The course shall deal with the situation and rights of indigenous peoples in the region, from both theoretical and empirical interdisciplinary approach. The course shall enable students to visit an indigenous community of the Peruvian Amazon affected by gold mining, to know the issues and struggles of peoples directly to enforce its rights. This community won the first case before the Constitutional Court of Peru that recognizes the rights of self-determination, territory and autonomy.

The course shall address the following topics:

Cultural and legal pluralism.
Policies applied to indigenous peoples throughout the History of the Americas.
Globalization and contemporary issues of indigenous peoples in Latin America.
International Law on the rights of indigenous peoples and defense mechanisms.
Case study of the native community Tres Islas (Three Islands), formed by the Shipibo and Ese´eja, peoples and its struggle to defend its territory and autonomy from mining.
Field trip to the native community Tres Islas in Tambopata, Madre de Dios, in the Peruvian Amazon.
This course is organized by the PUCP and the Instituto Internacional de Derecho y Sociedad-IIDS and comprises the International Exchange Program in multiculturalism, legal pluralism, and indigenous rights.

This course on indigenous rights will follow the work experience of the Strategic Litigation on Indigenous Rights Section of the Clinic of the Law Faculty at the PUCP. For over two years, the objective of the Strategic Litigation on indigenous rights Section of the Clinic has been to develop capacities of the students in order to provide legal defence in access to information and indigenous rights as part of a strategic litigation oriented to strengthen democracy and human rights.