International Law, Holdups and Challenges. Implications for the Implementation of the Territorial Rights of the Mapuche People

Abstract

In this article, we analyse the application of international standards concerning the territorial rights of indigenous peoples to the situation of the Mapuche people in Chile. In the first section, we review international standards as well as their evolution on being deployed by the drafting of Interamerican legislation. Also, we deal with the statements made by several human rights international organizations concerning the fulfilment by the Chilean government of its accepted international obligations concerning such issues. In the second section, we deal with the Chilean regulations and we check whether they fit international standards. Then, we identify the gaps in public politics regarding the recognition of the Mapuche people and the restitution of the lands claimed by it, and we study the criminalization strategy launched by the state against the Mapuche leadership in response to their territorial claims, something which has brought about international condemnation of the Chilean regime for its failing to comply with its obligations towards a group of members of the Mapuche people led by two traditional authorities, namely, lonkos [or community leaders] Aniceto Norin Catriman and Pascual Pichun (already deceased). The fourth and final section deals with the challenges to international posed law by the compliance by domestic law with the sentences of the Interamerican Human Rights Court, in particular, with reference to the case Norin et al vs the Chilean State