Indigenous peoples engagement

Prior consultation of Indigenous or original peoples in Peru gives effect to ILO Convention No. 169, which Peru has ratified.

It is a duty of the State, conducted by the competent authority where a measure may affect the collective rights of an Indigenous or original people. Our role is to provide the information the process requires, to participate in it, and to reflect its outcome in the design of the activity; describing a consultation as something we conduct would misstate both the process and the relationship.

Citizen participation is a separate process with a different trigger, applies whether or not the population concerned is Indigenous, and both may apply to the same activity.

We engage with the representative institutions of the peoples concerned, according to their own decision-making processes and timelines, and we begin early. Where those processes require time that does not align with a project schedule, the schedule accommodates them rather than the reverse. We provide interpretation and translation where required, and we present information in a form that supports deliberation rather than only compliance.

The UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples; ILO Convention No. 169; Performance Standard 7 of the IFC Performance Standards, on Indigenous peoples, which is the structuring reference against which engagement is organised and reported; and the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights.

We are not a member of the International Council on Mining and Metals and do not cite its member commitments. Where a structuring reference for Indigenous engagement is required, Performance Standard 7 read with the Declaration provides it.

We identify sites, practices and traditions of cultural significance with the peoples concerned rather than about them, and the identification of a site as significant rests with them. We avoid or mitigate such sites in planning and protect them in operation. Where work uncovers a previously unrecorded site, work stops, we secure the area and we notify the competent authorities and community representatives.

Grievance mechanisms are culturally appropriate and accessible in the appropriate language, and open to verbal, written and anonymous submission. We do not tolerate retaliation against any person who raises a concern, including a human rights defender. Where we have caused or contributed to an adverse impact, we provide for or cooperate in remediation. We escalate systemic or unresolved issues to executive management and, where appropriate, to the competent authorities or to the representative institutions of the peoples concerned.

Where an activity generates them, counts of consultation processes and engagement activities are published. We document engagement plans, consent processes and their outcomes, and we maintain records of the activities for which a human rights impact assessment has been completed and of the date each was last reviewed.