THE PRACTICE OF HUMAN RIGHTS Tracking Law Between the Global and the Local Editors: Mark Goodale a Sally Engle Merry CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS‘Cambridge, New York, Melbourse, Madrid, Cape Town, Singapore, Sfo Paulo Cambridge Univers Press “The Edinburgh Building, Cambeidge CB2 ARU, UK Published in the United Stats of America by Cambridge University Pres, New York sew cambride.o8 Taformation om hi ile: wu cambridge or/978052 1683754 (© Cambridge University Press 2007 This publication tin copyright, Subject vo statutory exception ain othe provisions of relevane cllectve licensing agreements, no reproduction of any parc may ake pace without the written permission of Cambridge Univer Press, Fire published 2007 Printed in the United Kingdom at che Univesiy Press, Cambridge [A catalogue ecard for dhs plain vale frm the rich brary ISBN 978-0521-86517:3 hardback ISBN 978.0521-68378-4 paperback ‘Cambridge University Pres has no esponsibility forthe perience or ‘ecuray of URLs for enteral or hint party interne websites refered co inthis publication, and doe noe pusrantee that any content on such websites sor wll emain accurate or appropiateRIGHTS TO INDIGENOUS CULTURE IN COLOMBIA* Jean E. Jackson INTRODUCTION This chapter uses three cases from indigenous to examine the at times awkward relationship between the sie” human rights seen to reside in individuals (eg, the right to be free from ights to difference’ tights appear in various covenants and treaties to which the country hhas been a signatory, and they share some ~ but only some ~ of the me intellectual and moral underpinnings. | also examine the prob. Both sets of conflicts these three cases illustrate hi tL ave arisen in no small part due to the fact that campaigns supporting basic human rights, and the IntRopuction I have been conducting research since 1968 on various topics in the ‘Vaupés,a department in the southeastern part of the country. fn the early 1980s I became interested in the indigeno taking place in the re include the organizing at the nat ‘Warten and Jackson 2002; Jackson and Warten 2005). Security co cerns have prevented me from returning to the Vaupés (my last vi took place in 1993) and, although I continue to travel to the county, T have not embarked on a new long-term, ethnography intensive research project. In consequence, for the most part this chapter utilizes secondary sources. Background fas elsewhere in Latin America, indigenous mobilizing 1 level rook off during a period of political liberalization and 1990s known as the democratic transition. These reforms included a return to civilian rule and, wi exceptions, a reduction of repressive state responses to dissent. Sixteen Latin ‘American countries instituted constitutional reforms.’ Throughout Latin America, but especially in Colombia, the reforms were intended toaddress problems of corruption and lack o legitimacy, and to promote rights discourses that would go a long way toward solving the “ci representation” that characterized many governments in the region. 'A key component of the reforms was the acknowledgment of the diversity found within Latin American countries, often described in the ‘new constitutions in terms of a pluriethnic and multicultural citizenry ly challenged dominant imaginaries of the propet Portuguese-) speaking, Catholic, and “modern.” Many countries redefined theit pueblo terms, the reforms ushered in an era in which the very me: citizenship, and of the state itself, were rethought Indigenous people have always been Latin America’s most disadvan- powerless sector, and throughout the past five centuries gal appropriation of lands, ination have been mo past rwenty-odd years has been s of and other forms of institutionalize d ‘A characteristic of the campaigns of t 205