Abstract

SIEDER, Rachel. Indigenous rights and legal globalization in Guatemala during the post-war period. Alteridades [online]. 2006, vol.16, n.31, pp.23-37. ISSN 2448-850X.

This article examines processes of legal globalization and the ways in which these affect indigenous rights in Guatemala. Its chief aim is to analyze the effects of the dynamic between two forms of legal globalization and its impact on the socio-legal field. First, the article examines reforms sponsored by international development agencies in Guatemala that seek to increase access to justice for the indigenous population: globalization “from above”. The second form of legal globalization “from below”, refers to the highly globalized manner in which indigenous law is being reconstituted in Guatemala. The indigenous mayoralties (alcaldías indígenas) and indigenous defenders NGOs are discussed as an example of this tendency, together with a case where the idea of “prior consultation” which appears in ILO Convention 169 was appropriated and reelaborated by local communities in the west of the country in order to oppose proposed mining concessions. The article concludes that the dynamic between legal globalization “from above” (judicial reform) and legal globalization “from below” (appropriation of instruments and rights discourses) is creating, in turn, hybrid legal spaces in Guatemala, local and national legal fields where the content, legitimacy and exercise of “law” is highly contested.

Keywords : access to justice; indigenous rights; indigenous law; Mayan law; legal globalization; Guatemala; ILO 169; multiculturalism; peace process.

        · abstract in Spanish     · text in Spanish     · Spanish ( pdf )