00:00The government of Abelardo de la Espriella wants to modify the prior consultation process in Colombia.
00:04President Abelardo de la Espriella met with traditional authorities
00:08and leaders of indigenous peoples with the purpose of establishing a direct relationship with that community.
00:17The proposals to do so came amid several criticisms from the government regarding this mechanism.
00:22describing it as an impediment to some projects, in the words of Miller Soto,
00:26official presidential spokesperson and even linking him to extortion practices,
00:31as did the Minister of the Interior, Rodrigo Lara, accusations which he will have to retract.
00:37But why is there so much commotion surrounding prior consultation, and what do those who want to change it propose?
00:44Let's start by understanding what prior consultation is.
00:47It is a mechanism that was recognized in Colombia by the Political Constitution of 1991,
00:52but it appeared a couple of years earlier in the International Labour Organization's Convention 169.
00:59In short, what this mechanism proposes is that ethnic communities,
01:03which in Colombia include indigenous, Afro-Colombian, Gypsy, and Romani communities,
01:08They have the right to be consulted about the impacts or benefits
01:12that could generate a project, work or activity in its territory.
01:16This has been the definition since 1991.
01:20But the Court has ruled repeatedly to highlight some key aspects of this right,
01:26such as the quality indicated in its very name.
01:29It has to be a consultation that is done prior to the projects.
01:33The Court has also said that this is not a simple administrative procedure that must be followed to comply
01:39a requirement.
01:40The high court recognizes it as an intercultural dialogue in which different visions of development must be reconciled.
01:47A development vision, for example, might suggest that it is necessary to build a road connecting the center with the
01:53western part of the country
01:54to improve food transportation.
01:57If that road crosses an ethnic territory right in an area where there is a sacred site for
02:03that community,
02:04The project could go against what that community considers its well-being.
02:09That's where prior consultation comes in to reconcile those two perspectives.
02:14a process that in many cases can take several months.
02:18All stages of prior consultation must be completed today before a company can withdraw its request.
02:24environmental licensing,
02:25another process that can take more than a year in many cases.
02:30What the government wants to do is allow the prior consultation to be done in parallel with the application.
02:36environmental licensing.
02:38According to María Camila Ponte, senior consultant at Holland & Knight, a firm that has supported various prior consultation processes,
02:46This is a possibility that could accelerate the approval processes of a project.
02:50and that was in fact done during the two governments of Juan Manuel Santos,
02:54during the boom in concessions for fourth-generation railways.
02:58However, other experts such as Sibelis Mejía, from the Ilex Acción Jurídica corporation,
03:04those who specialize in defending the rights of Afro-descendant communities,
03:08and Julián Trujillo, director of the legal clinic at Javeriana University,
03:13They believe this may contradict several of the Court's arguments.
03:17One of them is that the consultation, again, must be done beforehand.
03:21Furthermore, Trujillo believes it is a proposal based on a flawed idea put forward by Soto.
03:27that prior consultation is a requirement that hinders the progress of some projects.
03:33The lawyer points out that the Court has recognized it as a fundamental right
03:36to guarantee the participation of ethnic communities.
03:40Beyond this discussion, the four people we consulted on this topic are clear on one point.
03:46It's not so easy to get the government's idea off the ground.
03:49Modifying the prior consultation process would require, precisely, consulting with all the ethnic communities in the country.
03:57Something that in practice is very difficult and could take several years.
04:01Furthermore, since it involves the modification of a fundamental right,
04:05It should pass eight debates in Congress.
04:08So far, neither of those two processes has been initiated.
04:11If you would like to learn more about this topic, we invite you to read the article we published in the Environment section.
04:17of the Spectator
04:17And follow us here, on all our social media.
