Overview of the right to collective property in Afro-descendant, indigenous and peasant communities of Colombia against the interests of transnational companies: Array

Abstract

This work exposes the appropriation ("legalized" but illegitimate) of arable lands by transnational agro-industrial companies in Afro-descendant, indigenous and peasant communities in the sub-regions of Urabá and Altillanura, in Colombia. These operations in Colombian territory contravene the collective property right established in the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, and validated by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights and the Political Constitution of Colombia for the case of members of afro-descendants communities and indigenous peoples. Historically, these practices have been perpetrated by companies of foreign capital and commercial interest, but with national figureheads, in collusion with governmental authorities of the three levels (municipal, departmental and national), in addition to the endorsement of environmental institutions and notary representatives.