Protecting Indigenous Peoples' Lands and Resources : The Role of the Constitutional Court of Colombia

This thesis investigates the development of indigenous peoples’ rights by the Constitutional Court of Colombia. It outlines how the legal framework established by the Colombian Constitution of 1991 protects indigenous peoples’ rights to lands and natural resources, and how the Constitutional Court has attempted to improve this protection by incorporating international human rights law and the perspectives of indigenous peoples in its interpretation of the Constitution. Special attention is given to the Court’s use of anthropological research to help bridge the gap between the Western legal tradition and different cultural realities. After giving an account of the Constitutional Court’s case law relating to issues of lands and natural resources, the author proceeds to evaluate the effectiveness of the Court’s efforts to ensure protection of indigenous peoples’ rights. In so doing the role of the Constitutional Court in Colombian society is examined, as well as the relation of constitutional justice to social change. Positive legal and social effects of the Court’s endeavours are pointed out, as well as discrepancies between the status of indigenous peoples’ rights in the legal system and the negative human rights situation in the field. Finally, contextual factors that may help explain these discrepancies are identified