Intercultural Dialogue as a Means to Ensure Human Rights of Indigenous Peoples

Abstract

The present study examines the approach that the jurisprudence of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights adopts regarding communal property as a specific human right of indigenous communities and tribal peoples. The approach taken on this matter reveals an intercultural dialogue procedure carried out through prior, free, and informed consultation or consent. This dialogue is analyzed through diatopic hermeneutics, which provides the philosophical foundations justifying the implementation of this procedure, enabling the genuine protection of the human rights of indigenous peoples in the face of any state decision potentially affecting their rights. It is through this approach, based on cultural incompleteness, that we can disengage from our interpretative preconceptions about human rights and seek alternative sources allowing their adaptation to needs our culture might otherwise fail to recognize.