The indigenous people in Peru and Ecuador have no confidence in the state judicial system. It is considered not to appropriately solve conflicts among villagers. The indigenous judicial system, which is carried out in the context of cultural norms and by laymen, serves as an alternative conflict resolution system. Despite being accepted constitutionally, many conflicts exist between these two systems.
In "Cambios en la Justicia Comunitaria y Factores de Influencia", Hans-Jürgen Brandt describes the changes in the indigenous judicial system during the last ten years. He finds that its reference norms underwent some profound changes: From collective to individual rights, better legal status for women, more sensitivity for domestic violence problems, a sense for constitutional minimal standards such as the right of defence or the prohibition of corporal punishment. Reasons for this transformation can be found in training courses offered by NGOs, the institutionalized dialogue between representatives of both juridical systems and new statist norms supporting the indigenous system, Brandt argues.
The publication is part of the series "Justicia Comunitaria en los Andes: Perú y Ecuador", which reports about norms, conflicts and processes in the indigenous and Campesino extra-judicial system.
The project "Promotion of constitutional extra-judicial conflict resolution systems in the Andes countries" supported by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit, was conducted in cooperation with its partners IDL/Lima and CIDES/Quito in its last phase (2010-2012). PRIF accompanied this project scientifically.
Hans-Jürgen Brandt is research fellow in PRIF's project Conflicts and Indigenous Justice in the Andes (Peru and Ecuador).
The publication is available for download as PDF.