The Legal Defense of Indigenous Peoples in Puno, Peru
Author: José Bayardo Chata, Executive Director, Derechos Humanos y Medio Ambiente, Puno, Peru
Year: 2026
Location: Province of Puno, Southern Andes, Peru
The region of Puno is mainly inhabited by rural communities of Quechua and Aymara origin whose ways of life are deeply linked to the land and the high Andean ecosystems. Nearly a third of the Puno region is under mining concessions. The state has systematically granted mining concessions without adequate prior consultation processes, negating their right to Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC), despite the fact that International Labour Organisation (ILO) Convention 169, which enshrines the right to FPIC (ILO, 1989), is in force in Peru and is legally binding. The case study discusses how rural communities in the Puno region have asserted their rights, and how their cases represent legal precedents in favour of prior consultation processes on mining concessions and respect of the right to FPIC. It analyses how a human rights organisation, Derechos Humanos y Medio Ambiente (Human Rights and Environment), which emerged from the Vicariate of Solidarity of the Prelature of Juli, has translated principles of Catholic Social Teaching into legal language, especially those of human dignity, preferential option for the poor, social participation, universal destination of goods and wealth redistribution, and care for our Common Home. The case also highlights the critical role of educational work towards rural and indigenous communities, primarily through training and capacity-building activities and leadership formation.
Translations were done with DeepL translation software and proofread by human readers who are native language speakers.