PARENT SESSION
Poster Session 3 / Sesion Carteles 3: Other / Otro
Thursday, January 12 / Jueves, 12 de Enero, 6:00 - 7:30 pm, Salon Yucatan, Lobby Level, Fiesta Americana

Federal system of protected areas and the original peoples: Transformation from "objects" to "subjects" of the law as from the Argentine Constitution Amendment of 1994.

Lopez Alfonsin, Marcelo¹, ¹ , Lujan, Buenos Aires, República Argentina

ABSTRACT- This work analyzes some aspects of this matter subject to a multicultural point of view, and focuses its purpose on the new clause of article 75, item 17, of the Argentine Constitution, which acknowledges "the ethnical and cultural pre-existence of the Argentine indigenous peoples", and its consequences in the public policy derived from this new constitutional provision. The Argentine Constitution -according to the historical text of 1853/60- included a regulation, within the provisions related to the powers of the Argentine Congress (article 67, item 15) which specifically established: "To provide security of the borderlines; maintain a pacific treatment with the indigenous peoples, and to promote their conversion to the catholic faith". The anachronism of such provision was blatant. Upon the last amendment to the constitutional text, item 17 was included in article 75 corresponding to the powers of the Argentine Congress; such item reads as follows: "To recognize the ethnic and cultural pre-existence of indigenous peoples of Argentina. To guarantee respect for their identity and the right to bilingual and intercultural education; to acknowledge the legal standing of their communities, and the community possession and ownership of the lands they traditionally occupy; and to regulate the granting of other lands adequate and sufficient for human development; none of them shall be sold, conveyed or subject to encumbrances or attachments. To guarantee their participation in issues related to their natural resources and in other interests affecting them. The provinces may jointly exercise these powers". As an example of the application of the constitutional provision incorporated in the above-mentioned clause, the treatment of the matter by the politics of nature conservation followed by the Argentine Board of National Parks (Administración de Parques Nacionales de Argentina) as from the beginning of 2000 should be pointed out. The core elements are: "territory", "joint administration", and "bond between cultural and biological diversity".

SPANISH ABSTRACT- .