Reframing Indigenous Rights: The Right to Consultation and the Rights of Nature and Future Generations in the Sarayaku Legal Mobilization
in G. de Burca, ed. Legal Mobilization for Human Rights (Oxford Univ. Press), Forthcoming
17 Pages Posted: 11 Apr 2022 Last revised: 1 Jun 2022
Date Written: May 4, 2021
Abstract
This chapter analyses the 30-year struggle of the Sarayaku Indigenous people against oil extraction in their territory in the Ecuadorian Amazon as a largely successful and iconic instance of transnational legal mobilization. We argue that a key factor underlying the evolution and impact of the campaign is the success of the Sarayaku coalition in contesting the narrow definition of the right to free, prior and informed consultation (FPIC) advanced by governments, corporations, and most inter-governmental agencies. We posit that the most impactful tactics of the Sarayaku people and other actors in the campaign can be construed as “framing” work. The Sarayaku’s framing tactics included (1) reframing the legal dispute in terms of the rights of Indigenous peoples to self-determination and the rights of nature, (2) communicating such frames in ways that resonate not only with courts but also with a broad global audience of environmentally conscious supporters, and (3) creating a bridge between the Indigenous rights frame and the emerging frame of global action against climate change.
Keywords: Indigenous rights, FPIC, Sarayaku people, transnational legal mobilization
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