The AAA and Organizing Committee of the World Council of Anthropological Associations (WCAA) issued a statement to Peruvian President Alan García this week. The statement, drafted by the AAA’s Committee for Human Rights, expresses concern about the government’s violation of indigenous peoples’ human, territorial and legal rights. The statement also condemns the use of violence against peaceful protestors, as well as the executive decrees they were protesting against. These decrees, known as the “Law of the Jungle,” open indigenous territories to oil, lumber and mining concessions, and stand in direct violation of the constitutional and internationally recognized territorial and legal rights of Peru’s indigenous peoples.
Since the violence on June 5, 2009, Peru’s Congress has voted to repeal the two most controversial decrees, although others remain.
