Are the participatory rights of indigenous peoples real?

Abstract

Social work is not just a practice-based profession but is also an academic discipline that aims to promote the empowerment and liberation of people that have been marginalized and have suffered from economic inequality. Indigenous people are an example of a national minority that have historically suffered from marginalization and overrepresentation in overall poverty around the world. The international community has recognized the struggles of indigenous peoples and therefore, they have built in coordination with different countries the Indigenous and Tribal Peoples Convention No. 169, the only international and legally-biding convention that protects indigenous peoples through the recognition of the rights of self-government and the right to be consulted when a decision will affect them directly or indirectly. But how do countries implement these rights in their different context? This is the question I intend to answer throughout this thesis. First, I explore the implementation of international standards through the national policies of two profoundly different countries: Norway and Bolivia using the consultation and participation processes for extractive activities as an example. For this qualitative research I have used a comparative design in the form of a multiple-case study. Through this study it was found that Norway and Bolivia both follow similar national policies but strongly differ in their implementation.