from a rights-protection instrument into a procedural façade.

Policy recommendations

The paper recommends:

  • a national FPIC registry with binding implementation timelines;
  • independent oversight modelled on Colombia’s Defensoría del Pueblo;
  • prohibition of rights-waiver instruments;
  • increased funding for the Vice-Ministry of Interculturality;
  • a reparations mechanism for communities where consultation obligations were demonstrably violated.

Download

Download the full paper: Alirpaq_ConsultaPrevia_Peru.pdf

Contact: [email protected]

Contact: [email protected]

Tags: FPIC · consulta previa · Peru · mining · Indigenous peoples · ILO 169 · ESG · extractive industries · Latin America