“Transfer of use rights” as a mechanism for the territorial dispossession of native communities in Peru

Abstract

This paper analyses the Peruvian institutional scaffolding that favours mechanisms for dispossessing land from indigenous peoples in Peru, despite their protection by regulations that recognise them as such and their constitutional status, which imposes binding obligations. International human rights protection standards are therefore violated, along with the International Labour Organization’s Convention 169 and the jurisprudence of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACHR). It is therefore noteworthy that the Peruvian State has approved the titling of indigenous peoples’ lands that are suitable for forestry “transfer of use rights” – the main mechanism of dispossession affecting the ancestral territories of the indigenous peoples of the Peruvian jungle.

Keywords

• peru
• ilo convention 169
• human rights
• indigenous peoples
• “transfer of use rights”
• land titling